Prodigies indeed, these newcomers have what it takes to trouble the class leaders
Standmount speakers| £1250| whf.cm/PMC_Prodigy1
As much aswe admire PMC’s Twenty5 series, there’s no denying they stood as a relatively high entry point into the company’s speakers. So when the British brand revealed a new entry-level range with a starting price nearly half that of the previous most affordable PMC model (the Twenty5 21i), we were a) delighted, and b) intrigued to see how it would fare against the established competition (KEF, Bowers & Wilkins, Dali etc) around this popular and competitive price point. Now, we are pleased to say, the time has come to find out.
The PMC Prodigy 1 standmounters we have here make up a two-strong range alongside the Prodigy 5 floorstanders, together opening up PMC speakers to a wider audience looking for compact loudspeakers below the £2000 mark for small to medium sized rooms.
Tech from above
The two-way standmounts’ 27mm soft-dome tweeter and 13cm mid/bass driver have both been taken from models further up the company’s line. The mid/bass driver has been designed specifically to couple with PMC’s signature ATL (Advanced Transmission Line) bass-loading method used in all PMC speakers. This essentially guides the backward energy of the mid/bass driver through damped material inside the speaker and out of the front port. Most of the low frequencies are absorbed, save for a lowest-end portion that leaves the front port and contributes to the driver’s output for more powerful bass.
That distinct-looking, aerodynamically designed port at the end of that internal line is called Laminair. It was first developed for the flagship QB-1 studio monitors and is designed to smooth the passage of air exiting the speaker to minimise airflow noise and consequently improve bass definition. Last but not least on the engineering front, PMC has chosen a crossover point of 1.7kHz in a bid to ensure that the speakers’ off-axis output has the same tonality as their on-axis output.
Standing tall
Again, despite their relative affordability, the Prodigy speakers share the same manufacturing treatment as their pricier peers. As mid-priced bookshelf speakers go, they are tall and slim, their profile making them the Stan Laurel on our test room’s stagefloor when placed next to their closest rival, the shorter, wider – the Oliver Hardy – KEF LS50 Meta.
It’s in the design department where PMC
