With each member of the Production Expert team narrowing down the product that makes their working life better, Paul Maunder talks about 2022’s contribution to his studio - the PMC 6 Studio Monitors.
Earlier this year I decided to upgrade my old Mackie HR824 studio monitors with something new. I figured that if I was going to replace them I might as well go for something which was notably better. After a lot of research I discovered PMC’s new Studio Range of active monitors. The smallest of these is the PMC6, a two way design which incorporates the company’s Advanced Transmission Line bass loading. Each unit uses two 200 watt Class D amplifiers, one for the 1” dome tweeter and the other for the 6” bass driver.
The PMC6 includes a sophisticated DSP engine which controls the crossover, driver protection, EQ and delay/polarity options. This can be controlled from the two rotary encoders and LCD display at the back of each speaker or, more conveniently, through a web browser via PMC’s SoundAlign web interface. The PMC6 has an ethernet port on the back so I’ve got mine connected through a switch into my router so I can access the settings more easily when required. Various things can be set from here including firmware updates, input source, level trim, a fully parametric EQ, delay and phase. There’s also an option to specify the speaker’s position. Options include Free Space, Wall and Corner. This affects the low frequency extension, applying a slight cut when the speakers are positioned near a wall and a greater cut when a corner position it selected. A desk filter option is also included. This is intended to modify the frequency responses of the speaker to compensate for the narrow band peak caused by reflections from a desk surface or mixing desk. It applies a 3.5dB cut at 150Hz with a Q of 3.
Each speaker has a dual purpose XLR input which can accept either an analog signal or an AES3 digital input. Input sample rates from 18-192kHz are accepted. Ultimately any input, analog or digital, gets converted to 96kHz for the DSP engine.
There’s also a digital ‘through’ output for daisy chaining the audio input to another speaker. This output is fixed at 24 bit, 96kHz and can be used to feed an optional PMC8 sub. The addition of one of these for each speaker expands the system to become an XBD system, extending the low frequency -3dB point down from 39Hz to 25Hz.
Why I like The PMC 6’s
I’ve been extremely impressed with the accuracy of the PMC6 and, having used it for a few months now, I can say that it’s very revealing of source content, and the mixes I’ve done with these speakers translate very well to other systems. I have mine positioned on the monitor bridge of my desk angled in slightly, and the tweeters are perfectly at ear level which gives me the best possible stereo image.
The bass extension is excellent, thanks no doubt to the Advanced Transmission Line technology which PMC use. It sounds flat and I find that I can judge low frequencies a lot better with the PMC6 than I could with my previous studio monitors.
Aesthetically, the PMC6 looks good with its honeycomb effect on the grill. The illuminated PMC logo adds to the appearance, especially when working in a darkened room
The stereo imaging of these speakers is among the bet I’ve heard for near field monitors and the phantom image for centrally panned sounds almost gives the impression of a centre speaker being present. They’re responsive and I’ve sometimes found myself playing tracks from my music collection when I’m supposed to be working!
How It Helps My Work
The bulk of my work is audio post and a fair amount of my time is spent working on dialogue. With the PMC6 I can pick up on noise and tonal differences in the recordings and take the necessary action to correct it. Studio monitors are one of the most essential tools for anyone working in audio production because every single judgement and decision you make about the work you do from day to day is based on what you’re hearing from them. I find that the PMC6 allows me to get things right a lot more easily than I was able to when working with other monitors. They’re a time saver and I trust them to give me a true and accurate idea of what’s actually on the recording. They’re not cheap but they are extremely good and I’m glad that I chose them. I’m sure they will serve me well for many years to come.