A little fascinating piece about design philosophy and it’s history. Peter Thomas seems a very dedicated and lovely man I think.
Admittedly ducking here as I suspect we’ll have people coming out saying that PMC speakers do absolutely nothing for them etc, but hey I enjoyed it and hopefully a few others will too 
Peter
Fellow PMC user ( although much smaller than yours!) so will definitely have a watch
Thank you Peter, very interesting
He is a lovely guy to talk to on a number of subjects, had a great discussion on bands and venues in Essex, Herts etc such as RDB, Dr Feelgood. He has a great collection of old hifi……including reel to reel and a surprising number of master tapes. In short he is a “reel” gem.
Oh yes Gazza, I’m old enough to remember them! Best Peter
Very interesting and unique fellow. When you see interviews with designers at other brands like B&W and Dynaudio, it is all about their zealous certainty in their correctness of approach.
None of the humility of Peter Thomas and admission of the truth that this stuff has an element of the unknown and the open minded willingness to test what you cannot measure.
I’ve use transmission lines for decades, eventually moving to PMC. That linear bass response is hard to give up.
Ditto!
Thanks you so much for posting that, Peter. It was really nice to watch and as you say, he comes across as a really nice man. My favourite line was when he said that he wanted people to be spending their money on more records, rather than changing their hifi, which is a fine line on a hifi forum and all too easy to get the other way round. I also liked his view that speakers still have a long way to go and that even the best cannot fully capture the sound of a real instrument, such as the drum kit he used as an example.
Have just got around to watching this and it is really enjoyable. Hugely likeable man with his priorities sorted. It’s also a great advert for the BBC in terms of innovation, commitment to highest standards and quality of training. Hopefully it remains as good as it was described in the 70’s by Peter.
Like others have said, what a cracking interview. Thanks for posting
Indeed his honesty in saying we are nowhere there yet, I found really refreshing and of course true. ATB Peter
Yes it was so much more modest than those manufacturers who make out that their speakers sound just like the real thing. They certainly don’t, as anyone who is listening to an unamplified drum kit, for example, will know all too well. The evident desire for continuous improvement was just so good to hear. He is also delightfully down to earth, again unlike some others who explain things with technobabble. It’s good to know that there are such genuine people around.
I too enjoyed the interview although I have never owned PMC’s. Soundstage Network have been building a collection of interesting videos to accompany the main website and I especially enjoyed the short interview about the Cowboy Junkies Trinity Sessions album Recorded to R-DAT? The Truth About "The Trinity Session" - SoundStage! Encore (March 2021) - YouTube
Confession time - I have recently joined Soundstage Network as a reviewer after years on an off at Hi-Fi News so I am keen not to be seen to be promoting their site on here, but it’s nice to see others enjoying the content so much. Personally I really like the mix of music, manufacturer profiles and product features as it’s something for example New Hi-Fi Sound used to do and I loved and missed that magazine when it disappeared.
Jonathan
I met Peter at one of HiFi Louge Open Days in Dunton, Beds - just a short drive from PMC HQ at Biggleswade. He did a talk about the truthfulness of the recorded sound with lots of original pre-mix tracks. A facinating session that left many with more questions than they arrived with! The uncompressed drum piece was startling! Many of the pre-mix tracks had the hair on your neck standing up - they were so amazing and equally, their content in the final mix was comparatively disappointing.
I have been a PMC owner for several years and have been very happy with them on my Naim kit.
I have neat ultimatum xli’s but itchy feet lead me to try pmc 25 26’s and I liked them a lot. Detailed fast and articulate the pmc’s are they did not have the weight of neat isobaric design. So after some enjoyable listening the pmc’s were returned. My view is that if you are more classically inclined or jazz the pmc’s will be fantastic but for rock n roll the neats have it. But there is something in the transmission line design that gives a unique airy response, with plenty deep bass. Pmc’s I had were a lovely piece of craftsmanship. One day i might try them again
Hi Paul, very good description indeed ATB Peter
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