Audiophilepure

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/pmc-twenty523i-active

Interestingly, something I’ve long regarded as a slight shortcoming of the 23i might also have been dealt with too. Pushing the speaker at high levels with bass-heavy music can result in the bass taking on a quality that isn’t so much the port becoming audible, but there being a sense of air moving to help achieve it. I had felt that this was a baked-in element of the performance and something that’s an acceptable trade-off for the sheer heft that the 23i delivers. The presence of the Bluesound NODE ICON on test at the same time – able to function as a preamp with Dirac room optimisation – demonstrates that this need not be the case. It tightens up the low-end of the PMC considerably, keeping the impact but tightening up everything to be even cleaner and more potent. I suspect that the same can also be achieved with a little room treatment if you’re invested in extracting the most from the PMC.