Hi Everyone,
I have to say that I am really pleased to announce that on August 3rd at HiFi Lounge we will be holding a PMC Fact.12 launch event in conjunction with PMC Speakers and with a lot of help from Bryston who's electronics we will obviously be using to drive the Fact.12's, I guess this is like PMC and Bryston Owners Club Meetup 2
Tom Baron, the UK representative for PMC and Bryston, who many of you will know, will be here holding the demonstrations of the Fact.12’s all day in our upstairs demo room which will be driven by a pair of Bryston 7B SST2's and using the Bryston SP3 processor, BDA-2 DAC and BDP-2 Media Player. We will also be running the Fact.8’s in our downstairs demo room driven by the new Bryston B135 SST2 integrated amplifier and hopefully Oliver Thomas, the lead designer on the Fact.12 project will be popping in to answer any questions.
I have heard the new Fact.12’s on 2 occasions now and they really are quite spectacular, I can’t wait to get them in at HiFi Lounge and hold this open day to give other music enthusiasts the opportunity to experience these stunning speakers first hand, you can read my initial thoughts when I first heard them at the Munich High End show last month here -
http://hifilounge.tumblr.com/tagged/PMC-SpeakersWe are big fans of the Fact.8 at HiFi Lounge but the new Fact.12 really does move things on significantly, especially bearing in mind its cabinet size which is only slightly bigger that the Fact.8’s. What you get is a level of performance that can rival the much bigger IB2i’s in a cabinet that is a lot more living room friendly, when you hear the Fact.12’s it really does take some believing that such a big sound can come from such a svelte cabinet but more importantly that it just sounds so natural and musical.
The Fact.12 is a total redesign from the Fact.8 with only the tweeter remaining the same, the main addition is the bespoke mid range cone which is based on the world famous PMC 75 mid range, found in the IB2i, MB2i and BB5i speakers, which is considered by many to be the finest mid cone available, it may be slightly smaller than the PMC 75 but when I was listening to the Fact.12’s the tonal richness and clarity that I am so used to with the MB2 SE’s with their PMC 75 mid sounded just as good, I feel that this is the first time that a mid range of this quality has been put into a domestic speaker rather than the professional ranges where you would usually find them.
As I have said before it is the dedicated bass cones and the overall depths that these speakers can go down to that really shocked me, but in a very controlled and fast Fact way, along with the new mid cone it really is one amazing combination. Another thing worth mentioning is the bass and treble controls on the rear of the speaker, so now you can give the overall sound a little bass lift or reduction and the same with the treble to help fine tune the speaker, it is only a subtle change but can make a noticeable difference and is invaluable for helping tune the fact.12 to a possibly difficult room or giving an overall sound that you prefer. When we were demoed this at the recent Fact.12 dealer day I was amazed how when the bass was put onto its lower setting how it cleaned the mid range up and portrayed it into the room further, extremely impressive and as PMC have stated there is no correct setting as they are all correct.
Anyway I will shut up now as I could go on for hours, I can honestly say though that I don’t think there has ever been a speaker that performs at the level of the Fact.12 with such a small cabinet, although admittedly I have yet to hear The Model T range
it has certainly been a long time since I have been this excited by a new speaker so please feel free to come along to HiFi lounge from 9am onwards on August 3rd to experience the new PMC Fact.12, I can guarantee you have never experienced anything like it before.
Here are a couple of comments from Miles and Peter from PMC -
Miles Roberts, PMC’s managing director, praises the fact.12 design team, saying, “Oliver and his team have done a superb job of producing a loudspeaker that is worthy of its position at the top of the fact range. Its performance is such that it can justifiably be compared to our world famous studio monitors.” He continues, “The new 50mm midrange unit is a masterpiece of engineering which has a remarkable performance, very close to that of the PMC75 and is sure to make the fact.12 a loudspeaker that will be in demand for many years to come. We look forward to sharing it with music aficionados from across the world when we unveil it in Munich in May.”
Peter Thomas, PMC’s founder and chief designer, says, “We are lucky to be involved at every stage of the recording process in major studios around the world. This gives us first-hand knowledge of the creative process and the detail and passion of the actual performance. The objective for the design of the new fact.12 was to increase resolution and detail to a higher standard while maintaining our commitment to dynamics and accuracy. Our goal is, as always, to deliver that performance in the home as it was originally captured in the studio.”
The Fact.12 is such a special product for PMC that it also marks 12 new firsts for them as a company, please see below -
Twelve fact.12 firsts1. The first three way fact model
2. The first time a speaker company has worked with the National Physical Laboratory
3. The first use of the new 50mm midrange dome drive unit
4. The first use by PMC of a hollow pole piece in a mid-range dome drive unit
5. The first use of the new 140mm bass drive units
6. The first time PMC has engineered a bass unit with a ‘power bulge’ for extended excursion
7. The first use by PMC of coated alloy cones for low frequency reproduction
8. The first use of a double sided crossover in a PMC speaker
9. The first passive speaker to have a genuine bass lift user option
10. The first twin vent Advanced Transmission Line
11. The first design process led by Oliver Thomas
12. The first speaker from PMC to feature the new white silk finish[/li][/list]
Ok I really am going to shut up now, hope to see some of you on August 3rd for what will certainly be a fun day
Cheers, Paul.
