BPO conductor Benjamin Zander selects PMC speakers


 

Date: 2009-03

 

BPO conductor Benjamin Zander selects PMC speakers for an ultra-precision 5.1-channel surround reference monitoring system

“I recommend PMC speakers to anyone for whom listening to music is a sacred act.”

For close to 30 years, Benjamin Zander has served as conductor of the world-famous Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, which was founded especially for him; he is considered by many to be the greatest conductor of Mahler’s works. When the time came for Zander to update a sound system for his playback studio with high-resolution reference monitors, he considered only one choice: PMC - The Professional Monitor Company. “I have found it at last: The Perfect Sound!” the maestro offers. “I recommend PMC speakers to anyone for whom listening to music is a sacred act.” In their seasons together Zander and BSO have traversed a wide repertory, with an emphasis on late Romantic and early 20th Century works, especially the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, which put enormous demands on the orchestra’s sonic range and therefore on the system through which he replays his recordings.

Zander was supplied with a pair of PMC MB2-XBD-Active loudspeakers for the left and right channels, plus an MB2-Active Center, all of which are powered by PMC-Bryston Active amplifiers and crossovers. All three cabinets are finished in an attractive cherry veneer. For surround channels, Less chose a pair of PMC Wafer 2™ On-wall flat-panel loudspeakers finished in white and powered by a Bryston SP2 surround amplifier/processor.

Reflecting on the realism and transparency achieved with his new PMC ultra-precision monitoring system, Zander is almost poetic. “Warmth, precision, power, depth and, above all, truth. Ah, there's the rub! If the performance or the recording has the slightest flaw there is nothing to hide it.

“I close my eyes, and think I am in the ideal seat in the greatest concert hall in the world. Every detail, from the gentle swish of a cymbal to the complex texture of a Mahlerian orchestra, is realized with perfect clarity. I thought I had heard everything that audio could do, but this takes us to another level.”