PMC Factory Tour, Part I. Hifi Trio Visits PMC!

This is the final visit of the Hifi Trio in London series. Our host, PMC Loudspeakers had saved the best for last in the form of a factory tour. The PMC factory is located in Luton, just over an hour's bus ride via the M1 motorway from London. I have split the visit in to three parts due to the excessively long times required to load all the pictures in to one posting. Let's start the factory tour!


At the PMC door, Big E and BFF fellow audiophile Felix.



Our tour guide is none other than Peter Thomas himself! At the foyer, he greets and shows us his proud collection of vintage British speakers.

The collection includes names like Leak, Cambridge Audio, TDL, Rogers, Spendor, Quad, KEF, JPW and Goodmans amongst them.

Peter gave us the historical run down on each and every pair in his collection and his fondness for them. There are about 40 pairs on display here and his collection is still growing!

We were then taken to a product show case lounge where the "Twenty" series were on demo and heavily featured.



A closer look at the "Twenty" 21 on it's dedicated stands. I remembered when they were singing, everyone stopped talking and gathered around to listen to the music. That's the musical power of the model 21!

 

An area of the lounge showcasing albums mastered on PMC monitors and past promotional materials.

 

Keith Tonge then took over and brought us in to the production area. First stop, the cable room, where all PMC spec cables are stocked.

 

And built! Seen here are cable looms being built for a pair of BB5-XBD speakers.



This is the general store room for raw materials and packaging items.

Finally we get to meet Keith, who brings us in to the component matching room. This is where all the drivers, x-over components like capacitors and resistors are matched and graded prior to be used in the assembly process.



Seen here is Jane, who matches all the components that goes in to every PMC product. We spot her working on a box of Solen capacitors here. 

 

All the graded components are stored here in bins, awaiting to be used in the assembly of x-overs.

 

More graded components for x-overs.

 

Keith, seen here holding an x-over PCB board for the BB5-XBD speaker. He tells us that all PMC x-over PCB board have the thickest copper trace possible to allow for better signal pass thru.


Next, we continue to the area where the famous PMC 3 inch mid range dome is made. Stay tuned!