I went to the AES convention in San Francisco last Friday (Hi James, I talked about SP2 upgrades, and differences between various Pro models), and stayed around for the demonstration given by PMC.
They had a surround setup consisting of three BB5 XBD-A[ctive] for left-center-right, and a pair of MB2S-A for surrounds. The PMC guy then played all kinds of music. (The Bryston amps were stacked across the front, and the fronts of the crossovers were off as they were still tuning things.)
First he talked a bit about the PMC philosophy. First, they make speakers/monitors for ALL music, and they they let their stuff do the talking (i.e. they don't get lots of ads/reviews in the magazines), they let their users do the "word of mouth" thing.
Then he demonstrated that there philosophy was real. First up was one of those 'bass test' CDs, with some standard gangster rap beat, but, with a really low bass line. Soon we had standing waves all over the room, and so noted the limitation of the room itself. He then played rock, pop, metal, jazz, classical, hip-hop, electronica, etc. The way the system was effortless was quite amazing. He You could hear everything, even with some really crazy bass parts. He used some really raw mixes, no compression and just let them go--one particular 'live session' was quite illustrative of the BB5s' ability to play any mix--some live electric bass and drums. The German metal band Guano Apes really abused the center channel in their mix, and the BB5 XBD-A didn't even flinch. The classical pieces were impressive because you could tell that they could keep cranking up the volume and the monitors could handle it, and the soundstage gave one a feel of the whole orchestra. We all wanted to stay an play. But, they had to kick us out to get ready for Saturday.
So, now I have a sense of what to strive for, and that my DB1Ss are just the tip of the iceberg.
