PMC vs. Salk Sound Speakers. Which is better?

Haha, no I'm not saying anything is snake oil or that anything isn't necessary. What I'm saying is that smart designers use as few parts as necessary to do the job perfectly, and no more. I was also saying that the majority of the parts on that PMC board are very inexpensive (and often frowned upon) parts.

Salk doesn't use high-end parts either (although better than what's on that PMC board), but with a Salk you know you're getting a flat frequency response and proper phase tracking ... all with a crossover that's only as complex as it needs to be. That may or may not be the case with PMC. I've seen some PMC's that measure relatively poorly, and how it measures is a testimony of how well the crossover is engineered.

Power Supplies? In a speaker?

Vapor is correct, the number of parts is meaningless, in fact many excellent speakers have only one or two parts in their crossovers; some have none. Lots of parts can mean the use of correction networks to "fix" defects in drivers. Also, the use of electrolytic caps is something I avoid religiously in the gear I build, even in amplifier power supplies if I can.

Printed circuit boards look neater, but in most cases that means you are connecting the parts with aluminum wires, not the copper or silver usually used in point-to-point wiring. Copper and silver are far better conductors than aluminum.

Love my IB2i. They do everything extremely well, to my ears, and seamlessly. But I do think they're too pricey. That said, given how much I enjoy them, I don't regret the expense.

Salks are good speakers; I've heard one of the recent flagships. I think my Thiel CS3.7's are better, though. The Thiel's are within your range used and I'd recommend them if you have a very good front end and amp. If not, the Salks are more forgiving. Haven't heard the PCM's.

Exactly, how did you choose these two speakers as potential choices? I would love to hear an answer to that question.

My best advice, and truly the only advice is to do your research -- reviewers are pretty straight up, outside of Stereophile-- and then purchase what seems like your preference. This is America, so we have way too many choices. I could tell you that Zu Audio will satisfy your soul, but that is for you to decide. It did satisfy my soul and more.

Bottom line, ya gotta drop some money to find out for yourself