Please cast your mind back to last year’s High End where I related the peak experience of listening to The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” on PMC’s huge, powerful roller-coaster of a system. It was the most intense audio-related experience of my life.
I’ve often tried to recreate at least a portion of that sound, of that impact. I know this is futile, given that the PMC used a full-Atmos setup, with huge front speakers, many subwoofers, and a ton of supporting infrastructure. But that demo reinforced for me the importance of impact, dynamics, and high SPLs.
Oliver Thomas
I bumped into Oliver Thomas, the co-CEO of PMC, in the hallway of the MOC and we continued our chat from where we left off last year. Thomas is friendly, engaging, and keen to share his enthusiasm about audio in general, and his company’s speakers in particular. Last year, I had expressed interest in reviewing a home version of PMC’s BB6 pro-audio speaker, but I hadn’t followed up on it as I was concerned about how this monster would fit in my room, which isn’t exactly huge.
So off I trotted to PMC’s room to see what they had that a) was new and b) would fit in my room. This year, PMC was presenting their Prophecy line, which continues the company’s trend of building slim, demure speakers with smallish drivers that take advantage of transmission-line bass loading.
There are five models in the range. The stand-mounted Prophecy1 (€3799 per pair) is a two-way speaker, with a 5″ mineral-cone midrange-woofer and 1″ soft-dome tweeter. The floor-standing Prophecy5 (€5999 per pair) has the same driver complement. The Prophecy7 (€7999 per pair), a three-way floorstander, adds a 2″ soft-dome midrange. The Prophecy9 (€10,999 per pair) is larger, and adds a second 5″ woofer. There’s also a center-channel speaker, the ProphecyC, which has two 5″ midrange-woofers flanking a 1″ dome, and sells for €2799. All drivers are made by PMC at their facility, and all parts are sourced from the UK where possible. Veneers are all real wood.
On my first visit, the smallest speaker in the lineup, the Prophecy1, was energizing the room with far more bass than seemed possible from that 5″ driver.
Off to the side was a sliced-up Prophecy1 that provided a cut-away view of its innards. The transmission-line design threw me for a few minutes; I struggled to figure out how it worked. I could see the main pathway for the rearward radiation from the woofer, but there was this little loop that went nowhere. It was like one of those dead-end paths in a maze puzzle. I asked Thomas about this, and he explained that even though it isn’t part of the exit pathway, it’s still acting as if it’s in the main transmission line. That’s a fair-enough explanation for this non-engineer.
There was also a cutaway of the Prophecy7 floorstander, and here the transmission-line pathway was clearer. I know that this type of loading is carefully calculated, finely tuned, and cleverly designed, but it still surprises me to hear how a small cabinet can generate this much bass.
On my second return to the PMC room, the larger Prophecy9s were playing. The amplifier here was PMC’s own Cor integrated amp. It was an extremely full house on Saturday, so I decided not to inflict my music on visitors by trying to strong-arm a request. PMC was playing a selection of fun, well-recorded music, mostly acoustic pop. This music gelled perfectly with the Prophecy7s, which projected a wide, immersive soundstage with—as you’d expect—beautifully fleshed-out bass.
PMC takes pride in ensuring that all parts are both recyclable and made from recycled products where possible. That recyclable thing is somewhat at odds with the warranty, which is a substantial 20 years, so you probably wouldn’t want to recycle them even though you could.
Jason Thorpe
Senior Editor, SoundStage!
