During the well-attended press conference, PMC managed to impress everyone attending the High End 2023 show with a presentation of the history and achievements of the company founded by Peter Thomas, not forgetting to highlight the important role of PMC monitors in some of the Dolby Atmos reference installations and recordings. In a room that displayed images of those environments and showcased some of the company's most recent designs, the relatively compact pair of two-way speakers was almost hard to notice, if it wasn't for the impressive sound they generated.
The compact Prodigy1, a standmount design and the floorstanding Prodigy5, both feature the same 1" (27mm) tweeter and 5" (130mm) bass driver. Both designs reflect the 30 plus years of the company's research and development efforts, always trying to get as close as possible to what is being played and recorded.
"Prodigy can trace its lineage back to the PMC QB1 XBD-A flagship studio monitors," says Oliver Thomas, commercial director and head of design. "Not only is there a stylistic resemblance, but many of the technologies that were developed for QB1, such as Laminair, have been trickled down into Prodigy, so users really can ‘bring the studio home’ when using these new models."
The compact Prodigy1 standmount speaker will impress in small and medium size rooms, with the richly dynamic and full sound that is expected of a PMC. Both drive units are professionally proven, with the bass unit featured in the PMC ci series, which has become a reference for Dolby Atmos music mixing. The soft dome tweeter is a development from the PMC Result6 studio monitors, giving the Prodigy1 a genuine studio heritage that reinforces PMC’s "from studio to home" philosophy.
The larger Prodigy5 is a tower speaker that is compact enough to take up no more space than bookshelf speakers on stands and delivers a sound that can fill any room. In common with the Prodigy1, its performance is characteristic of PMC’s studio monitors and is packed with the familiar traits of a wide dispersion high frequency response, a very wide ‘sweet-spot’ and clean detail.
Both models feature the Advanced Transmission Line (ATL) bass loading found in all PMC speakers. The ATL uses the energy that the bass unit generates in the most intelligent and efficient way to produce a far deeper, tighter and powerful bass than would otherwise be possible from a cabinet of this size and, additionally, through absorption of unwanted frequencies, creates a much clearer midrange.
Complementing the ATL is Laminair. This aerodynamically designed vent at the end of the line controls the air as it exits by dramatically reducing resistance, which increases efficiency and eliminates airflow noise. The result is a bass response with precise timing and an excellent dynamic range.
The long throw, natural fiber bass driver works hand-in-hand with the ATL as a coherent unit. It is fitted with an inverted dust-cap to reduce unwanted high-frequency reflections and the high-power voice coil and magnet assembly deliver unprecedented output levels for such compact speakers.
In keeping with PMC's strict quality control procedures, the drivers are measured and listened to prior to assembly. Every completed speaker is measured and then listened to alongside the reference model before being signed off by its assembler before packing.
"A quest for sonic transparency and neutrality has always been our driving force and passion. And that is the reason why our speakers are used at every stage of the music making process. Composers, artists, producers, mastering engineers, and music lovers choose to use PMC," says Jeff Willcocks, the CEO of PMC.
"With these new loudspeakers, we have taken our knowledge, learnt over the past 30 plus years, and distilled it down into a duo of speakers that make the PMC performance available to many more people. It is one of the most significant product launches we have made, arguably second only to the launch of the Fenestria, which pushed our design work to the current limits and led to technology being trickled down into these designs. I am very proud of what our team has created here, and I know we are going to win over a lot of music fans."
The Prodigy series is available only in a Silk Black finish, with black fabric grilles available as an option. And unlike some companies who sell hifi speakers for 10 or 20 times the price of their studio monitors, PMC hifi speakers are as expensive as their professional monitors. Available worldwide from July 2023.
www.pmc-speakers.com
