Post by stiehl11 on Jun 23, 2012 10:09:48 GMT -5
My PC-9.1 review
I received my first ever set of Phase Technology PC-9 series speakers last month and have finally sat down to write a review of them. The Phase Technology PC-9 series is the company’s best offering for traditional speakers that they produce. The PC-9 series is virtually unchanged since it was introduced over 12 years ago with only minor freshening to keep with current relative conventions (such as Kevlar covered drivers and a curved enclosure at the rear). The major differences between the PC-9.1 that I recently bought and the original PC-9 is the addition of the dual binding post allowing for bi-wiring/bi-amping of the speaker. Later changes since the PC-9.1 include the removal of the Unicel foam surrounds from the tweeter and midrange drivers, removal of the flocking on the surface of the flat-piston drivers and replacing it with Kevlar, and the previously mentioned rounding of the rear of the cabinet.
Phase Technology speakers make up a relatively small percentage of the speaker market with a limited number of stores carrying their products. Their name recognition is almost just as small due to their small marketing presence. Proving the old adage; “how do you know who your daddy is? Because your momma told you so”. I’m sure that if Phase Technology promoted their speakers with the same marketing gusto as other manufacturers and/or sold their speakers for the same price as similar performing speakers they would have a lot more brand recognition. The other thing that could increase their brand penetration would be if they came up with speaker designs that could be best considered art rather than functional and slap a $100,000+ price tag on them. Despite their limited marketing and small market presence most owners of Phase Technology PC speakers will give glowing reviews as will most trade magazines. A quick Google search of reviews and forums will confirm this as I have yet to hear of a negative review of any of the PC series speaker line from anyone.
When I was first introduced to the Phase Technology PC line up I was looking for a modest upgrade to my home theater back in 2001. I had received my first DVD player for Christmas the previous month and wanted a system that would take advantage of the, then, epitome of home theater technology. I looked at offerings from several major speaker manufacturers over several different stores in the St. Louis area. I found really nice sounding speakers that I liked but all were $2,000 per speaker and above; which was way, way above my budget for a speaker. When I came to the store that offered Phase Technology speakers my mind was officially blown. I had spent days listening to speaker line after speaker line in several different stores, many of which carried the same brands. Here, at this store, they too had the same name brands that were at the other stores but they also had Phase Technology; a brand that I had never heard of before. The reason I add all of this to the review is because the first speaker I heard was the PC-9 (predecessor to the PC-9.1). It was amazing! It eclipsed, by a large margin, every speaker that was similarly priced and ran with speakers more than twice their price. When I asked why would anyone spend twice the amount on Speaker X when this does it just as good for half the price the sales rep told me that people want to buy the name not the performance. Whether or not this was true or not, I had (and have) no idea, but it certainly sounds plausible. I know that I was highly skeptical of Emotiva amplifiers when a friend recommended them to me when I was, again, updating my home theater in 2010 because of their price. Thankfully I live close enough to their headquarters to have them give me a demonstration or I likely would never have bought their products. I'm sure that the low market penetration and brand recognition hurts Phase Technology speakers the same way in that people don’t take them seriously because of their lower price for performance and no one else they know has them.
As many of you know, I consider myself a bit of a Phase Technology fan boy (much the same way many of us are Emotiva fan boys). I’ve owned, exclusively, Phase Technology speakers for my home theater system ever since 2001 and have bought Phase Technology speakers when expanding from 5.1 to 7.1 a year ago. I did try some Airmotiv 4 speakers but eventually replaced them with PC-1.5 speakers and a UPA-2 amp as I wanted a little more out of my bedroom system that the Airmotiv 4 speakers just couldn’t give. When getting back into “the game” I heard a number of other speaker manufacturers and models being bandied about the forum and wondered if my Phase Technology PC-3 speakers were passé. I took them to a local store and asked to compare them to other speakers similar in cost to what the current price of my speakers where. While the speakers I used for this comparison, the PC-3, had more than doubled in price since I got them back in 2001, nothing could touch them on the whole for almost double their current price (MSRP to MSRP).
For two years I have looked for a decent set of Phase Technology PC-9 series speakers to put in my home theater. I’ve considered buying new but, just like the PC-3 series, the PC-9 series has almost doubled in price since I bought my PC-3 speakers. The current MSRP for the PC-9.5 is around $1,800 each putting it in the wheelhouse of the B&W CM9. And, I’m here to tell you that the little brother to the PC-9, the PC-3, does a Hulk versus Loki on the CM9. I have also seen that the retail price is falling from what it was in the first quarter of the year. A few months ago these were at $1,999. So, I’m wondering if there might be something new in the pipeline or if they’re discontinuing the line altogether. I found my set of PC-9.1 speakers on eBay last month for pennies on the dollar. They’re used; and look it, but relatively nice. I would say that they would be considered a good 5 foot speaker (in that they look good from 5 feet away). As I tell people, “if I wanted brand new, I would have paid brand new prices. I can accept physical flaws for 10% of retail as long as the performance is there”. Again, short of marketing fluff, these speakers perform very close to the most recent iteration, the PC-9.5; close enough that I would have a hard time telling the difference.
After getting them in the door (at close to 100 pounds each this was nothing to sneeze at, especially with a busted foot from having a 400 pound motorcycle land on it after flipping) I got them unpacked and repaired (UPS apparently had no problem throwing these around like a football) then set them up in my system. At this time I still have not ran Emo-Q with them as I have been running everything the last month in Direct mode. Being that the PC line of speakers uses the same drivers in all their offerings the sound that the PC-9.1 speakers produced was at once familiar yet different. The seller of the speakers said that he’s never heard bass response like these had, even compared to Zu Omen and Cerwin Vega speakers. While it’s been 20 years since I’ve heard Cerwin Vega speakers I can say that the bass response from these speakers is about as good as what I heard a year ago in the shop I mentioned above when listening to a set of B&W 803/4 driven by McIntosh amps. The sound of the Double Bass being angrily bowed on the open E string 5 minutes into Danza del Soul by Chris Brubeck (Refference Recordings RR-122) was nothing short of amazing. I picked this recording to start with because of the amazing clarity of the opening clarinet on the recording as well as the mastering of the entire disc. Ronny (roadrunner) brought this disc to Emofest last year and it was truly amazing to hear. As expected, the sounds in the mid-range and tweeters were very similar yet slightly clearer, though. But the bass response literally brought shivers to me. I had heard this same track several times on my PC-3 speakers but never like this. While the PC-3 reproduced the fundamental very accurately it lacked the resonance tones that the PC-9.1 brought out. The Double Bass literally came out of the speaker, grabbed me and vibrated my innards. If you ever have had the opportunity to bow an open E on a well-made Double Bass with the body of the instrument up against your body, you know the vibration I am referring to. There was nothing added to this sound, no amplified sub, no boosted EQ or Tone Control; just pure sound from the recording. Home Theater reviewed the Phase Technology PC-9.1 back in 2002 when the speaker was updated from the 9 to the 9.1. The author, Fred Manteghian, measured the bass response from the PC-9.1 at 25Hz at a -10db from 1Khz. The factory specifications shows a rating of 32Hz with a +/- 3db. Fred’s measurements show an additional 10Hz lower response from the PC-9.1 than the best he got with the PC-3.1. 10Hz never sounded so good to my ears!
The next disc I put in was Left of Cool by Bella Fleck and The Flecktones. I played the fourth track, Sojourn of Arjuna, a nice, bass heavy track that I enjoy rattling the walls with every now and then with my PC-3 speakers. The PC-9.1 speakers were just as awesome with this track as they were with the Reference Recording disc that preceded it. Vic Wooten’s bass was low and punchy. If the bass sounded real with my PC-3 speakers it sounded as if I had literally brought my Ibanez SR500 and Peavey TKO 65 amp (circa 1988) out and asked Vic to play it for me with the PC-9.1 in the mix. The sound was huge and bold. The lights on my XPA-2 were dancing like crazy. The PC-9 series speakers are 4-way designed with a 1 inch tweeter, a 1.5 mid-range, a 6.5 inch mid-bass, and dual 6.5 woofers. Though rated at 6 ohm impedance they are actually down around 4 ohms from 630Hz down to 80Hz and bottom out at 2.6 ohms at their lowest. The mid-bass was punching each slap of the strings while the woofers were shaking the foundations with resonance. Before adding the PC-9.1 speakers, people who heard my PC-3 speakers marveled at the bass response. In the month that I’ve had the PC-9.1 speakers I have had to turn my SVS sub around so as to prove that the sub is not active when playing this song for others. These speakers are that bassy and accurate!
Next up on the play list was Temptation by Diana Krall off her The Girl in the Other Room disc. The opening bass riff of the song was exquisite! Not only was the bass full and bold but the sounds of the performer’s fingers sliding up and down the strings and the sound as he stopped on the fret board were all there. The soundstage and imaging were as if I was front row at a performance only for me. This is the type of sound I remembered from being in college and being at the dress rehearsals/dry runs in the auditorium when the jazz bands would set up and do sound checks. It felt like I was there, alone, and my living room/theater could fit not only the band in front of me but about 1,800 people (with a balcony) behind me. And this was just with 2 speakers! It was a realistic 3D experience. The PC-9.1 speakers accurately (for a box speaker) reproduced her voice in total clarity. I prefer the “darker” sound of the mid-range and tweeter on the PC series speakers as opposed to the horn tweeters of Klipsch speakers and even the ribbon tweeters of the Airmotiv 4. Others may disagree, but I believe that the un-amplified human voice tends to be darker than what comes out of a horn-driven PA system at a live performance amped for 20,000 people. However, if I had to give something away to other traditional speakers is that the Phase Technology PC series is slightly darker than, say, the B&W variants. While they are no less clear, they are colored down just a bit.
Where the PC-9.1 speakers failed to impress was with Pop/Modern/Rock music (otherwise amplified instruments). There was very little to no improvement when playing disc from groups such as Rush, Def Leppard, and Dream Theater among several others in the genre. Even HDCD tracks from Better Than Ezra were virtually the same as with my PC 3 speakers. However, when listening to these artist and others of their genre I usually have to incorporate my SVS sub to the mix to amplify the slam of the kick drum. Where Vic Wooten’s Fedora bass rocked my world, Geddy Lee’s Fender Jazz Bass did nothing for me, viscerally. However, I don’t feel that this is a fault of the speaker but rather the fault of the mastering of the disc. I’ve played a Fender Jazz Bass and it can have the same attributes, sonically, as the Fedora. However, none of those qualities were recorded on the disc that I played.
So, in closing my review of the Phase Technology PC-9.1 speakers that I’ve had now for over month, I can say that I’m very impressed with their sound and that they are every bit as wonderful as the first time I heard them over 11 years ago. Their construction is first rate and, in my opinion, feel overbuilt. Upon arrival the tweeter on one of the speakers had fallen back into the enclosure. I could not get my hand through the opening that was left by the absent tweeter so I had to remove the mid-bass driver. Even though only 6.5 inches in diameter, the driver weighed as much as a bowling ball. With the driver out I was able to see inside the cabinet (my first time opening a Phase Technology speaker cabinet of any kind). Inside was heavy bracing and copious amounts of insulation. I’ve seen similar bracing in pictures of other forum members DIY speaker builds. The bass response is like nothing I’ve heard before except on speakers costing $5,000 or more… each. The soundstage is wide open and gives you not only a sense of depth between you and the speakers but project a sense of depth behind you as well (on certain discs). They are exacting in that they will fool people (and pets) to thinking that the sounds emanating from them are actually coming from outside or a different room rather than from two speakers right in front of them. While I will admit that the highs are darker than other box speakers, I feel that to my ears the vocals are lifelike. These are not sterile speakers and if you are looking for the most clinical, stainless steel, operating room type of speakers you can find these will not impress you. These speakers are warm but not warm like a fire place on a cold winter’s night with snow falling outside your window and Christmas lights glowing from just outside your peripheral vision. The bass will punch you and shake you all the while holding you in its arms like a mother cuddling a new born baby. For the price I paid for them I’ll take a few nicks and dents in the veneered finish that no one can see unless they are right up on them. And for a MSRP of $3,600 and a street price as low as $1,900 I would buy them all day long compared to some of the speakers that I’ve heard recently and the prices that are being charged for them.
I received my first ever set of Phase Technology PC-9 series speakers last month and have finally sat down to write a review of them. The Phase Technology PC-9 series is the company’s best offering for traditional speakers that they produce. The PC-9 series is virtually unchanged since it was introduced over 12 years ago with only minor freshening to keep with current relative conventions (such as Kevlar covered drivers and a curved enclosure at the rear). The major differences between the PC-9.1 that I recently bought and the original PC-9 is the addition of the dual binding post allowing for bi-wiring/bi-amping of the speaker. Later changes since the PC-9.1 include the removal of the Unicel foam surrounds from the tweeter and midrange drivers, removal of the flocking on the surface of the flat-piston drivers and replacing it with Kevlar, and the previously mentioned rounding of the rear of the cabinet.
Phase Technology speakers make up a relatively small percentage of the speaker market with a limited number of stores carrying their products. Their name recognition is almost just as small due to their small marketing presence. Proving the old adage; “how do you know who your daddy is? Because your momma told you so”. I’m sure that if Phase Technology promoted their speakers with the same marketing gusto as other manufacturers and/or sold their speakers for the same price as similar performing speakers they would have a lot more brand recognition. The other thing that could increase their brand penetration would be if they came up with speaker designs that could be best considered art rather than functional and slap a $100,000+ price tag on them. Despite their limited marketing and small market presence most owners of Phase Technology PC speakers will give glowing reviews as will most trade magazines. A quick Google search of reviews and forums will confirm this as I have yet to hear of a negative review of any of the PC series speaker line from anyone.
When I was first introduced to the Phase Technology PC line up I was looking for a modest upgrade to my home theater back in 2001. I had received my first DVD player for Christmas the previous month and wanted a system that would take advantage of the, then, epitome of home theater technology. I looked at offerings from several major speaker manufacturers over several different stores in the St. Louis area. I found really nice sounding speakers that I liked but all were $2,000 per speaker and above; which was way, way above my budget for a speaker. When I came to the store that offered Phase Technology speakers my mind was officially blown. I had spent days listening to speaker line after speaker line in several different stores, many of which carried the same brands. Here, at this store, they too had the same name brands that were at the other stores but they also had Phase Technology; a brand that I had never heard of before. The reason I add all of this to the review is because the first speaker I heard was the PC-9 (predecessor to the PC-9.1). It was amazing! It eclipsed, by a large margin, every speaker that was similarly priced and ran with speakers more than twice their price. When I asked why would anyone spend twice the amount on Speaker X when this does it just as good for half the price the sales rep told me that people want to buy the name not the performance. Whether or not this was true or not, I had (and have) no idea, but it certainly sounds plausible. I know that I was highly skeptical of Emotiva amplifiers when a friend recommended them to me when I was, again, updating my home theater in 2010 because of their price. Thankfully I live close enough to their headquarters to have them give me a demonstration or I likely would never have bought their products. I'm sure that the low market penetration and brand recognition hurts Phase Technology speakers the same way in that people don’t take them seriously because of their lower price for performance and no one else they know has them.
As many of you know, I consider myself a bit of a Phase Technology fan boy (much the same way many of us are Emotiva fan boys). I’ve owned, exclusively, Phase Technology speakers for my home theater system ever since 2001 and have bought Phase Technology speakers when expanding from 5.1 to 7.1 a year ago. I did try some Airmotiv 4 speakers but eventually replaced them with PC-1.5 speakers and a UPA-2 amp as I wanted a little more out of my bedroom system that the Airmotiv 4 speakers just couldn’t give. When getting back into “the game” I heard a number of other speaker manufacturers and models being bandied about the forum and wondered if my Phase Technology PC-3 speakers were passé. I took them to a local store and asked to compare them to other speakers similar in cost to what the current price of my speakers where. While the speakers I used for this comparison, the PC-3, had more than doubled in price since I got them back in 2001, nothing could touch them on the whole for almost double their current price (MSRP to MSRP).
For two years I have looked for a decent set of Phase Technology PC-9 series speakers to put in my home theater. I’ve considered buying new but, just like the PC-3 series, the PC-9 series has almost doubled in price since I bought my PC-3 speakers. The current MSRP for the PC-9.5 is around $1,800 each putting it in the wheelhouse of the B&W CM9. And, I’m here to tell you that the little brother to the PC-9, the PC-3, does a Hulk versus Loki on the CM9. I have also seen that the retail price is falling from what it was in the first quarter of the year. A few months ago these were at $1,999. So, I’m wondering if there might be something new in the pipeline or if they’re discontinuing the line altogether. I found my set of PC-9.1 speakers on eBay last month for pennies on the dollar. They’re used; and look it, but relatively nice. I would say that they would be considered a good 5 foot speaker (in that they look good from 5 feet away). As I tell people, “if I wanted brand new, I would have paid brand new prices. I can accept physical flaws for 10% of retail as long as the performance is there”. Again, short of marketing fluff, these speakers perform very close to the most recent iteration, the PC-9.5; close enough that I would have a hard time telling the difference.
After getting them in the door (at close to 100 pounds each this was nothing to sneeze at, especially with a busted foot from having a 400 pound motorcycle land on it after flipping) I got them unpacked and repaired (UPS apparently had no problem throwing these around like a football) then set them up in my system. At this time I still have not ran Emo-Q with them as I have been running everything the last month in Direct mode. Being that the PC line of speakers uses the same drivers in all their offerings the sound that the PC-9.1 speakers produced was at once familiar yet different. The seller of the speakers said that he’s never heard bass response like these had, even compared to Zu Omen and Cerwin Vega speakers. While it’s been 20 years since I’ve heard Cerwin Vega speakers I can say that the bass response from these speakers is about as good as what I heard a year ago in the shop I mentioned above when listening to a set of B&W 803/4 driven by McIntosh amps. The sound of the Double Bass being angrily bowed on the open E string 5 minutes into Danza del Soul by Chris Brubeck (Refference Recordings RR-122) was nothing short of amazing. I picked this recording to start with because of the amazing clarity of the opening clarinet on the recording as well as the mastering of the entire disc. Ronny (roadrunner) brought this disc to Emofest last year and it was truly amazing to hear. As expected, the sounds in the mid-range and tweeters were very similar yet slightly clearer, though. But the bass response literally brought shivers to me. I had heard this same track several times on my PC-3 speakers but never like this. While the PC-3 reproduced the fundamental very accurately it lacked the resonance tones that the PC-9.1 brought out. The Double Bass literally came out of the speaker, grabbed me and vibrated my innards. If you ever have had the opportunity to bow an open E on a well-made Double Bass with the body of the instrument up against your body, you know the vibration I am referring to. There was nothing added to this sound, no amplified sub, no boosted EQ or Tone Control; just pure sound from the recording. Home Theater reviewed the Phase Technology PC-9.1 back in 2002 when the speaker was updated from the 9 to the 9.1. The author, Fred Manteghian, measured the bass response from the PC-9.1 at 25Hz at a -10db from 1Khz. The factory specifications shows a rating of 32Hz with a +/- 3db. Fred’s measurements show an additional 10Hz lower response from the PC-9.1 than the best he got with the PC-3.1. 10Hz never sounded so good to my ears!
The next disc I put in was Left of Cool by Bella Fleck and The Flecktones. I played the fourth track, Sojourn of Arjuna, a nice, bass heavy track that I enjoy rattling the walls with every now and then with my PC-3 speakers. The PC-9.1 speakers were just as awesome with this track as they were with the Reference Recording disc that preceded it. Vic Wooten’s bass was low and punchy. If the bass sounded real with my PC-3 speakers it sounded as if I had literally brought my Ibanez SR500 and Peavey TKO 65 amp (circa 1988) out and asked Vic to play it for me with the PC-9.1 in the mix. The sound was huge and bold. The lights on my XPA-2 were dancing like crazy. The PC-9 series speakers are 4-way designed with a 1 inch tweeter, a 1.5 mid-range, a 6.5 inch mid-bass, and dual 6.5 woofers. Though rated at 6 ohm impedance they are actually down around 4 ohms from 630Hz down to 80Hz and bottom out at 2.6 ohms at their lowest. The mid-bass was punching each slap of the strings while the woofers were shaking the foundations with resonance. Before adding the PC-9.1 speakers, people who heard my PC-3 speakers marveled at the bass response. In the month that I’ve had the PC-9.1 speakers I have had to turn my SVS sub around so as to prove that the sub is not active when playing this song for others. These speakers are that bassy and accurate!
Next up on the play list was Temptation by Diana Krall off her The Girl in the Other Room disc. The opening bass riff of the song was exquisite! Not only was the bass full and bold but the sounds of the performer’s fingers sliding up and down the strings and the sound as he stopped on the fret board were all there. The soundstage and imaging were as if I was front row at a performance only for me. This is the type of sound I remembered from being in college and being at the dress rehearsals/dry runs in the auditorium when the jazz bands would set up and do sound checks. It felt like I was there, alone, and my living room/theater could fit not only the band in front of me but about 1,800 people (with a balcony) behind me. And this was just with 2 speakers! It was a realistic 3D experience. The PC-9.1 speakers accurately (for a box speaker) reproduced her voice in total clarity. I prefer the “darker” sound of the mid-range and tweeter on the PC series speakers as opposed to the horn tweeters of Klipsch speakers and even the ribbon tweeters of the Airmotiv 4. Others may disagree, but I believe that the un-amplified human voice tends to be darker than what comes out of a horn-driven PA system at a live performance amped for 20,000 people. However, if I had to give something away to other traditional speakers is that the Phase Technology PC series is slightly darker than, say, the B&W variants. While they are no less clear, they are colored down just a bit.
Where the PC-9.1 speakers failed to impress was with Pop/Modern/Rock music (otherwise amplified instruments). There was very little to no improvement when playing disc from groups such as Rush, Def Leppard, and Dream Theater among several others in the genre. Even HDCD tracks from Better Than Ezra were virtually the same as with my PC 3 speakers. However, when listening to these artist and others of their genre I usually have to incorporate my SVS sub to the mix to amplify the slam of the kick drum. Where Vic Wooten’s Fedora bass rocked my world, Geddy Lee’s Fender Jazz Bass did nothing for me, viscerally. However, I don’t feel that this is a fault of the speaker but rather the fault of the mastering of the disc. I’ve played a Fender Jazz Bass and it can have the same attributes, sonically, as the Fedora. However, none of those qualities were recorded on the disc that I played.
So, in closing my review of the Phase Technology PC-9.1 speakers that I’ve had now for over month, I can say that I’m very impressed with their sound and that they are every bit as wonderful as the first time I heard them over 11 years ago. Their construction is first rate and, in my opinion, feel overbuilt. Upon arrival the tweeter on one of the speakers had fallen back into the enclosure. I could not get my hand through the opening that was left by the absent tweeter so I had to remove the mid-bass driver. Even though only 6.5 inches in diameter, the driver weighed as much as a bowling ball. With the driver out I was able to see inside the cabinet (my first time opening a Phase Technology speaker cabinet of any kind). Inside was heavy bracing and copious amounts of insulation. I’ve seen similar bracing in pictures of other forum members DIY speaker builds. The bass response is like nothing I’ve heard before except on speakers costing $5,000 or more… each. The soundstage is wide open and gives you not only a sense of depth between you and the speakers but project a sense of depth behind you as well (on certain discs). They are exacting in that they will fool people (and pets) to thinking that the sounds emanating from them are actually coming from outside or a different room rather than from two speakers right in front of them. While I will admit that the highs are darker than other box speakers, I feel that to my ears the vocals are lifelike. These are not sterile speakers and if you are looking for the most clinical, stainless steel, operating room type of speakers you can find these will not impress you. These speakers are warm but not warm like a fire place on a cold winter’s night with snow falling outside your window and Christmas lights glowing from just outside your peripheral vision. The bass will punch you and shake you all the while holding you in its arms like a mother cuddling a new born baby. For the price I paid for them I’ll take a few nicks and dents in the veneered finish that no one can see unless they are right up on them. And for a MSRP of $3,600 and a street price as low as $1,900 I would buy them all day long compared to some of the speakers that I’ve heard recently and the prices that are being charged for them.
As an installer you need to look into the DP-2000 and the speakers that go with it. I've heard good things about it and it's a Custom Installers dream (from what I've heard).
These things are pieces of furniture as well as great speakers in the same vein as the B&W 800 series. 
