How would I go about testing PMC speakers at home?

Most good dealers will let you borrow kit as long as you leave a deposit, it won't be unusual for them.

Karl

Try Audio T in Manchester or Adventures in HiFi in Chester. Both are authorised PMC retailers (like ourselves and many others too) and should be happy to oblige with a home demo if you ask. Might be worth having a demo in the store first though.

Great speakers btw - love my own 25-21s

BR

Tony

I would arrange an in store demo first to compare with other speakers then arrange a home demo its all part of the service that a good dealer should offer.

I have had electronics to try at home returnable basis, my responsibility to ship back - and for high value items insurance can be very expensive, and not necessarily readily available. Speakers being bigger and heavier add to the postage costs, so possibly tricky if you want to hear more than one model.

What I did with speakers was take my amp and source and speakers and have comparative demos, where I could acclimatise first to my own familiar speakers in an unfamiliar room and then hear the ones I was auditioning. In order to audition what I wanted I went to three dealers, one in Bedfordshire, one in Humberside, one in Tyneside, plus a private seller on the South coast: a major expedition, but it achieved what I wanted, with good confidence tgat tge cost then of shipping to my remote location would not result in a costly return - and my effort and the cost were rewarded by the result.

Basically Sound posted:

Try Audio T in Manchester or Adventures in HiFi in Chester. Both are authorised PMC retailers (like ourselves and many others too) and should be happy to oblige with a home demo if you ask. Might be worth having a demo in the store first though.

Great speakers btw - love my own 25-21s

BR

Tony

+1 for Audio T. The (sadly now defunct) Tunbdrige Wells branch were top notch for that. They organised a couple of week's trial of a pair of Ovator 600s (umm...) and then PMC PB1i, brought them round (in a large estate car) and set them up for me.

The length was important as adjusting to a "normal" pair of speakers after my much-loved Shahinian Obelisks was not easy.

It might be useful to say what the rest of your equipment is, and how you have alighted on the idea of the PMCs. Demoing speakers at home can be rather trying. I bought some speakers once after a weekend home trial, without realising that they had had very little use. As they opened up over the following month the bass grew.... and grew.... and grew. They were awful and had to go. Luckily I got them at ex dem price, so I only lost a couple of hundred. But lesson learned. 

I have owned some PMC twenty.23s and think they are super. I used them with a SuperUniti. I bought them ex dem. The dealer shipped them to me, and let me use them for a few weeks without paying a bean. The deal was that that if I wanted them I'd just pay, and if I didn't, the dealer would have them collected and charge me £25. 

The other thing I'd recommend is not to just play records you really like, or those that are recorded really well. Play some stuff you have been a bit dubious about - good speakers should draw you into the music so that you forget they are there at all. 

Cheers guys. 

[@mention:4804681823084713] I switched to a muso when they were released for the sake of simplicity etc, but the new uniti range has given me the bug, so I'm pretty sure I'll be pairing them with a nova. I've demoed the atom already with rega and focals, so I'm planning on trying the nova with focals and pmcs. I'd be good to try these at home as my room is quite reflective with lots of wood and glass. Pretty much the opposite of an in-store listening room.

It's absolutely essential to try them at home. Focals are pretty bright, and the PMC treble is considered a bit odd by some people, though I liked the 23s very much, but then my room is well damped with carpet and well stuffed furniture. Another speaker you may like is Naim's discontinued Ovator 400, which can be picked up for £1,500 used.  They are big though. Buying speakers used is always a good idea, as they depreciate fast. 

Which Focal speakers are you planning to try out?  I recently demoed Aria 926s against PMC Twenty5.23s, and despite the significant price difference, the PMCs being over £1k more, I preferred the Focals by far.  One view, one room, one set of electronics, sure, but with all that as a constant, the 25s were soooo bright compared to the Focals, which were much more balanced, and I found really enjoyable.  I didn't buy either in the end and went for Kudos X3s, but just saying, bright seems to mean different things to different ears / brains, and certainly doesn't appear to be an absolute constant for a given speaker manufacturer either.  Depending on your tastes, overly bright as I see it may be no bad thing anyway.  For all these reasons, agreed, and as stated above, make sure you listen for yourself, and preferably in your own room and with your own electronics; it's the only way to get it right.  Like Mr HH, I know, I've got it wrong before.  

+2. Aufio T.

Always lent me all my kit first.

Rob at Adventures In Hifi is a top bloke and although I'm nearly 50 miles away has always delivered, set up and left equipment for me to try with no pressure.

contact PMC and ask them to recommend a good dealer