Allae & PMC LB1 signature
Posted by: KenTo on 25 April 2004
I always like the "Naim sound", and quite happy with the Allae, especially by upgrading to CDX2, Hicap to 282 and changed to 250-2, but as said before, I always feel there is lack of something in the Allae presentation, so recently I started to search for new speakers.
I tried Dynaudio S1.4, JMLab 906, B&W 805S, ATC12, Thiel 1.6 and PMC LB1 signature. I am not going to go through the details. I am not sure, whether those speakers are not in good match with other components during the test, or they are just not my taste, anyway PMC LB1 signature is very good to my ear. Speaker choice is very subjective and very personal taste.
When I got the LB1-S home, although it is not mounted in a good stand – a 30” tall BBC wood stand for my rear speakers, it matched Naim very well; unexpected tight and deep bass and dynamic from such small speakers with the 5" Dynaudio mid-bass driver, and it provides relative sweet and warm vocal which is very comfortable to listen! What is most surprised me is the 3D sound stage and sound image, but not to the extent that partner with the round earth amp. They also do PRaT very well.
However, it is weird that after few days listening, I miss the Allae very much, then I connect it again to listen, and realized that even though Allae is not all round, but its strength on speed, accuracy, timing and the ability to sound very real (piano, string…) and handle very complex music are its true magic. In comparison it has more excited and open high than the LB1-S, all in all, Allae and LB1-S are both great speakers, they are both very musical and dynamic, but somehow Allae gives more exciting presentation whereas LB1-S gives relative smooth, comfortable, good sound stage and image presentation .
I think detail comparison of Allae and LB1-S is pointless, as they are different presentation, and I found playing different music into different speakers gave me great pleasure, but this lead to the problem that I don’t have room to place them side by side and need to switch speakers often.
Wondering, anyone here has similar experience that can share and finally got a solution or found a speaker that shows all the good attributes above?
I tried Dynaudio S1.4, JMLab 906, B&W 805S, ATC12, Thiel 1.6 and PMC LB1 signature. I am not going to go through the details. I am not sure, whether those speakers are not in good match with other components during the test, or they are just not my taste, anyway PMC LB1 signature is very good to my ear. Speaker choice is very subjective and very personal taste.
When I got the LB1-S home, although it is not mounted in a good stand – a 30” tall BBC wood stand for my rear speakers, it matched Naim very well; unexpected tight and deep bass and dynamic from such small speakers with the 5" Dynaudio mid-bass driver, and it provides relative sweet and warm vocal which is very comfortable to listen! What is most surprised me is the 3D sound stage and sound image, but not to the extent that partner with the round earth amp. They also do PRaT very well.
However, it is weird that after few days listening, I miss the Allae very much, then I connect it again to listen, and realized that even though Allae is not all round, but its strength on speed, accuracy, timing and the ability to sound very real (piano, string…) and handle very complex music are its true magic. In comparison it has more excited and open high than the LB1-S, all in all, Allae and LB1-S are both great speakers, they are both very musical and dynamic, but somehow Allae gives more exciting presentation whereas LB1-S gives relative smooth, comfortable, good sound stage and image presentation .
I think detail comparison of Allae and LB1-S is pointless, as they are different presentation, and I found playing different music into different speakers gave me great pleasure, but this lead to the problem that I don’t have room to place them side by side and need to switch speakers often.
Wondering, anyone here has similar experience that can share and finally got a solution or found a speaker that shows all the good attributes above?