On the subject of Kudos Titans - I have 808s which are irrelevant for budget reasons but:
505’s are excellent though with the stands they are not far off the 606 price I think. Spent a very happy hour listening to them at a show once
606s - these seem to be preferred by most people over the 707s. Only heard 606s briefly just before 707s (both active) ant a kudos event at Acoustica - and I hugely preferred the 707s but don’t know if that is my preference, or if going active makes the 707s hugely better and widen the gap from the 606s
Heard some 707’s at last weekend audio show, they sounded nice, but the other speakers they also used did sound even better on the same system, better in the mids, treble and wider sounding.
Not sure what the other speakers were or priced at, but they didn’t look that nice or special, but as said sounded nice
I’ve just had the 707’s on a weeks home demo. Whilst I liked some of what they did, especially vocals I wasn’t wholly convinced they were for me. The rest of the family hated them. They felt they were too in your face, almost shouty in my room. The dealer and I had a good play around with positioning but it didn’t seem to help. Perhaps the 606’s would be better in my room ?
Next on the audition list is the PMC Fact 12’s. Hopefully in the next few weeks. I do like the PMC sound having owned GB1i, FB1i and my current 20.26’s
Just about finishing 500 hours (i.e. the expected run-in time) and I am very happy, but we haven’t done the fine adjustments yet. Was planned for next week, but not sure now if I have time and maybe I have to postpone a week or three. I’ll do a thread after this, but you can expect that it will be very positive
I upgraded my PMC 20.26 to PMC MB2SE, my third PMC speaker upgrade having started with the Twenty 5.23. You’ll be familiar yourself with the PMC sound and ATL forward firing base ports allowing freedom of room placement. If your going down the s/h route for your second power supply why not do this for the speakers as you could just be within your budget (£5-6k ps £9-10k speakers).
These are large speakers but for some will be their end game, many excellent reviews around the web*. From my own experience I’ve never heard my music so clearly at all volumes. Well worth an audition if you get the chance.
Two speakers worth demoing at the £10k level that I was very impressed by are:
Wilson Benesch Vector - extremely good at detail retrieval especially in the midrange. In fact I was more impressed with these than the Wilson benesch Act ones that are double the price . They don’t quite do the same scale as the Act Ones but astonishing performance for £10k, absolute bargain.
Audiovector R3 Arete - only had a brief listen to these in a huge room, so they weren’t right for the room but detail and resolution and control were impressive.
I heard the PMC Fact 12s. I have to say I was not impressed with their bass control and that was with a NAP 500. Probably the most disappointing speaker I have ever heard given that people said good things about them prior to my demo.
I have the PMC Fact 12s, along with several other members of the forum, with a NAP 500. Bass is very well controlled compared to several other speakers I listened to. I can’t speak to the listening space that you heard them in. They are very forgiving in terms of positioning; a little breathing room is required but, not much compared to other speakers.
With the 500, their stereo imaging is great. With a good source the speakers disappear. Yours is my first encounter with a negative review of them. I have not heard the Signature versions, but all reviews indicate further improvements in the sound.
I have to agree with Delft here; as a long-time PMC fan and user, when I upgraded my system I had a good line on a pair of demo Fact 12 Signatures that I really wanted to like. I gave them a really good home test (over a week) in parallel with some WB Vectors and much preferred the Vectors - the Fact 12s were harder to drive and, from anything other than face-on, looked simply monolithic whereas the Vectors looked really classy, with a sound that truly belied their modest size and were a doddle to drive (I then got a better line on a pair of nearly-new ex-demo ACT One Evolutions through WB themselves, but that’s another story and another league altogether - here Delft & I part ways ). With the right system I’m sure the Fact 12s are terrific, but anyone looking to buy at that price would be quietly amazed at what the much more compact Vectors have to offer and for much less money.
The WB Act Ones are great too, I was perhaps being greedy after first hearing the WB Vectors. Sure I would choose the Act Ones over the Vectors for scale and ease. Wilson Benesch make great speakers. I would love to hear the Eminence. I did think long and hard about the Act Ones but after I had fully refurbished my DBLs they sounded great so I decided to keep them. Higher up the price ladder I loved the Vimberg Minos. They worked really well with Naim gear.
As for the PMC Fact 12s maybe I listened to a duff pair or they weren’t fully run in.
Hopefully I’ll soon be able to give you my thoughts on the Fact 12’s. Interesting story, my dealer has been waiting for PMC to deliver a pair so I can demo them. A few weeks ago he rang to say they’d just called to say their demo pair had returned to base “destroyed” by the couriers. Today he calls to say they’ve called to say they’ve built a new pair for me to demo……and I can keep them over the holiday period if I’m happy to take them from new and run them in !
It’s the S913 Curved. (There is no 904 as far as I know, at least not anymore / on the website). Don’t know if you’ve seen but after they were installed I posted some pictures here:
They are now well run-in. It took around 1,000 hours of (mostly low-volume) playing for them to come together entirely. I am currently very happy and wouldn’t know what to tweak, but we had aimed at Stefan Sehring coming by this week to make the final adjustments (positioning, crossover values, passive bass membrane parameters, …). However, I don’t have time when he has so we have postponed this to next week’s Saturday. I will create a comprehensive thread when all is done
). With the right system I’m sure the Fact 12s are terrific, but anyone looking to buy at that price would be quietly amazed at what the much more compact Vectors have to offer and for much less money.