PMC speakers vs B&W... has anyone compared?

I know what music sounds like and B&W is not musical. However, it's a great company to deal with. I know someone who cooked a driver from a pair of old B&W speakers. He had no difficulty obtaining a new one; not an aftermarket unit, an original factory driver. There are very few companies that can replace the exact driver manufactured 20 years ago.
Regarding their use in high end studios, one would have to be naive not to believe there is a significant amount of money involved in these matters.
Do you think Tiger Woods really drives a Buick Rendezvous?

Exactly - they are voiced for pulling forward the treble for mix analysis at high volume, not for domestic use. PMC are mastering suite speakers for assessing the finsihed product therefore they have an acceptable domestic balance by definition.

I own both the PMC LB1 and B&W Matrix 805.

Comparing M805 and LB1's back to back and hours on end, the Matrix 805 is very musically satisfying. The LB1 on the otherhand is much more detailed/revealing speaker that provides gobs of bass.

Different strokes for different folks but I change speakers depending on the day of the week.

The LB1's also require much more quality power due to the little Dynaudio driver (at least 4B power).

Bi-amping the M805 did not make as noticable difference as compared to bi-amping the LB1.

However, the M805 is much more tolerable of bad 80's recorded cds.

Your mileage may vary.

The PMC are more revealing and accurate and therefore if a cd is "bad" then the PMC plays it "bad" while the B&W sweeps some of the problems under the carpet

Just a few thoughts having heard both speakers over the years:

1) The PMC is a very accurate and revealing speaker. I had a set of Celestions that were the same way and found that I couldn't stand them after a while. Most recording aren't that good and revealing speakes make them sound like crap. I found that I didn't like having 80% of my music collection rendered unusable.

2) B&W has a unique sonic signature. It is prevelant through their line. Either you like it or hate it.

Instead of looking at speakers based on their specs, why don't you figure out your price range and go look at some of the more popular designs. Vandersteen, Magnepan, Theil, Revel, Ariel, and many others make great speakers in the price range you are looking. All have their own unique attributes in the price range. Listen to them and you will probably find one that you love.

A final comment on accuracy vs. musicality. I think accuracy is far overplayed. No speaker is truly accurate and all have deficiencies. Rather than try to pick the one that is "most accurate", find one that has compromises that fit your listening needs best and buy that. In my case, I use Magnepans, they have many innacuracies, but I have not found any better compromise for my listening.