I’m swapping the Nova for an Atom HE, and installing PMC’s active upgrade kit in my speakers. I’m looking forward to hearing it. The first active system I ever heard was the Meridian powered speakers, back in the late ‘70s. The preamp was their tiny little 101. Over 40 years later I’ll be ending up with something very similar. Active speakers and one little box seems a great solution and I’m sure more and more people will be going that way.
Look forward to hearing how you get on. I use ATC actives and there is something in the active presentation that I really like.
Gary
Not really. Not if you go balanced.
But active speakers do trade box count for the numbers of cables. Now you have twoce as many going to each speaker and the mains leads might have to come from a different direction.
No matter what option you go for there is a trade off somewhere but the non monetary cost of that tradeoff will vary depending on room.
Mogami balanced interconnects work delightfully for us too, besting several well regarded £1-2,000 per metre branded interconnects in our system.
By all means spend several thousand per metre on Atlas Asimi or Transparent Super if you wish to raise the game further but honestly, is it really worth it in all but mega systems?
Best regards, BF
Glad I was there or thereabouts with my thoughts on what you would demo. Hope you enjoy the change and that it comes up to your required standard.
Better than thereabouts, spot on.
The economics of why are not really hard to work out. I made up two long subwoofer leads from Mogami mic cable and Mogami RCA plugs. Cost of cables and plugs, about $30. Then factor in my time to solder them properly: $200 because you pay for the time of an experienced engineer, not the complexity of the job. So now you are at $230. You aren’t making any money on small numbers of cables sales for less than 100% markup so you sell to the distributor for $460. The distributor wants a cut so they sell it to the dealers at $550. Dealers for high end audio operate in the 40% margin area so the retail price of your $30 of materials of two extra long RCA cables hits the shelves at $770.
Ergo, never assume the cable as-is off the drum is bad because it is cheap. When you think of labour and supply chain, the real costs are added.
Indeed, except that we bought ours fully assembled with Neutrik XLR connectors for about £50.
So from the user’s perspective, £50ish from Designacable or circa £1000 for a branded Hifi interconnect that doesn’t let music sound as good?
Best regards, BF
Synergy means everything and doesn’t go along lines of cost. I have no problem with a cheap and cheerful cable outperforming a pricier one of 50 times the cost. I have a pic ‘n’ mix of expensive to peanuts cables.
Who makes the amps in the active PMC’s? Presumably they’re not made in-house? Also, do they have audio sensing or do you have to turn on/off manually or just leave them on?
PMC make their own amplifiers. They have a massive active Pro range, and make an integrated amplifier, the Cor.
The speakers don’t have music sensing. You leave them on, or turn them off after listening. Apparently they don’t need a warm up before listening.
Looking forward to your thoughts HH when it arrives. Something special about actives although I’m yet to hear PMC actives and haven’t pursued them as I’m a bit of an ATC fan boy.
My local dealer sells them so may have a listen when I get some time.
I would like to think an HE with its better pre with active speakers will be a very elegant set up.
Gary
I’m really looking forward to it, though I have to wait four or five weeks for Naim to make more. Some dealers have them in stock but unfortunately Audio T don’t. The Atom is much nicer looking than the Nova, which is a bit ungainly.
@HungryHalibut
Congratulations on your new system. I am interested in how you would describe the difference between the passive and active 23i speakers. What are your initial impressions?
I can’t help you with the 23s I’m afraid. I’m something of an imposter on this thread, as I have 21s.
Sorry HH - my mistake, I meant the 21i’s. I’m curious about how the sonic signature of the active version compares with the passive model. I’ve just clocked the PMC 25.2x Actives vs Passives thread so will ask you about this there! Thanks
I wrote a few words on that thread, with my initial impressions. I’m not the best at flowery reviews, so make of it what you will.
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