PMC was on our ‘must visit’ list, not only were they teasing us with new product releases, they were playing the Capitol Studios Dolby Atmos remix of the iconic Miles Davis albums, ‘Kind of Blue’ and ‘Sketches of Spain’.

Now, I was a bit skeptical about all of this Atmos malarkey, was it going to be one of those ‘if it ain’t broke don’t mess with it’ kind of things, or would it really add to the music? When we think of Atmos we think Home Cinema and blockbuster films, not jazz.

PMC And Capitol Studios

The whole PMC and Capitol Studios team were exceedingly enthusiastic about the process and the results. Adding weight to the event was the presence of Erin Davis, son of Miles, and his drummer and nephew, Vince Wilburn. The guys (already fans of PMC speakers) were blown away with the results and declared that ‘Miles would have loved it’. PMC USA’s Maurice Patist, gave the introduction and then we got to listen on a Dolby Atmos system that involved both PMC’s fact fenestria flagship speakers and an array of its Wafer on-wall speakers for the surround and height channels, and a selection of its professional woofers, mimicking the system at Capitol Studios. The Bryston SP4 was the processor of choice, naturally with PMC being their UK distributor.

Dolby Atmos

The effect was very subtle, the sound was completely natural, in fact you only really realised the difference when they switched from the Atmos version to the stereo. There was a more immersive quality to the music in Atmos, and, by no means, did the stereo version lack at all…using the fenestrias in a ‘normal’ stereo set up was, of course, an amazing sound, but there really was a ‘je ne sais quoi’ quality to the Atmos.

It got me wondering, how would other albums sound given this treatment, the first that sprang to mind would be Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories…now that would be epic!

Fact Signature

We were also got the first peek of the fact signature series: re-engineered versions of the fact.8 and fact.12 loudspeakers, with innovations and technology developed for the fenestria flagship. Keith Tonge of PMC gave us an intro to the new members of the fact family. The development of the fact fenestria saw PMC’s engineers undertake extensive research into the effect of vibrations on audio performance. In particular, the analysis of vibration and its impact on sensitive components within crossover circuits led to fenestria being fitted with the very best, British made, capacitors and non-inductive German resistors, designed to eradicate internal micro-vibrations which have a negative impact on the performance of the speaker. In much the same way as car manufacturers trickle technology down from Formula 1 cars to family vehicles, PMC’s engineers have done the same with the fact.8 and fact.12 models, taking the incredible attention to detail employed during the fenestria.

Advanced Transmission Line Bass

New crossovers, mounted on military-grade circuit boards, are populated with the same hand-selected components employed in the fenestria, with the positioning of each component carefully calculated to minimise unwanted interference. Audiophile grade switching, set into the solid aluminium back panel, permits tailoring of the bass and treble response of the speakers to create the perfect sound balance in the listening room. Connections to the amplifier are via silver coated binding posts and it is possible to bi/tri-wire or bi/tri-amp the speakers. …/ The two-way fact.8 signature and three-way fact.12 signature retain the familiar features of their predecessors. The SONOMEX™ dome treble unit is common across both models and the fact.12 utilises a hand-made 50mm dome midrange that incorporates design elements from the mid-range driver in fenestria. Fact.8 features light, super-stiff, natural fibre bass drivers and the fact.12 retains its bespoke woofers made from an ultra-light alloy cone. And, of course, both speakers have at their hearts PMC’s Advanced Transmission Line bass-loading technology. They are available in two new finishes: White Silk and Metallic Graphite. The fact.8 signature and fact.12 signature will be available for RRP £6,995 (SRP €9,495) and RRP £14,995 (SRP €18,995) including VAT respectively and they are available from July 2019.

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