PMC result6 Monitor Review

[dfuller]

These are basically just repurposed old Digidesign monitors from many years ago. Not surprising. I think the newer PMC might yield a different result. Oh how I wish they would reintroduce the AML series. Those were the greatest in terms of design, but awful reliability. I did own those and the TwoTwo at one point, both are what you would imagine electronically from a UK company.

Via Sound on Sound for the PMC 6:

Better, still not amazing.

If we match it roughly to Amir's scaling:

The presence dip is largely gone and the TL interference dip is smaller and higher Q (i.e., probably less audible). Tuning frequency is the same for the TL, around about 45hz.

 

[amirm]

The problem is, FR is only a part of whole picture and judging speakers is not that simple.

It is by far the biggest "part." And it is not like this speaker is great in other respects. It is ugly, and can't play super loud.

If it was like that, entry level speakers of many brands would sound "aslmost as" their top range. But they do not, oh, how much they do not - despite "basic FR tune" which oftenly is pretty similar.

Of course they do. I have listened to ton. Small speakers just have lower SPL. Neutral is neutral and I hear it within the line and from multiple companies that do it right.

 

[Robbo99999]

Certainly far too expensive for what it is. Frequency response looks quite EQ'able though as they are wide peaks & troughs, but there was some directivity error which gets in the way of that to some extent and then you've got the quite high distortion too. Not a good combination all in all!

 

[Deleted member 72219]

Damn near spat my tea out when I read, "No attempt at building a neutral speaker," in the first graph.

-Ed

 

[Deleted member 72219]

I feel embarrassed to be British at this point. Apart from KEF every other British brand seems to have just gone and dived into the deep end. Linn and NEAT and Naim were already swimming there. But B&W, Tannoy, PMC, ATC, what have you sold your souls for?

Seriously though, I well and truly love my LS50 Metas (especially combined with a sub).

-Ed

 

[holdingpants01]

Via Sound on Sound for the PMC 6:

View attachment 430331

Better, still not amazing.

If we match it roughly to Amir's scaling:

View attachment 430338

The presence dip is largely gone and the TL interference dip is smaller and higher Q (i.e., probably less audible). Tuning frequency is the same for the TL, around about 45hz.

This look bad considering the 250% higher price than similar sized Neumann KH150

 

[Theta]

This is a review, listening tests, EQ and detailed measurements of the PMC result6, active professional monitor (speaker). It is kindly sent to me by a member and costs US $3000 for a pair.
View attachment 430161
I have to confess: this is one ugly looking monitor! Let's hope all the accents are functional. The bottom grill hides a transmission-line like port.

Back side is simple which is fine by me:
View attachment 430163
Others may want the dip switches to change the response. Speaker is designed and manufactured in the UK.

I didn't notice until late that the reference axis is top of the woofer ring, not the tweeter. I used the latter but know from experience it will only make tiniest difference.

Temps in the lab were pretty low, around 50 degrees F (10 degrees C).

If you are not familiar with my speaker measurements, please watch this tutorial first:

PMC result6 Measurements
As usual we start with our family of anechoic frequency response measurements:
View attachment 430164
I hope you are as shocked as I am to see such a chewed up response. Combined with poor directivity, this is a colored speaker which is the antitheses of what a professional monitor should be. Needless to say, early and predicted in-room response are very poor:
View attachment 430165
View attachment 430166

Sadly, I forgot to measure the port. The drivers do tell a story as far as lack of neutrality:
View attachment 430167


Company advertises wide directivity and we kind of see that if we ignore the variability:
View attachment 430168
View attachment 430169

View attachment 430170

At 86 dBSPL, the sweep was clearly but at 96, I could already hear distortion during the sweep:
View attachment 430171
View attachment 430172

Waterfall shows the expected resonances:
View attachment 430173

Finally, here is the step response for fans of that:
View attachment 430174

PMC result6 Listening Tests and Equalization
At first listen, the impression was that of slight brightness but also lack of clarity. Both were fixed mostly with my quick and dirty filters:
View attachment 430175
Turning the filters off, hid the piano notes in one of my test tracks. Overall impression will be highly dependent on what content you play.

Sub-bass performance was good for speaker's size. About 60% of that spectrum was reproduced with reasonable amount of distortion. This is far better than typical bookshelf speakers that don't even play that region.

Related, I was able to play fairly loud until I could detect tonality changing. This was with one speaker.

Conclusions
I had no preconceived notions when I entered this test. But as soon as I ran the first sweep in the lab, and saw the very uneven response, I knew disappointment was in my cards. Not only is the frequency response all of the place, but distortion is quite high as well. The only highlight is ability to player lower in the range.

Company really needs to pay more attention to objective measurements and perform proper listening tests. If they had done this, they would have produced a far better monitor. Their competitors even on a bad day, produce far, far better monitors.

I can't recommend the PMC result6. It is an embarrassment for the company.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Is part of the problem due to the transmission line loading, I have always had doubts and suspicions about this Technique?

 

[uwotm8]

Of course they do

To me they have similar signature but what is meant (and, for some reason, priced) as a next level in most cases play "the same but on that next level" - in terms of detail level, cleanness, clarity, distortion and overall "abscence of speaker". Less box and drivers, more of a clear sound. Don't know how to describe that better. Speaker size and SPL can be the same but still.

Neutral is neutral

I unjokingly can't remind any brand with a reasonable prices - except DSP-flattened Neumann and Genelec - which can be called a truly neutral across al ranges.
What could be that for a home audio?
For a typical "not-so-neutral" brands it's rather like the upper you go the more neutral it gets, and other good stuff metioned above comes along whith better neutrality - not that much better tho to explain "different level".

250% higher price than similar sized Neumann KH150

They're sold in pairs and according to thomann actually are a bit cheaper
(Between these two I'd buy A8H or LYD 48 of course )

 

[amirm]

To me they have similar signature but what is meant (and, for some reason, priced) as a next level in most cases play "the same but on that next level" - in terms of detail level, cleanness, clarity, distortion and overall "abscence of speaker". Less box and drivers, more of a clear sound. Don't know how to describe that better. Speaker size and SPL can be the same but still.

Most of what you say is folklore and not quantifiable. Stuff like distortion I addressed.

 

[dfuller]

and then you've got the quite high distortion too.

Not for nothing, but 86dB/1m anechoic is quite loud for one speaker of this size, and it's "clean enough" there (45-50dB below mean SPL). At 96, it's a different story, but if you're expecting a speaker of this size that came out in 2018 to be as good as the KH150, that's asking an awful lot. I suspect the woofer is largely the same as the TB2, which is a much older (20 years or so) speaker.

To be clear: 86dB/1m anechoic for single speaker = ~92dB per pair at 1m in room. 92dB is pretty loud, certainly louder than I'd listen for any extended period.

 

[holdingpants01]

View attachment 430376 View attachment 430377They're sold in pairs and according to thomann actually are a bit cheaper
(Between these two I'd buy A8H or LYD 48 of course )

nope, we were talking about the newer model, PMC 6

 

[RayDunzl]

This comes up so often in other active monitor threads, so, I have to ask:

Do they hiss?

 

[dfuller]

This look bad considering the 250% higher price than similar sized Neumann KH150

I wouldn't buy them, personally.

 

[heraldo_jones]

True. Not a BBC standard, just the Skywalker Sound standard. The Rogers LS3/5a measured here were mine that I sent in so I am familiar with the BBC sound along with the classic West Coast vintage JBL sound.

If PMC were marketing the vintage sound, you would still want distortion to be lower, right? Or is the distortion part of the intended sound?

I'm still dreaming with a big 12" woofer JBL system . Regarding to the distortion ... yes, it is high but PMC use very capable woofers. I had TB2i in the past (powered by Hypex UCD400) and they were able to reach flat to 33hz@86dbs with the help of Dirac and no audible woofer compression.

 

[GXAlan]

…but if you're expecting a speaker of this size that came out in 2018 to be as good as the KH150, that's asking an awful lot.

But the JBL 705p and 708p were released in 2018 and they are within the same performance level of the KH150. Meyer Sound Amie is 2015.

92dB is pretty loud, certainly louder than I'd listen for any extended period.

Poll: What is your listening distance? (Fall/Winter 2024)

What’s your listening distance? If you have multiple systems, pick all that apply. (Used at least once a week) We have had previous polls in the past but let’s sample the membership again. Feel free to comment with typical SPL or details about your systems. Since many of us have headphones...

www.audiosciencereview.com

92 dB is louder than you might listen, but lots of people listen further than 1m, no?

 

[Fredygump]

Where have we seen this type of frequency response before? Oh yes, it was the GR Research center channel. I just watched Amir's video on that the other day. There is a striking resemblence between the frequency response of the two designs!

 

[dfuller]

But the JBL 705p and 708p were released in 2018 and they are within the same performance level of the KH150. Meyer Sound Amie is 2015.

The 708p isn't nearly as much better as you'd think (the distortion measures for the 705p aren't directly comparable).

The Meyer Amie is $8200 a pair, over 2.5x as expensive as these. I should hope they'd be better....

92 dB is louder than you might listen, but lots of people listen further than 1m, no?

Sure, but let's just be realistic here: these are not designed for midfield or farfield listening. 1-1.5m is pretty much what they're intended for.

 

[uwotm8]

nope, we were talking about the newer model, PMC 6

View attachment 430384

That seems really out of control.

705p and 708p were released in 2018 and they are within the same performance level of the KH150

Even better, not as boring it seems.
705 is almost as flat as $400 speaker (and shares some advanced port cancellation features):

Distortion wise 708 is perfect:

 

[SuicideSquid]

The problem is, FR is only a part of whole picture and judging speakers is not that simple.

Indeed, that's why FR isn't the only thing that's measured. Resonances, distortion, and directivity all also affect how a speaker sounds. That's why they're all measured too. This speaker shows poorly in all of those measurements.

 

[SuicideSquid]

They may not be great but they still work, so there in the same group as the Chord.

If you want to engage with what I actually said I'm happy to discuss further.

If you're just going to make a ridiculous strawman to knock around, goodbye.