Pmc Aml1?

Hi,

Has anyone got any hands-on experience of the PMC AML1 active speakers - especially in the home environment?

Are they any good? I would like your views.

Monty

 

"Tenson" here is your man. I'm sure he'll be in shortly

 

yep they are bloody brilliant in a small room imaging timing bass
got the lot IMHO best little speaker I've heard period.
came close too buying a pair a couple of times for my other system.
Have a look around European dealers if buying new when I considered getting a pair there was some stunning deals about

 

Still lurking around here then Kevin?

I owned a pair for a couple of years before selling up, which I did to pursue DIY ideas of my own.

They are the best standmount you can get. They don't have to be used in a small room either, as they are very powerful things with deep extended bass that would work perfectly well in your average UK living room size.

If tomorrow I wanted to stop pissing around with hi-fi and buy a speaker / system to live out the rest of my life with, these would be it. As Ya-boo says they do the lot. Add a squeezebox or CD transport, and a quality DAC and you have an ultra-neat and super high quality system.

 

It that's what you want then **** that, I'd go find a fine receptacle for my DNA juice. Putting your todger in a speaker isn't cool.

 

Don't be so silly, it has a chastity grill on the front port.

 

Thanks for the replies. My room is 20ft by 16ft and I was thinking of hooking up a PMC TLE1 as well.

Your last comment comment about wanting to stop pissing around is exactly what I'm after! After many years of changing 'black' boxes, cables, supports etc... I'm looking for a top flight plug and play system that I can just use.

I made the switch from a CDP to a Mac and DAC and have never looked back!

I have played around with an Apogee DA 16-x DAC with Firewire on demo for a while and I cannot believe the amazing sound it produces.

Tenson, can I ask what your system was when you had the PMCs and especially what cable you used to hook up the speakers?

Thanks,

Monty

 

Hi,

The idea of connecting them to a Mac and a quality DAC is a very good one. Have you got an Airport Express too, or is the Mac connected directly? A friend of mine has a system with an iPod Touch wirelessly controlling the tunes that are played wirelessly from the Mac to his DAC via an Airport Express. Very swish!

Does the Apogee DAC have a built in volume control, or do you do level control from the Mac?

For the most part I used the AML1 with an Arcam Alpha 9 CD player and a 'Ming Da' valve pre-amp. The sounded was very well balanced and extremely good, but Ya-Boo then bought his TacT Pre-amp/DAC thing around and that was noticeably better in all areas while keeping the good balance. So I then upgraded my kit to a Django S&B passive pre-amp (basically a Music First in a different box) and changed my CD player to a transport and used a modified Behringer DEQ2496 as DAC and digital room correction box. This was even better than the TacT and the whole thing sounded pretty damn awesome. After living with that for about 8 months (I guess) I decided to sell the lot and put the money in to DIY audio projects and invest it in my business (see signature).

If you really want the best from them you might consider a DAC with room correction capabilities like the modified DEQs I sell. Volume could be controlled via the Mac (24-bit, so no loss of CD quality recording when you adjust the volume) or put a nice pre-amp after it.

I don't think cables really make any difference, so I was using 4m 'Shark' (the blue ones) cable from Maplin from pre-amp to speakers. Its triple shielded which is nice. I think once I got the Django with balanced outputs I may have switched to StudioSpares 'economy' XLR cables.

 

You should come over some time and hear the latest bits I've been playing with. You missed the last get together I had in my new listening room so it would be good to see you again.

I've not sold the modded DEQ yet. Since I offer mods to 3 different Behringer products, and offer different options for each of those, it takes some time to find someone who wants the same full on mods. Do you know someone who is interested?

 

Hi Tenson,

I currently have my Mac to a USB DAC1 - in the next week I will go wireless via an Airport Express and Toslink - I am borrowing the kit from a friend.

I like the idea of your friends system with an iPod Touch wirelessly controlling itunes - sounds dead cool.

No the Apogee DAC does not have have a built in volume control. I tried running the volume through the Mac, but I found (to my ears) it degraded the sound. The best sound was achieved by running through my preamp's volume control.

I'm all for learning about digital room correction - I really do need to do some more reserch on this area!

I just wonder why more people don't go down the active speaker route and exploiting studio kit?

Thanks for the reply,

Monty

 

Probably because their marketing isn't as flash.

IME the main trick with using digital correction is not to use it outside of the modal range (usually between about 30Hz-300Hz) and also not to make very strong adjustments. I have yet to hear an automatic correction system that does the biz, but its not hard to locate the main offending room modes and manually null them out.

 

Take the toslink output of the Express into a DEQ.
I'm doing just that at the moment and it works very well.

As for why more don't go the active/pro route, well audiophiles liking to fiddle, tweak and argue would be one reason. Another is the lack of acceptance by many major hi-fi companies and the press which end users slavishly follow, sadly.

Times are changing though.

 

Okay,

As you will have gathered I like the Apogee DA 16-x DAC

http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/da16x.php

But it doesn't have volume control. If I go down the PMC active route, I need something to control the volume of the Apogee DAC - is there such a thing as a studio preamp?

Monty

 

A few of the studio brands make pre-amps (like Bryston) but most studios don't use them, since every mixer desk has a 'monitor level' control.

I can highly recommend the Music First passive TVC pre-amp. They now do some flashy expensive pre-amps but the standard copper version is superb anyway.

DIY Hi-Fi Supply.com make a pre-amp called the Django and the newer version has remote control I think. They offer versions with different inside workings too. The website seems to be down right now.

 

Hello...

Can't he use the volume control on the AML1 itself?

 

Don't be silly, that's far too simple

 

Well, sorry, I should've thought that!!

 

One could do that, but each speaker would have to be adjusted separately which makes it very hard to get each speaker consistently at equal levels for good soundstage and imaging. Really the input trim controls are there so you can get the best use of the pre-amps (or mixers) dynamic range and not, for example, be restricted to the first 1/4 turn of the volume control.

If you do adjust the input trim controls on each speaker you would ideally want to use an SPL meter at the listening position to make sure that each speaker is at exactly the same level. Its a shame really, that those controls are not stepped.

P.S. Monty, if you do get a pair and you are near Kent or London I'd love to come and hear them again, bring back old memories!