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PMC vs. Salk Sound Speakers. Which is better?

PMC speakers out of England have come on like a freight train in recent years including being awarded an Emmy for outstanding performance as speakers in mixing sound tracks for top motion pictures. Their high end home line of speakers always get good reviews but their prices seem very high compared to other speakers. Salk appears to make great speakers at much lower prices. For example, the Salk Veracity HT3 costs $6K and the PMC PB1i cost $14K. Has anyone compared these brands and which do you think is better?
audiozen
dayglow
708 posts
 
I heard several Salk speakers at the 2010 Akfest and was disappointed. The midrange was very prominent which created a glassy/murky sound. Never heard a PMC speaker in person. Jim Salk might be a great guy but over the top customer service can't justify buying (IMO) a poor sounding speaker.
audiozen OP
754 posts
 
Glassy?...Murky?...boy, theres nothing worse than a murky speaker. Just goes to show that Audio Shows are not the proper venue to listen to speakers due to set up challenges and poor room acoustics. I listened to the Salk HT2-TL with a Parasound Halo JC2 Preamp and the Halo A21 amp in January at a friends home. He bought the system in early December. He switched out the fuses in the amp with HiFi Tuning fuses. Sound is mind blowing. Also, the ongoing wave of dozens of Salk owners on Audiogon in all the threads are the happiest speaker owners you will ever come across, as well as many owners on other blogs and threads on the net all over the country. Salk has a cult following that is huge. Word of mouth is the most honest and accurate method to judge audio gear. Also, the RAAL
70-10 tweeter in the Salk costs $389.00. Thats nothing to sneeze at.
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
549 posts
 
My PMC Fb1i Signatures sound great. Considered Salk at the time, but the engineering behind the PMC's - a correctly designed transmission line enclosure - was obvioulsy beyond Salk's capabilities, which seem to be focused more on parts quality and lovely boxes.
audiozen OP
754 posts
 
Beyond Salk's capabilities? Baloney!! Jim Salk is a recording engineer and Dennis Murphy is an electrical engineer designer of crossover networks for many years. Salk speakers are also transmission line designs fine tuned
to exact mathematical standards by long time transmission line experts Paul Kittinger and Martin King. Paul is in partnership with another speaker company, Philharmonic Audio. You were saying?...
norton
36 posts
 
Whether he's a shill or not, I don't know, but I have never heard any Salk speakers so can't comment on them, PMC is another matter.

I have owned three pairs, and bought all either used or at "sale" prices and think they sound fantastic. I have auditioned several other brands that have a great reputation that might have better so called drivers/crossovers that I didn't like nearly as well.

So, I guess at the end of the day, it's all about what sounds good to your ears, marketing and opinions not withstanding.
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