PMC Speakers Owner Thread

[apichetk]

Oddly enough, the Fact 12 audition day ended with me trying the KEF Blade, which OAC also had available for demo, they did do it for me!  Although I think it was about another 5 months of trying different stuff at different places before I finally parted with any cash.

May I ask what were the main differences between PMC Fact 12 and KEF Blade?

To be clear here, this particular audition was about four years ago now, so I cannot claim to remember every detail.  However, I do remember the key impressions very clearly and these were mostly related to bass performance.  I recall the PMC's being generally very good, but being a little disappointed with the bass performance.  I can actually recall the conversation with one of the OAC guys regarding why the Fact 12's were vastly more expensive than the outgoing PB1i's, and yet equipped with smaller bass drivers.  In comparison the Blades had vastly more powerful and visceral bass.  (Yet still very accurate)  Raw numbers can be deceptive, but the Blades have 4 x 230mm drivers versus the PMC's 2 x 140mm, so quite a difference.  (only part of the story, I know)  I can also recall being far more engaged with the Blades versus being left slightly cold by the PMC's, as I said, they somehow didn't do it for me.  There is a huge amount of personal preference here though, I can think of some speakers that others have given rave reviews to on this forum, which personally I do not like much, but that's to be expected with speakers I think. 

Other points to note are that they look very different, the Blades do not exactly blend in to the average domestic environment!  Plus I think the Blades can be very fussy with respect to room size and layout, if the room is too narrow they do sound a little odd, if the room is too large they can sound a little lost, and the side mounted drivers can make room layout and placement problematic.  Plus there is that final problem that the Blades are a lot more expensive!  Having said that, they are old enough now to occasionally turn up on the second hand market, and at very tempting prices too!

Were they both driven by the 240?  My PMCs are inefficient so your poor experience with Fact 12 might be from the underpowered amp as you seem to have a better experience with other PMC models?