When speakers live in your home for years, their sound becomes familiar, like the voice of an old friend. It is comfortable, its characteristics long studied. But what if that familiar voice suddenly sounds new, revealing long-familiar tracks from an unexpected angle?
This is the impression left by the twenty5.26 model from the British company PMC. It is not a revolution, but rather an elegant evolution. The recognizable exterior hides serious internal improvements that change not the tone, but the very character of the sound.
We spent a lot of time with these speakers, immersing ourselves in our favorite albums and discovering new recordings. And we are ready to share how a familiar acoustic philosophy has learned to convey deeper and more sincere emotions.
Established style
The twenty5 line itself is designed so that the models can be used as a stereo pair, or you can build a multi-channel system — in addition to bookshelf and floorstanding speakers, there is a center channel and a subwoofer. In principle, this is interesting, but for the purposes of this test, we will only examine the PMC twenty5.26 model and its properties as a stereo pair.
PMC twenty5.26 in the test system
Externally, the speakers look recognizable and neat. The cabinets are fairly narrow parallelepipeds, tilted back exactly 5° and mounted on metal podium bases with adjustable spikes. In terms of design, everything is quite strict and concise, without any frills. But it doesn't look clumsy or cheap at all. Rather, it looks conservative, with an adjustment for the manufacturer's own style that has developed over the years.
The test model was a pair finished in mahogany (incidentally, this finish is considered an export model and is not available on the UK market — only walnut, oak, and black lacquer). The speakers are indeed red, and although I don't like this color in principle, I can't say that the tone is unpleasant. On the contrary, it does not cause any rejection.
The overall build quality of the speakers is good. It is clear that the materials are high-quality, the veneer is neatly applied, and everything is assembled properly. Perhaps the speakers are not perfectly fitted in their mountings in some places, but you have to look at them from very close up to notice this. Other than that, there is nothing to complain about.
The only thing I can't talk about is the protective grilles. They exist, they have magnetic fasteners, and they cover the entire front panel of the speaker, including the transmission line ports. But I didn't get a chance to see or touch them — in the listening room, they were immediately put back in their boxes and hidden away in storage.
The tweeter for the PMC twenty5.26 is manufactured to SEAS's specific specifications.
The acoustics have a three-way design, with a soft dome tweeter covered by a non-removable metal grille. The tweeter is customized for PMC by SEAS. The midrange driver, which is not quite typical, is also a soft dome and also has a protective grille. The woofer is proprietary, with a g-weave cone made of a mixture of cellulose, carbon fiber, and resin. The basket is cast metal. The driver suspension suggests a very long-throw design.
The filter crossover frequencies are 400 and 4,000 Hz. The stated frequency range is 27 Hz to 25 kHz, although without any plus or minus specifications. However, knowing PMC's previous designs, such figures come as no surprise, and you can generally expect good bass performance even in such a small enclosure with a relatively small driver. After all, the acoustic design is the manufacturer's traditional transmission line, which the company's developers have been refining for many years.
In our case, the speakers have two proprietary Laminair ports located at the bottom of the front panel. You can find some details about the speakers here, but I'm already eager to move on to the system and listening.
A midrange driver in the form of a soft dome is not the most common solution.
An important point. The speakers have one pair of terminals, although based on previous experience, I was expecting to see three separate pairs here. But the developers did not leave the user any options for band-pass amplification of these speakers.
However, if we compare the stated sensitivity of 86 dB and 8 ohms impedance (and assume that this is a relatively even 8 ohms), we can conclude that these speakers will not be an excessively difficult load. Although I wouldn't count on being able to get by with a low-power amplifier either. In our case, the system consisted of a Cary Audio SI-300.2d integrated amplifier and a Cary Audio DMS-550 digital source, which in our case worked as a DAC paired with an Audio Note transport.
The PMC twenty5.26 speakers sound familiar for the brand — honest, detailed, with a good soundstage — but something has changed: the music seems to have become more alive, more emotional. They don't just reproduce sound — they draw you in, making you listen to album after album without stopping. The technology is top-notch, but most importantly, it now speaks the language of feelings, not just precision.
Restrained confidence
The first recording is beautifully recorded jazz from the album Interplay Now. Perhaps the first thing you notice about the sound is its speed. The sound is fast, but not like that of electrostatic speakers or similar designs; it is familiar and full-bodied, but fast. Of course, there is a certain restraint, a certain monitor-like quality to the character, but the sound is not dry or formal. It just gives the impression that nothing sticks out anywhere. The bass is fast, clear, completely devoid of bloat or looseness.
In terms of the overall presentation, there is a slight feeling of isolation in the bass — this is noticeable in the double bass and sometimes in the lower register of the piano. At the same time, there is no feeling that the bass is falling out of the overall picture or lagging behind. Perhaps this is a consequence of the unusual transparency and airiness of the bass.
Long-throw woofer with a diffuser made of a mixture of carbon fiber, cellulose, and resin
The midrange is very smooth, moderately restrained, without a hint of any elevation. The transition from the midrange to the upper frequencies is imperceptible, the crossover is very smooth — apparently, the soft dome tweeters in the midrange and high frequencies create an almost perfect affinity of character. Everything is neat, not bright, but clean. In addition, the work of the filters is obvious here — you can't do without them. Taking into account that the PMC twenty5.26 has fourth-order crossovers and a special approach to component selection (which is true, in principle, for all of the manufacturer's filters), we must give credit where credit is due — the bands are well stitched together, and you can hear it.
The dynamics are confident, the sound is rather powerful in character, but not wooden. Somehow, I don't want to call the sound super-fast, but I can't find anything to trip it up either. It's just that the dynamics don't seem to stand out, even though everything is played back at a good speed. The detail is high, but the emphasis here seems to be on the main tones and sounds rather than the reverberations. They are there, they haven't disappeared, but the priorities are still the same.
Overall, the sound is rich, very well structured, and quite resilient. But without savoring the details, with a strict hierarchy of everything in general. The harmony is preserved even at low volumes — including in terms of the soundstage. At normal volume or slightly above average, the soundstage is transparent, sharply defined, but somewhat dry and moderately airy.
Another feature is that in a large room (much larger than necessary for the acoustics), the acoustics are not lost, but they do not dissolve into the volume, trying to fill it as much as possible. The result is a kind of ball of sound, inside which you can sit comfortably and listen to music, and if you move further away, the sound does not interfere at all and does not attract attention.
Two transmission line ports
The character of the acoustics is emphatically neutral and restrained. The sound can be forceful, bold, subtle, and even delicate, but there is no excessive sharpness or emotional intensity here — only a confidently harmonious musical “space” in which everything is in its place. The rest will depend on the music itself and how it is recorded. And also on the components of the system, which in this particular case are quite noticeable — the speakers do not mask their own signature.
The next album is Friends of Carlotta's Live in Studio. The difference in the recording style between this and the previous album is quite noticeable. How the instruments are written, how everything is mixed, how the volume and soundstage are constructed. Not in terms of better or worse, but simply in terms of obvious and undisguised differences. I love and appreciate this feature of the technology; it is much better and more correct than smearing different recordings with “one color to suit your taste.”
Using this album as an example, I experimented a little with the placement and listening position. The placement of the speakers is rather critical, but this is not specific to phase-inverter models, but rather a question of constructing a triangle between the speakers and the listener, a question of the angle of rotation towards the listener or the lack thereof. And for the PMC twenty5.26's all-encompassing sound, they didn't seem very suitable to me; on the contrary, here you want to carefully select the listening point and listen while standing exactly in it. By the way, the most ordinary chair seemed too high to me — I would rather choose a low armchair or a similarly low sofa.
The PMC twenty5.26 has a metal base with level adjustment.
The restrained monitor sound is noticeable but not off-putting. This compartmentalization of everything that can be compartmentalized soon begins to feel quite natural. It seems like you want more air and a slightly greater emphasis on details and nuances, but this is only a matter of style — you quickly get used to the presentation.
The professional roots of the speakers are clearly noticeable, but a certain breed of sound, a restrained confidence, is also evident. I can fully appreciate this, as I use both completely domestic speakers and professional monitors at home — they sound completely different, but you can't measure this in terms of better or worse. Either way, I prefer the other presentation, although I didn't feel the urge to listen quickly and finish the test — quite the opposite, in fact.
The speakers are mounted on fairly sharp spikes.
Smooth, honest, predictable
Next, I played Pink Floyd's live album Pulse. The atmosphere is definitely there, but the presentation is quite intimate; the speakers do not try to recreate the concert effect — they try to reproduce the concert recording accurately. Emotionally, everything is conveyed correctly; it is difficult to talk about any coloration in relation to these speakers. If they were even more monitor-like, it would become boring. But that is not the case here; there is only a moderate amount of restraint and composure.
The system played the Cradle Of Filth album “Dusk And Her Embrace” in great detail and dynamically, delicately revealing flaws and shortcomings without overwhelming the listener with harshness, but also without lacking emotion. In other words, what is recorded is what we hear. In terms of microdynamics, the acoustics may reduce a little, shifting the emphasis to the main sounds, but it will definitely not add anything that is not on the recording or clearly distort it.
The PMC twenty5.26 only has two terminals for connecting to an amplifier.
In terms of dynamics, pressure, and bass, everything is in order here: if someone wants this kind of sound for metal or complex electronic music, the PMC twenty5.26 will easily handle the task. And perhaps, if you choose an amplifier with a sharper sound (Cary Audio amplifiers are powerful enough, but not sharp in character), the effect of drive and accurately forced rhythm, especially at low frequencies, can be somewhat enhanced.
At the same time (I am generalizing here, as I have listened to the PMC twenty5.26 several times on different systems), there will be no bias towards bass or lag in the mid-high range. Although they have soft domes, they can play music that is not soft at all, and they are definitely not prone to soft sound.
With their mahogany finish, the PMC twenty5.26 look very bright, but this finish does not cause any rejection — the tone is chosen correctly
Then I played a recording of several works by Benjamin Britten, conducted by Britten himself and featuring Mstislav Rostropovich as solo cellist. Here, I liked a lot about the sound. Good orchestral staging, accurate timbre reproduction, good detail. Across the entire range, everything is smooth, honest, and predictable. There are no problems with speed, even in complex passages, and the emotionality is easy to read. There isn't much air — that's a fact. And the reverberations are dampened a little more than necessary. But otherwise, everything is correct, albeit somewhat dry and academic.
And finally, Alfred Schnittke's Passacaglia for Orchestra. Overall, I didn't find anything new or unexpected in the sound. Everything is already recognizable and predictable: from the presentation and character to the fact that the difference in the recordings is very clear. The sound is austere, but not boring, not monotonous or pedantic. The emotionality is not overloaded — perhaps even slightly faded, but the tonality is correct. Overall, everything is dynamic, confident, and full. I caught myself thinking that this sound is very suitable for classical music — as it is for any other music, for that matter.
Conclusions
How do these speakers sound? Exactly like PMC. Recognizable, predictable. But at the same time, it's new. Without changing the overall style or even the ideology, these speakers turned out to be somewhat different — livelier, more human, perhaps. The monitor-like character hasn't disappeared, nor has the signature sound, but the presentation has become livelier, more open, and more emotional.
There is no genre bias whatsoever, and the ability to play complex music is fully present. Beyond that, it's a matter of personal preference. The main thing is that they have their own identity, character, and voice, rather than attempting to be average and faceless.
So, what did the test show? The PMC twenty5.26 speakers fully lived up to the brand's reputation. Their characteristic, recognizable, and honest sound is still there. You can still hear the same detailed rendering and confident bass control that make these speakers so highly regarded.
But with each new composition I listened to, a new side of them was revealed. It seems that the engineers managed to add more air and lightness to the sound. The music became emotionally brighter and livelier, without losing its technical perfection.
The result is a perfect balance. It's an old friend that's always nice to see, but now it can surprise you with new power. For those who are looking for benchmark accuracy but also want to get genuine emotions from music, this model is one of the most compelling options.
