PMC speakers & valve amps - a match made in heaven or hell?

I quite fancy trying out some PMC OB1 speakers on eBay at the moment .... but my next speaker must be compatible with my OTL valve amps. The amps are stunning into an easy speaker load but quickly run out of puff into low impedances.

Looking at the PMC specs they seem an easy load (high impedance - prolly average 10 ohms) and 87dB/W so not too bad there either (the amps can do in excess of 40wpc when they are comfy).

But PMC are often teamed up with solid state muscle amps like Bryston ..... is this necessary or just marketting BS?

Will the PMCs sing or squeak with my valves?

 

Ive got valves and pmc ab1 - they sound great together. The Fb1s I had before sounded very good with a welborne valve pre...no problems whatsoever as far as Im concerned. The ab1 has not (to my ears) got any sort of sonic attribute - im suprised each time I change a disc. The Fb1 was very good in dynamics and i think the ob1 is similar, but with better bass. Vocals were good on both. i dont get the "forward" thing that everyone bangs on about with pmc. they didnt give me that impre4ssion, compared to say my old kef104/2 or wilson arcs. i thought the arcs were more forward.

 

Nice to know someone is using those. They do sound good, and I think they leave a bit of a gap in the PMC line-up now they are no longer sold (AFAIK).

 

The bass needs an amp with good control which can be an issue with some valve amps. Other than that, I used OB1's with an Emille valve amp which has 6550's and it was fine. Ultimately the Bryston was better on the lower registers.

 

Yeah, you need something with decent power and low output impedance. Many valve amps have quite high output impedance resulting in poor damping factor so keep an eye on this. There are valve amp that would do the job I expect.