Напольная акустика — PMC twenty5.26i

The twenty5.26i is the only three-way tower in the twenty5i series from the British company PMC. Where the other towers of the family use a two-way layout, this one adds a dedicated midrange unit between the bass cone and the tweeter. The UK price is GBP 9,300 per pair, and the veneered versions come in Light Oak and Walnut, alongside Silk White and Diamond Black.

Key specs that matter

The low range is assigned to a long-throw driver of 170 mm (6.5 inch) with a g-weave cone and a chassis cast in alloy. The middle band is handled by a 50 mm chambered soft dome of PMC design, and the treble by a 19 mm SONOMEX fabric dome that PMC co-developed with the Norwegian firm SEAS for this series, with ferrofluid cooling and a dispersion grille. Its large roll surround widens the radiating area from the 19 mm dome to 34 mm. The crossover divides the range at 400 Hz and 4 kHz. PMC quotes 27 Hz to 25 kHz, a nominal 8 ohm impedance and a sensitivity of 86 dB for 1 W at 1 m. The cabinet measures 1040 mm in height before its 20 mm spikes, 192 mm in width, or 275 mm across the plinth bars, and 439 mm in depth plus 15 mm for the grille. Each speaker weighs 25 kg.

Engineering and use context

The bass driver works into the Advanced Transmission Line of the company, here with an effective length of 3.3 m. Damping foam inside the line lets only low frequencies escape from the vent, and the vent length is calibrated so its output stays in phase with the main driver. The line exits through Laminair vents at the base of the cabinet, where fins smooth the air flow and reduce turbulence, a principle PMC first developed for its QB1 studio monitors. The crossover follows a fourth-order design. Veneers are hand selected, mirror matched across each pair and spray lacquered. The plinth bars use rubber grommets and a resonance-absorbing compound so that no metal touches the cabinet, targeting vibration around 400 Hz, and custom machined stainless steel spikes fit into them, with floor protection receptors available. The rear panel has a single set of binding posts without bi-wire provision, and PMC also lists an ACTIVE twenty5i family with built-in amplification.

Pairing

Its efficiency trails that of the two-way twenty5.23i and twenty5.24i towers, so amplifier output is the figure to check. For multichannel use the series includes the twenty5.ci centre and the twenty5.sub.

Alternatives

The PMC twenty5.24i is the two-way tower one step below it in the twenty5i range, pairing one bass unit and a tweeter with a 3 m line.