Thoughts On The PMC OB1?

"Are you suggesting the use of a subwoofer with the OB1",

The OB1's have very good bass, but often extension is confused with output, and a transmission line is more about quality extension than absolute output. So adding a sub would simply add control and greater output for the last octave of sound. OB1's do not "need" a subwoofer but they will benefit from a subwoofer as almost any speaker would.

The Sophia has slightly bloated bass (WP7 too) to make it sound like it has deep bass robbing the bass of the unique timbre's of each instrument (to a degree, they are not Cerwin Vega's if you know what i mean)) . Do not be fooled by this. And let me say that it might take an OB1 experience to understand this statement fully.

Room construction can also dictate what kind of bass you will have.

"How much experience do you have with the OB1?"

Not a great deal, but enough to know that it is uniquely the real deal, an accurate loudspeaker. You better like your music because its not going to editorialize or boom or tizz or diffuse anything. It can handle modern solid state amplification so buy a good deal of power, because they will play extremely loud and you won't know it because the distortion is very low. Buying room treatments could be argued as essential with a speaker like this (ATC too.) because they will play 10dB louder than other speakers before you think they are the same volume as another speaker system. That extra energy needs somewhere to go.

Understand that accurate sometimes means forward (recordings fault) and won't give you a huge soundstage (if its not on the recording) but what it does mean is that instruments will sound very real and many of your marginal recordings will become very listenable.

"Can they be driven with a moderately powerful amp"

In your room, if you listen to light jazz and chamber music, you might get away with 100 watts, otherwise 200, high current, no tubes, minimum. This extra power is just to keep things clean on musical peaks, not too shatter your hearing with constant output.

As a Harbeth owner I think you will like these speakers, Harbeth quietly makes very accurate loudspeakers and the OB1 I think (my opinion) takes a step towards neutrality from the Harbeth sound, it very well may be a tweener sound between the ATC's and the Harbeth's.

So it would be worth a listen if you can get one. I like the speaker a great deal and it is not well known so don't look to the gallery for a great deal of back up. If you buy a pair you will be on your own till others get to hear what the speaker is capable of through you. Then they'll know why you bought them. :)

Thanks Cinematic. I agree entirely with your differentiation between bass depth and output. The Proac D25, for example, goes down to 20hz but the 6.5 inch woofer simply cannot move a lot of air. You get to "hear" the deepest notes but not "feel" them. This is why if I go with Proac I may have to hold out for the D38, which has two woofers. I haven't been able to scare up an audition yet to see if they are the ticket. I did very much like other aspects of the D25, however, and am also a fan of the Sophia. Since you do not seem to care for either of these I'm not sure we are looking for the same thing from a loudspeaker. I'm not into detail retreivers that are tonally lean. I like a bit of warmth because I think that is the way live music sounds and because it makes up for shortcomings in many of the recordings that I own. Also, domestic constraints make room treatments out of the question.

I'm curious--do you have any additional thoughts on the Proac's or ideas about the Fried Studio 7 or the Vandersteen Quatro?

Hi Dodgealum,

I have a sugesstion you might like. Try to listen to the Spendor S8e. Please report back if you get a chance to audition it.

Good Luck!

Dodgealum, I looked seriously into the PMC OB1's at one time and did some auditioning. Cinematic is correct in his statement regarding amplification, they need big power, big solid state power to get the best. I have a 250 ARC amp and would certainly sell it if I was using the PMC.
However after a lot of searching and listening I ended up with a pair of Proac 3.8's. They were a little more affordable than the PMCs and the matching stands for the PMC's made the price go up too much.
They really had two different sounds though and I will say the the PMC's are probably a little more on the acurate side of things, ie. very revealing. With my personal collection of music I found also that too revealing meant many unlistenable recordings. Proac does have a tendancy to smooth things over a bit (NOT the D80's or D100's though!) IMHO, but they are indeed wonderful sounding and great music makers. I should mention that I also had the D38's in my home and they lean a little more towards the accuracy spectrum, but I again prefered my 3.8's.
You have a nice sized room and ANY of these speakers will fill it with good sound it just depends on your tastes.
Good hunting

Thanks Alun. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this thread even though it has been idle for a while. I agree completely with what you have said. I got a chance to hear the OB1 and agree that, to my tastes, it is overly analytical. In fact, I really did not feel that this speaker distinguished itself at all. I really wanted to like it but it left me feeling flat. I'm particularly interested in your views on the D38 which I have heard. I've currently got a pair of D25's in my system that I am struggling to enjoy. They do some things really well but I am coming to the conclusion that the new D series simply does not have the midrange magic of the models they replaced. While the D38 is considerably better than the D25--I compared the two head to head--neither has the warmth and naturalness of the older series. I auditioned the 3.8 some time ago and really enjoyed the sound. The new series is good--and with really high quality tubes may be very, very good--but with my solid state gear and other lesser electronics I think the 3.8 provides a better sound. Best of luck with them and enjoy.