Audiophilepure

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“Last, let me reference the track ‘The Town Burns’ from John Williams’ original soundtrack for the film Rosewood [Sony Masterworks, 16/44.1]. ‘The Town Burns’ conveys a dark sense of foreboding conveyed in no small part by deep, very low-pitched percussion that seems, at times, to arise out of nowhere. Here, the powerful, but also tautly controlled and sharply focussed, bass of the Vantages comes into play. One moment the listener is following the track’s vocals and melodic lines and the next one is aware of the deep, potent, but never overblown or boomy, presence of very low-pitched percussion instruments that fairly bristle with ominous portent. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, the low percussion sounds decay and vanish—as if inviting the listener to wonder is s/he even heard them at all. Great low bass is often this way; it’s not present until the music calls for it, and it doesn’t linger around once its impact has been heard and felt. The Vantages are great low-frequency”

Sonner Audio Legato Unum

“Unum’s soundstage, replication of scale, and dimensionality were solid considering its humble size. Images were cleanly spaced and stable. Orchestral section-layering was indicated, but ultimately stage depth was limited. To my ears, Unum had a more focused signature, emphasizing a musician’s direct sound rather than extended ambient decay, a trait that registered with me as I listened to The San Francisco Opera’s live performance of “Somewhere” from West Side Story. The ability to send ambient information fanning across a stage to the furthest edges of the soundfield was notoften fully realized—nor were the tactile and textural backing that supports and reinforces individual musical images and allows those images to fully inhabit the soundspace. 

In terms of unbridled output and dynamics, Unum’s physical size is a factor, so mind those 100dB P’s and Q’s.  While it can’t fully break the bonds of its own compact genetics, I’m not suggesting Unum needs to be coddled, either. Never shrinking from a challenge, cue up the heavy dance groove of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” [Thriller], and you’ll likely be as surprised as I was by the amount of whomp, rhythm, focus, and drive coming from such a small speaker. Or, an even more extreme case, try listening to the gale-force depth and impact of the Kodo Drums during “Air” from the soundtrack to The Thin Red Line. Of course there’s some compression, and certainly there are limitations to how much kettle- or bass-drum air a compact can launch into the soundspace of a room, but the Unum surprised me time and again at its effectiveness in capturing the broad range of sonic color of this powerful material.”  

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/pmc-twenty523i

PMC has always promoted transmission line bass loading over the use of reflex ports or sealed cabinets, and things are no different here. The idea is that the rear-firing sound from the mid/bass driver passes through a folded path inside the speaker cabinet. 

This path is carefully lined with damping materials so that all but the lowest frequencies are absorbed. These frequencies exit from the opening at the base of the front panel and augment the bass from the drive unit. It’s important to note that the transmission line’s output is in-phase with the drive unit.