Almost everything.

Not enough bass at high volume.

I had bought them new at scatch and dent sale. They retailed for $1300 and I only paid $300, what a deal. Both had a little mark on the top which did not effect them in the least. I've enjoyed them for over 6 years. First used them with a Yamaha 670 Prologic rec. and they stood up very well except for the lows at high volume. Once I put a subwoofer M&K 70 with them the problem of the lows disappeared. Replaced the 670 with a Harmon Kardon AVR 65 5.1 Reciever and it has been all good. Last summer on vacation in Jacksonville,Fla. I came across Phase Tech home office and inquired about a new front grill cover(one had a hole in it after 5 years, kids) and they hooked me right up. Nice people. I'm now passing them on to my son to keep them in the family and replacing them with a new pair of RBH 1266 se which I bought at the same store, scatch and dent for $600 (list $3400) Excellent. I have found out that with the 1266's I can do away with my M&K sub and will also pass it along with the PC-100's. I hope one day he will be able to pass them along to his kids.

Just thought I would post an additional comment on Phase Tech.
I emailed them asking them how many watts the speakers were rated to, and that I was considering Marantz mono blocks. Not only did they do a great job of getting back to me that the PC-100's and Center can handle a 250 watt amp, but they also gave a great explination of how many watts a speaker normally uses (for normal use) and why 250 watts would be fine. Great job Customer Service. If you're like me and have had a hard time getting good service out of a CS department... you may want to consider that a big plus for Phase Tech.

Again, 4 Stars for Phase Tech!

- Eric B. Schroeder
yosho@tampabay.rr.com

If you're not familar with these... they were Phase Technology's top speaker in the PC series a few years ago when the PC series was first started. Thus, they were the first to use PT's "variable-axis soft-dome tweeter" and dual 6.5" solid flat-piston "RPF" midrange/mid-base woofer drivers. Basically just a tweeter that you could angle and 2 solid foam woofers (the speaker cone is filled to the rim with solid foam).
Let me just start off by saying that I bought these speakers when I was just getting into the Audio world, so I wasn't as critical of a listener as I am now.
I decided to get these after looking at several other brands including PSB, Paradigm, Infinity, M&K, ect. I felt they had the best detail out of the ones I listened to.

I made my final decision to buy them after auditioning them with the PC Center (same general design but tweeter is fixed), PC80's as surrounds, Marantz SR-92mkII reciever, and a Marantz LD player. The movie was True Lies presented in Dolby Pro-Logic Surround! =) Remember, this was back in mid '96, before the digital surround wave. The detail presented in that movie was fantastic... the way the spent gun shells hit the bathroom tile floor and dinged all around... you could hear all the detail in the transitions from Left to Center to Right and back again. It was great. So I bought them, the PC Center, the Marantz SR-92mkII, and a Marantz CC-65SE CD changer.

Ok, out of the show room and into the real world. The one thing I found when I got home was that they seemed a bit harsher than I remembered. They were more
fatiguing then I remembered them and seemed a bit bright while lacking a bit in midrange. They also seemed to have a bad off axis response (you had to be exactly center for them to sound right). I chalked all this up to my room dynamics vs. the "ideal" set up in the showroom. So, it's been a bit bittersweet for me these last few years.

Enter in the Onkyo 747 reciever...

My best friend caught the audio bug from me and steped up to a decient system... Onkyo DD reciever and Onkyo THX speakers (not bad and he got a great deal on them). We of coarse trade our equipment back and forth and do A-B compairisons.
One of the things we both noticed right away was how much BETTER the Phase Tech's sounded... in Stereo! So it's not just the DD processing. I was shocked. The detail was still there in the highs, but it wasn't harsh. The Mids were back. The base was a bit weaker, but was a better blend do to the new found mids. Funny thing is that my Marantz SR-92mkII was a better match for his Onkyo THX speakers. Giving them base and highs. I guess this is a good lesson in how important it is to have a good match with your reciever/amp-preamp to your speakers. I still like everything I've bought, it's just that I feel like I've got an exotic sports car with bad spark plugs... great componets all, they just aren't as good as they should/could be.

So, while I continue my quest for audio perfection... I'm going to try and match different amps/pre-amps to the Phase Techs. I'm going to try and stay with Marantz even though I know that's tricky... I'm hopeing that their newer seperates will sound a bit different then their old recievers. We'll see... I just bought a Marantz AV-500 preamp on Ebay for $160. It's roughly the same age as my receiver... and is only pro-logic, but I'm planing on using 2 Marantz monoblock amps for an audio only system that will probably use Avance av930's speakers which are known to be strong in the mids and weak in the highs... again, we'll see.

The PC-100's would be a great choice if you could find them at a good used price... as they are no longer made. I give the PC-100's 4 stars due to my newfound respect for them... just make sure you match them up with the right system.

System:
Phase Tech. PC-100 (L/R)
Phase Tech. Center (C)
Jamo Surround 300 (Sur)

Marantz SR-92mkII pro-logic reciever
Marantz CC-65SE 5 Disk changer
Marantz SD-57 tape deck

Very good depth of soundstage

A bit harsh in the mid-highs (see note below)
Easily knocked over by small kids.

I've had these speakers for about 2 years now, and I always thought they could sound better than they did. Recently, I replaced my Monster Cable zip cord speaker wire with a pair of DH Labs Silver Sonic bi-wired cables (available from ACI at audioc.com)

The harshness is now gone, the soundstage is wider and deeper, and the bass is extended to a point where my subwoofer has become superfluous.

The $149 I spent on the speaker wire, while not cheap, is a bargain compared to buying new speakers at over $1000/pair.

I have a feeling I'll be keeping my Phase Techs for many years to come.

Update: I've changed my system around and now my PC-100's absolutly soar!

I purchased a Marantz AV-500 off of ebay for around $120 and have hooked it up to my SR-92mkII so that now the 92 is only being used for it's amps. This combination was a real eye opener. My system had always sounded nice for movies... but was always a little too harsh for pure stereo. With the introduction of the AV-500 it was like a whole new system. Every note was fresh and new... I found myself listening for hours on end with no fatigue.

This got me thinking... if the AV-500 improved the sound quality this much... what would the AV-600 do? So I picked up a AV-600 for around $240 off of ebay. Again, another eye opener. These PC-100's just keep getting better and better!! My next upgrade is probably going to be speaker wire... currently I have standard "original" monster cable. I'm thinking about getting some monster cable M2 wire as replacement. I'll repost if I do and notice anything significant. My gosh you can find some amazing deals out there in used equipment. =)

This has prompted me to belive totally in seperates. If you don't like part of your system... you can easily replace it. I had always thought that it was the amps in my reciever that were bad/cold... but it was actually the pre stage. Oh well... I'll never buy a reciever again.


My cobbled together system:
Marantz AV-600 Preamp
Marantz SR-92mkII Reciever (using internal amps only)
Marantz CC-65SE 5 Disk Changer
Marantz SD-57 single tape deck with Dolby S
Apex 600 DVD player (secondary player)
Toshiba M782 6 Head VCR
Dual 1219 Turntable
Phase Technology PC-100 (L/R speakers)
Phase Technology PC Center (center speaker)
Jamo Surround 300 (surround speakers)
Monster Cable M850i and M950i interconnects.
Monster Cable "original" speaker wire and "flat wire". (my current weak link in the system)

Similar Products Used:

PC-2s, Onkyo THX