Highly-respected monitor designers PMC announced their twotwo range of active nearfield monitors back in October but the largest model, the twotwo.8, slated for release this Summer, was on show at Musikmesse in Frankfurt, so we took a closer look.
As with all PMC designs, the twotwo.8 features ATL (Advanced Transmission Line) technology which makes use of the air within the cabinet without using a traditional port, and also uses sophisticated DSP, making a low-distortion reference monitor with the same family sound as other PMC speakers. The DSP also allows equalisation to be added, depending on usage, with options for LF and HF shelving and a high pass filter at 50Hz, 80Hz, 120Hz, 150Hz or 200Hz. The twotwo.8 is suitable for stereo near-field applications, such as mixing and mastering music and also for surround monitoring.
PMC have made the new speaker to be in proportion with its smaller brothers, the twotwo.5 and twotwo.6. This is in order to keep the front baffle as narrow as possible, to keep stereo imaging sharp and minimise the effect of baffle colouration. As a result of its eight-inch driver, the twotwo.8 is capable of a maximum SPL of 115dB and has a frequency response of 35Hz– 25kHz, which makes it both louder and deeper than the smaller models.
Helpfully, the twotwo range are able to be used vertically and horizontally, and to emphasise this point, they feature soft vibration-reducing decoupling pads, or DeeCups, on the outside of the cabinets.
As an active design, the twotwo .8 features two built-in Class-D amplifiers, 150W for the LF driver, and 50W for the tweeter. It also allows various analogue and digital connections, and has high quality conversion on board, which can accept input at up to 192kHz sampling rates and 24-bit resolution.
A pair of twotwo.8s will cost £6570 inc VAT/$7999 excluding sales tax.
