December 9, 2011

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

We come to the final part of our PMC factory tour. Keith Tonge still our tour guide. Now, we are brought to the main speaker assembly area. As PMC does not make the speaker boxes in house, there's no wood work section to view. Keith tells us that it's better to let specialist box manufacturer 40 kilometers down the road do the job. Most drive units used by PMC are supplied by SEAS except for the 3 inch mid range dome unit you've seen earlier in part II.  The tour continues:

Jo inspecting the assembly line of "Twenty" series. Production was in full swing when we visited! Keith seen here explaining the finer points of speaker construction.

More "Twenty" series speaker boxes and drivers lined up for assembly.

The internal cablings for all PMC speakers are especially made. As seen earlier during part I, in the cable store room, various grades of cables are used for the diferent PMC product range.

Ryan is seen here assembling the one piece speaker cable terminal and x-over module to box.

Phil is putting on the PMC badge on to a line of "Twenty"series boxes.

An internal view of a "Twenty" series box, internally lined with foams of various density for the ATL(Advance Transmission Line) tunnel.   

At another section of the final assembly area, a line of BB5-XBD speaker boxes awaiting the various foam lining to be inserted in to the box.

Some of the semi finished BB5-XBDs on the production line.

Each finish speaker is brought in to this test chamber for final QC against an original reference sample, as seen below.

An original reference sample for all the range of PMC speakers is lined up next to the test chamber.

Some of the test equipment for the final QC. Note that Bryston amps are used.


The various test cables used for testing purposes.


After the final testing, the finish products are packed and ready for shipment worldwide.

We bid farewell to the friendly people at PMC after this. The factory visit was especially rewarding for me, as a fellow PMC speaker user, knowing the level of pride and attention that has been showered in to the making of each speaker. Peter Thomas tells me that the current factory is getting a little tight for the increased production volumes that PMC is currently experiencing. We may be visiting a new factory the next time round, he said!

A final note from London, courtesy of  Mastercard. We used the public transport transit card to get around London. This transit card allows access to the tube and all bus routes.

It's been great hifi travels for us all. We wish to thanks the kind folks at PMC louspeakers and AV Designs for making this visit possible. The whole experience and friendship we take home from this trip is well,.... PRICELESS!

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