Being demonstrated here at the High End Show in Munich is the new flagship model in PMC's slimline fact speaker range, the fact.12.
Selling for £12,000/pr when it goes on sale in a couple of months' time – there's just a bit more tuning to be done! –, the new speaker is designed not only to sit above the existing fact models, but also above the remaining speakers in the company's 'i'-range, following the recent trimming down of that line-up to allow the company to concentrate on production of its twenty and fact series.
The fact.12 is the first three-way design in the fact series, and uses a new 5cm midrange dome between the tweeter and the twin 14cm coated aluminium-coned bass units.
The new 5cm midrange driver has been designed using results obtained from work with National Physical Laboratory (above), using laser measurement to 'see' the sound being produced by a speaker by measuring the air just in front of the drivers.
This work helped with the overall design of the speakers, and in particular with the shape and profile of the midrange dome dispersion flange, which provides optimal dispersion and integration, to the point where PMC sees the performance of the new driver as being close to that of the classic PMC75 midrange used in many of its designs.
Apart from the tweeter, carried over from other models, fact.12 was designed as a completely new speaker, with company founder and chief designer Pete Thomas setting his team the task of delivering the transparency, scale and dynamics of PMC's studio monitors in a slimline cabinet.
As in other PMC speakers, Advanced Transmission Line loading is used for the bass drivers and, like the other fact models, the fact.12 has toggle switches to allow some tuning of the drive units' response.
However, in this new model the bass control offers the user the choice of a little bass boost as well as the flat and cut positions, using design principles learned from the company's work on active crossovers.
The new speakers use high-density front baffles 3.5cm thick, and 5cm bases, with extra bracing at critical points, such as where the air-pressure inside the transmission line is at it greatest.
The speaker will be available finished in Rich walnut, Graphite poplar and Tiger ebony, along with the new white silk finish being introduced across the fact range.
Written by Andrew Everard