It’s a chord hugo 2 dac first and foremost but the signal passes through a Sotm sms-200 ultra and tx-usbultra. It’s maybe a bit overkill for headphones but the sound is excellent. The Focals are very resolving and transparent as you know which is also how I’d describe the chord hugo 2, I think theyre a great match.
I think they are fantastic - Jeff Dorgay’s Tone Audio review sums it up better than I can. Mine started as the Trio15TB model which I acquired second hand. I recently upgraded to the Horn1 drivers and have the Nelson Pass-designed active crossover waiting in the wings pending my completion of a Bottlehead Kaiju 300B amp.
My only hesitation is that PAP should invest in a packaging engineer - one of my horns was damaged in shipping due to inadequate packing - they make use of a lot of what I would call ‘single use’ foam slabs. They were very good about sending a replacement unit but it was a bit of a hassle.
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Nice. Thanks for the info!
Rock installed on Gigabyte Brix 5775R – 8Gb Ram – 32Gb mSata (OS) – 2Tb HDD (Music) + 2nd ethernet port. This is located in another room.
Fibre network bridge between Rock (2nd Ethernet port) and Roonbridge endpoint.
Roonbridge installed on Gigabyte Brix J1900 (WiFi and Bluetooth modules removed)- Win 10 (unnecessary Win 10 processes disabled) + ASIO driver. Powered by Anker 12v battery or HDPlex
UltraCap LPS1 Power supply
ISO Regen USB interface
Lampizator L4G5 Dac. Balanced + DSD512 upgrade.
HDPlex 100 Linear PSU
EAR V20 Valve amplifier
PMC Twenty5.23 Speakers
Woo Audio WA22 Headphone amp.
Audeze LCD-XC
Sennheiser HD800
Most music up sampled to DSD512 with HAF filters + crosstalk reduction applied.
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Hey @denniswaugh you have some really nice components. I used to own the twenty.23. These speakers are able to reproduce a relatively large and realistic soundstage. Is it physically possible to optimize your speaker placement? If so I reckon your sound can be drastically improved.
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But first, “First Tube”. Then “Tube”.
Hi Anthro,
I’ve been a fan of PMC since I moved into this bungalow. Over the past 12 years I’ve had DB1i, GB1i and now the Twenty5.23 working well in this room.
Its a small room, 2.9m wide x 2.7m high x 3.7m long and its not feasible to locate the speakers anywhere else in the room.
I sit 2m from the speakers and the HAF filters are set-up for this arrangement.
It sounds excellent to my ears.
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Great to see another PMC user. Just fantastic speakers. That’s why so many recording studios and artists use them. I have mine paired up with Naim amplification and a Chord Electronics DAC. Their true sound reproduction always amazes me!
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WOW that’s a loooong time since I’ve seen these B&W 800! A collegue of mine when I worked at a HiFi shop during my study had them. Must have been late eighties. Pink Floyd never sounded quite like that again.
I do remember they where quite power hungry. My friend used a RGR preamp and Yamaha B2 power amp if I remember correctly.
It will be a challenging job for the Melody!
Oh, it’s a stupid, ridiculous job for the Melody! Previous owner used 900 watts of high-current Bryston iron, and I’m powering them with 38. 
But somehow, it works better than you could imagine. The 800s are actually rated at 93dB sensitivity, and only dip to around 3.4 ohms at their most onerous. Subwoofers definitely are needed in my case, though, to establish the bottom end.
Love the room, love the setup.
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Hi Anders, the THX AAA 789 is back on Massdrop, estimated delivery is May. Still $350 plus shipping to Europe ($12 to the UK).
THX AAA 789: I’m tempted to buy a few more, even though I have no need…
Thanks so much!
This is a great setup. Just discussing this with my B&O showroom mgr yesterday. Are you using any other inputs on the 50’s?
The BeoLab 50 master is also connected via optical to my MacMini. This I used previously when I started with the BeoLab.
Then I used a BlueSound Node 2i streamer running Roon on the Macmini. The Node was connected via coax to the BeoLab.
Then I got a Nucleus, so I did not need the Node anymore, and the Nucleus uses USB which gives me Roon volume control of the BeoLab internal digital processing volume control.
So the BeoLab are also connected to the MacMini which I can use for music whenever Roon would become unavailable or for other streaming apps on the Mac.
The main music use now is via the Nucleus and USB to the BeoLab.
But I am still running Roon 1.5 holding upgrading off as long as possible until the big UI problems and other problems with Roon 1.6 are hopefully fixed.
So I cannot vouch for the correct functioning of Roon 1.6 in this Nucleus+BeoLab.
Now, if only they made an integrated amp as well… 
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I liked it too, but I don’t get the same respect…
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