Newport 2014: BMC finds its voice

The BMC Audio PureVox ($6,490)is an powerful-sounding little speaker with bipolar architecture and an extruded aluminum case. My notes from the room suggest that this is the North American debut of this speaker, although a web search tells me that the PureVox actually made its first appearance at CES in January. The design calls for one 6.9" Kevlar and fiberglass bass/midrange driver and one AMT on the front of the speaker, with another driver/tweeter combination set at a 45-degree angle on the rear of the top. At the base, which also houses the crossover, you'll find both traditional binding posts and a terminal for SpeakON cables. Also at the base is a switch to brighten or darken the sound balance to suit the room, if needed.

Looks-wise, they’re strangely appealing; the dark-grey blue finish (“Blue Titanium”) comfortingly called to mind the grey nextel paint on my old Tannoy DMT-12s, albeit in a much more sleek and faintly luminous way. To me, they look kind of like what I thought the future would look like in 1986. Their looks somehow perfectly match the sound, which featured very pure treble, excellent three-dimensional imaging, and loads of speed.

The rest of the system consisted of the BMC Cs2 integrated amp ($8,390), BDCD1.1 Belt Drive CD player/transport ($5,990), and DAC1 Pre HR DAC and preamp ($6,290). HB Cable Design provided the PowerSlave Marble Power Distributor ($8,995), the power cords were Stage III Concepts Triton AC cord ($6,000) and Kraken ($8,400). Line and speaker interconnections were from Thales ($2,200 and $3,200 respectively).