David vs Goliath (and request for speaker advice)

I’m pleased it worked out well for you. You can put little blobs of blutac in each corner to attach the speakers. They should be the size of a small pea. You should find some in the box with the new stands.

I added 0.5l of filler to mine, following PMC’s recommendation. I use the Custom Design acoustic filler. I initially didn’t read the instructions and added far too much, which deadened the sound. The 0.5l seems just right.

As they say; enjoy.

Yeah, that makes sense. I’d definitely prefer to have them “stabilised” before trying out cables. The manual states 50 hours minimum, but I guess much longer will be needed.

Thankfully they are not annoyingly harsh or anything straight out of the box. But I guess they will have their ups and downs in the coming weeks…

Wondering what will happen if I set them up face-to-face and in opposite polarity, playing in mono overnight to speed up things. I’ll give it a try :wink:

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Yup, I’ll definitely go for the blutac when the new stands arrive. And once everything is run-in and speaker placement is optimised, I can add some filler as you propose. It will be a couple of months down the road.

Many thanks for all the helpful advice so far!

PS: Straight out of the box the “Little Darths” are sounding clean, natural, balanced and not fatiguing. So it’s a promising start!

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Any advice for the running in period?

Hi @sihctr
I am on my third pair of PMCs (GB1is, 25.23s and 25.23is) in 15 years. PMC recommend 50 hours to run in. In my experience the tweeter(s) need several weeks to properly settle - you may find it a little splashy initially but that does disappear.

The advice above to ride out the run-in period before trying cables is a good one. I thought I was going to have to ditch my Tellurium Q Black IIs after installing the 25.23is, but they are now sounding fabulous. I am sure Kudos KS-1 cables will sound great too (I have not tried them). I hope you enjoy your new ‘Little Darths’.

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HungryHalibut, I need some advice on the pmc Twenty5 21i. At the moment I have the proac tablette 10 speakers, not signatures. Have had a quick listen to the pmc and I was impressed.
My question is the speakers have to be about 9 feet apart and near a back wall would you say this is ok, they can’t go any where else. What improvement did the pmc bring over the proac.
Many thanks :+1:

Mine are about 10cm from the back wall and 180cm apart. Wider may be fine, if you sit further back than I do. I used the two speakers with two different sets of electronics, NDX2/SN3 with the ProAcs, and Nova with the PMCs, so I can’t say if one is ‘better’ than the other. They are both good, but different. If you room isn’t small, and you like a bit of volume and bass depth, the PMCs are more likely to fit the bill. But, as ever, a home demo is essential.

Many thanks for your quick reply :+1:

A quick update on the running in (it’s been almost a month already! :astonished:).

The sound is evolving steadily, and I slowly start adjusting the speaker placement for fine tuning. I realised that I can move them much closer to the front wall compared to the Dynaudios for strengthening the bass, without worrying about bass boom. Unfortunately I am limited in the placement options due to the fireplace in the middle, so they still need to stick out a bit.

More running in is needed for everything to gel together. At the moment the hi-hats/cymbals draw too much attention and not well defined. The “sigma” in vocals is also a bit too sibilant. It’s not fatiguing or too annoying, but I know it can get better.

I also did a couple of component comparisons and for now I prefer the presentation with the lavender interconnect rather than the HiLine. Also I prefer the spikes rather than the Isoacoustics GAIA. The sound became just a bit “simpler” which makes it easier to follow and enjoy the music. So definitely more months of running in and fine-tuning up ahead.

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I took the hybrid approach for my stand-mount speakers. Spikes between the floor and stands but Isoacoustics OREA between the speakers and stand.

Indeed that is what IsoAcoustics recommends for standmount speakers:

If the speakers are fastened to the stands, then they tend to act as one and the GAIA series are recommended for installation on the floor stand.
If the speakers are resting on top of the stands, then we recommend isolation between the speaker and the stand. The OREA series are a great option in this case.

My previous speakers (Dynaudio C1 Platinum) were standmounts fastened on their stands with 4 bolts. So it may be that I need to get rid of them now. Adding some OREA in between would probably look hideous to be honest, so I might just live without them. The PMC stands do have some isolation both on the bottom and top plates, so that might be enough.

By the way, when I removed the Isoacoustics, I could feel vibrations arriving all the way to the sofa, but that was not necessarily a bad thing :innocent:. Not sure what the neighbours will say about that… :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile:

I tried some Oreas beneath my Nova and it really messed up the sound. I wouldn’t let the horrible things near my speakers. Stick them on with blutac and enjoy.

Isn’t it a risk the blutac become gluetac and merge with the speaker veneer and cause damage to the finish? When I had Harbeth I remember Harbeth told users to avoid it since they had seen so many damaged speakers using blutac.

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PMC recommend it and in fact include a piece in the box with their stands, which seems unlikely if it was going to damage their speakers.

To separate speakers and stands, when blutac is used, always twist the speakers, rather than just yanking them off.

My ProAc Tablettes were fixed on with blutac and when I removed them after two years, there wasn’t the slightest mark on them.

Maybe PMC and ProAc make their speakers better than Harbeth?

I guess it depends on how picky you are. I’d never put blu tak near my speakers if new. I had some of rubber on my fraim for a while that left marks on them impossible to remove. I’d use feet made for purpose.

Kevin Scott of Definitive Audio and designer and maker of Living Voice speakers recommends using four little blobs of Blue Tak under his Auditorium speakers to fix the speaker onto the base and even includes the Blue Tak in the packaging with the speakers.

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Feet are only made for purpose if that’s what the speaker designer intended. Otherwise they are just an add-on that may or may not work. Oreas etc between speakers and stands look really rubbish.

Indeed I do not want to add unnecessary complexities to my system. I’ll keep the speakers as the manufacturer intended (i.e. with spikes and blutac). However it will be some time before I use the blutac, as my floor is completely non-level and I need to readjust the spikes whenever I move the speakers. That’s easier (and safer) with the speakers off the stands. So first I need to optimise their placement (as well as the cables that will go through the stands) and then “anchor” them down.

I guess it depends whether you trust the manufacturers recommendations. Blue tac was under my MFS (as recommended by the OEM) for many years and came off with no issues whatsoever. I have never seen Naim recommend using rubber on Fraim.

Well Naim feet are rubber too (except 5-series) but some feet suck up the oil from the material they are placed on which leave marks. You can see in the blu tak thread this happened to those speakers to meaning even though the blutak is removed you see marks in the veneer. Everyone can take their risk, I’m just pointing to that there is risk and leave it to others to make their own decisions :slight_smile:

You can clearly see it here as light areas where blutak has been.

Some resellers also leave warnings. Anyway, up to everyone to make their own judgement :slight_smile:

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Sorry, I meant aftermarket products. In the case of Neat, they specifically recommended blutac but I agree, it can affect some finishes.

Are you sure Naim feet are actually (pure, natural) rubber, rather than a synthetic polymer such as silicone or some other viscoelastic substance? I have no idea…