the only true test would be for you to B2B both of them. believe me, the quality of component in Alan’s speakers, his design and meticulous nature of construction are worth your consideration.
Indeed hearing is the only way to know what a speaker is like. However, you hadn’t mentioned that several in the range are transmission line speakers, of which I was unaware, and which interests me far more than praise of quality of construction.
I note this is a genuinely new brand more fitting of the thread theme!
indeed !
Heard them a few times at Bristol and always one of my favourites. Silky smooth and engaging…if that’s what you like.
Heard Kerr at few shows now, and at last years North West Audio Show, they had one of the best sounds at the show.
I had the Kerr K300 for testing at home and they impressed me greatly. They have a neutral playing style where no frequency ranges stand out significantly. The bass is solid when there is bass in the music track and the treble from the ribbon tweeter perform at my taste, open but in no way fatiguing. They can be placed very close to the side and front walls and still perform at their best.
Kerr speakers are significantly more easily driven than similar designs (TL) from other manufacturers, this is mainly due to the crossover structure according to Jes Kerr.
I chose to go for the floor-standing version, K320 and as an example, the Nait 50 drives these speakers quite lovely. My pictures show the speakers placed in the attic, a rather narrow and special room, but they worked surprisingly well with short distances to the walls. Today I have them placed in a larger room and there they flourish even more or should we say they play differently. I`ve had them for about two years now.
They were always on Thownsend podiums and they treat the rooms really well too… I am always very impressed by their understated effortless sound and if I didn’t have my B&W’s I think I’d audition them or Vivid Audio.
The Kerr K320 on demo at the Bristol HiFi show last year, with Chord DAVE and Chord amplification I don’t remember which model, were in my IMO the best sounding demo of all at the show. Would dearly love a pair of those… ![]()
I also see that PMC speakers are popular speakers used with Naim. Kerr also uses the transmission line principle and compared to some PMC models, Kerr is significantly more easily driven, in my opinion a very important feature.
For this reason I wonder why English-based Kerr is not more widespread than they seem to be. Recommended.
I think PMC were helped by having the classic BBC stamp of approval many other successful British speaker manufacturers had. And their cabinets are slightly more refined
The Kerrs are very boxy. Reducing right angles and laser sharp corners goes a long way to softening the look. Superficially, the K300 looks like a BB5. Then you notice the PMCs have softer edges, aren’t as deep. And they still aren’t that hard to drive.
Aesthetically the Kerrs have a whiff of home-made about them. They might be much better than the PMCs but heritage and aesthetic finishing touches go a very long way for many buyers, and I suspect that translates to the low number of dealers who carry them.
PMC have also been around for longer - over 30 years - that alone making them more widely known. Other possible factors could include production capacity (no idea how they compare) and number of dealers stocking, which may or may not be linked(?).
The thing is that PMC have many years experience of designing transmission lines , which apparently are not easy to implement.
Do Kerr have that experience and knowledge ? I don’t know.
Also , depending on model , PMC speakers have a 20 year guarantee.
My thanks to you all for your responses. I plan to demo a pair in the next couple of weeks. As I mentioned, the British Audiophile has an indepth review, and there are some interviews with the designer, Jess Kerr, online in which he describes his approach.
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