Nov 2002

NIGEL PALMER was pleased to get his hands on the latest speakers from PMC to see if they measure up to their prodecessors

I should declare an interest: after reviewing PMC's AML1 active loudspeakers for Audio Media (see June 2002), I bought a set. For me they are the most appropriate monitor in that size range at any price, and I've now used them successfully over an extended period for mastering to the general satisfaction of my client record companies, producers, and artists. You can therefore imagine I was more than interested in hearing the recent baby brother of the PMC range, the DB-1.

Overview

At first glance the DB-1 presents an almost toy-like appearance because of its diminutive size: 290mm x 155mm x 234mm (HxWxD) - significantly smaller than an NS10. However, lurking within is what PMC claim is the world's smallest transmission line, 1.5m long. In summary, a transmission line is an acoustically damped bass horn folded (in this case perhaps shoehorned) into the enclosure, fed from the back of the low-frequency driver. The line elicits a bass response well below the normal capabilities of such an enclosure and has been a guiding principle of all PMC's designs to date. In the case of the DB-1, usable bass goes down to 50Hz, about half an octave lower than a typical speaker of similar size.

The driver complement in this two-way design consists of a 140mm doped LF unit and a metal dome tweeter, both derived from units further up the PMC range and both having massive magnet assemblies nearly as wide as the diaphragms themselves. It's worth mentioning that DB-1 pairs all contain matched driver units for greater listening accuracy, which is unusual at this price. Crossover between the drivers occurs at 3kHz: falling as this does in a key human voice area there was potential for anomalies in speech or singing, so I was ready to check this aspect.

The DB-1 is a biwirable/biampable design, meaning that there are two sets of turnpost connectors for speaker cables providing access to the drivers individually if required; the connectors are normally linked together, however, and stayed this way throughout the review period as I believe this is how most people in studios would use them. Above the connectors at the back of the cabinet is the transmission line port, and the fact that it's rear-firing appeared to cause no practical problems. For the review I had a 'professional' black pair (other finishes are available along with suitable stands) which were magnetically shielded since they were to be used near a workstation CRT monitor - the shielding worked well, no visible image shifts being noticed.

In Use

I auditioned the DB-1s at CYP Ltd, a children's media company where I work on a freelance basis, which has two SADiE-based audio suites. As a first test the DB-1 s replaced a set of NS10s driven by a good-quality hi-fi amplifier. As soon as they were set up it was apparent that there had been a significant improvement in fidelity, although, interestingly, I found the sound a little bright at first and attributed this to the need for a further run-in period in addition to that applied at the factory. This turned out to be true to an extent, and after a couple of days things were where they should be, but I soon noticed I'd mistakenly patched the signal chain so I was hearing the analogue output of a DAT machine through converters that I would characterise as sounding a touch 'tizzy' and thin. Once I repatched the monitoring to hear the SADiE's more solid-sounding output we were right back 'in the pocket' and I was impressed that the speakers had shown up the difference so effortlessly, something that would have been much more difficult with the NS1Os.

I played my usual selection of reference CDs through the system, and heard what was essentially a true monitor sound in microcosm: dearly the little boxes would have to roll off before reaching some of the more stygian depths represented on the CDs, but they always did so gracefully while still presenting a much more realistic bass than the size would suggest. Although I didn't have a sub-woofer available, PMC make two models, the XB1-P and TLE-1 which integrate with DS-1 s and should help to address the one obvious area where they're compromised. Listening on, I found the voice region to be more than satisfactory, with good clarity and no obvious crossover artefacts. It was apparent that I was listening to a metal-dome tweeter as they have a distinctive 'signature' that's a little less smooth than the soft-dome equivalent, but I never felt this let the side down (especially considering the price point) and I'd be happy to mix on these speakers as long as I had some good headphones to act as a low-bass reference if a sub-woofer wasn't available.

Conclusion

Presentation throughout the listening period was always well balanced regardless of material, and the DB-1 s proved quite tolerant of different amplifier types and room placement; they compared favourably to (and were considerably less expensive than) my usual small boxes, Acoustic Energy AE1s. All-in-all a very good, reasonably priced small reference loudspeaker recommended for general nearfieid, project studio, and workstation use - well done again, PMC.