I have not heard Salks, though I look forward to doing so one day given the amount of love they receive in this forum
As for ATC’s - I still have 2 pair of their active models... they are spectacularly accurate monitors in the truest sense... what goes in comes out, pretty much exactly... no euphonic sweetning, no expansion of mid bass to warm things up... these are British speakers but imo they are the antithesis of the Harbeth/Spendor school where tonal loveliness and dimensionality and fullness is created by the lossy enclosure and driver design that warms things up ever so slightly (to wonderful effect)... the strength of Harbeths often mentioned is that they make poor recordings more listenable... ATC’s do NOT do that.
You need to match source and electronics carefully with ATC’s ... poor signal in can often lead to shrill or grainy output...
Have fun good luck |
Would a Musical Fidelity A308 bring them a clear and strong enough signal? And I use Deezer CD quality through a $400 dac. |
I meant to mention it earlier to you tgat the ATC’s are power hungry but your amp should be fine. I drove ghe Atc Scm7 v2 to satisfying volume levels with slightly less power than you. I would have ket the scm7’s but they just didn’t have enough bass with that small driver.
either way you’ll want to upgrade your dac. A used schiit bifrost multibit can be had for $500 or a schiit gungir multibit, like what I have, can be had for $800.
Those Atc Scm 40 v2’s at $3500 is a pretty dang good deal! |
either way you’ll want to upgrade your dac. A used schiit bifrost multibit can be had for $500 or a schiit gungir multibit, like what I have, can be had for $800.
Thats a lot of money for a DAC Bruce. How can you be sure there's really any difference?! |
Its only a lot of money to you.
Your source and dac are very important. Crap in crap out.
I know theres a difference between a $200 dac, a $500 dac and a $1500 dac because I’ve heard it with my own ears, which happen to be far more exceptional than yours. My hearing is two to three times as good as yours K. Its easy to quantify. People have been giving you sound advice for months here and you haven’t heard a thing. Just goes to show that your hearing sucks. |
Wow @b_limo Are you for real? With your attitude, you’ve just lost all credibility.
whoops! I just read some of K’s posts, And I get where you are coming from! Not worth any of our time. |
jjss49 is correct in assessment of the two brands and obviously a bit of a cheerleader for the active ATCs. So am I, but then it's not my system to listen to. I've the ATC SCM 40A and have unabashedly touted their talents of immediacy, dynamics and accuracy.
If you go with the ATC passive, jjss49 is completely correct that upstream is particularly salient. You need lots and lots of clean strong stable current to hold them together. |
@m669326
the musical fidelity a308 should be fine in terms of power output, it should also match well with the atc scm40 sonically as the a308 treble is slightly rolled off with no grain... with atc’s what one is most afraid of is 'classic' solid state sonic artifacts of sibilance, grain and leanness of tone, which the atc’s will neither hide or beautify
the importance of source quality feeding the atc’s is high as well, not just the amp... digital distortion artifacts will also be played through... i don’t know that $400 dac you have... there are good ones and there are bad ones... generally speaking, one of the slightly warmer sounding dacs would mate better with the a308 ---> atc 40 system you are assembling...
good luck have fun |
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I've listened to both extensively, and I've had the Song 3 Encores in my room. (a friends pair).
I also really like both ATC and Salk Speakers. I've not owned ATC's, though I would consider them.
I've owned Salk SS8's, and now own Salk SS12's.
Both are going to measure pretty darn flat and neutral.
I feel the Encores will actually play a bit lower and give you a little more bottom end. They also MIGHT have a little more top end sparkle with that Be tweeter (I normally do not like Be tweeters, but Jim Salk, along with Revel are the two companies that I've heard where they managed to tame the brightness).
Midrange - both are quite good and accurate. Neither speaker is going to be super forgiving.
Ironically, they are more alike than different IMO. If you don't have/use a subwoofer, I would point towards the Salks. Both have really nice cabinets, though with Salk you will get a custom cabinet that you can pick.
My note would be the following, and as mentioned before. IF I were to get ATC's, I really think their active speakers would be the way to go. I've heard the 50's at a show both active and passive with a nice amp. The actives had a crazy amount of "jump". I really liked them.
I like bass and I do not like subwoofers with 2 channel if I can avoid it.
If I could afford them, I would be really tempeted to get the 100's or 150's in active form.
If you like changing and trying new amps and pre-amp's out, want a custom finish etc I would highly recommend Salk.
IF you want active speakers, it's hard to go wrong with the ATC's. |
Having heard the Encores, I'd say the above is a very accurate characterization of them. On the relentless--forgiving spectrum, they fall pretty much middle of the pack. The only speaker that tames the beryllium better is Fritz (Carrera B), but there you'd probably want to augment with a sub, even though they go down further than one would expect. |
Thanks, everyone.
I found an amazing deal for the ATCs and pulled the trigger. If I hadn't, it was going to be a Salk. Clearly, I wouldn't go wrong with either.
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Congratulations! You sir just got yourself a world class speaker. Did you go with the 40’s?
Atc’s are unlike any other speaker I have heard. You’re in for a treat!
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Yes, the 40's mk2.
I lucked out.
I'm excited.
I just hope my wife can hear the difference.
m.
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i will add my congrats as well m669...
you now own what they refer to as ''one bad-ass, world class loudspeaker...'' :)
now you will need to keep that wallet open to buy really good sh&t for the upstream!!!! LOL |
Yes, upstream equipment will be important for sure. Hopefully the op likes them enough to question what is possible with them, since they’re will be some untapped potential due to his current dac. |
Thanks. I couldn't have ended up with these without y'all.
Since they had a ding and a few nicks, I got four year old ATC 40 mk 2s for 3400!
That ought to leave some cash on the table for upstream stuff someday.
Marc
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Awesome, congrats Marc. When purchasing speakers at this level, buying “used” is not an issue. You saved $3500 and don’t have to wait 200 hours for them to sound their best!
Please do let us know how you like them so we can better guide people in the future. |
Atc SCM40's Mk2 are wonderful speakers, for me they seem to produce sound out of nothing, maybe an advantage from a sealed box design... |
I have to wait until next Monday for the speakers to arrive. Aargh.
Any suggestions for where to sell (local pick-up) vintage KEF references?
(Besides here, of course).
Thanks.
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Throw em on c-list. Price them $200 less than what they normally sell for. They’ll be gone in a few days, with little to no haggling. State the condition of them, take good pics, put in ad cash and carry due to covid.
If you want to get full resale price, be prepared to spend time haggling, Spend time demo’ing ( only to have them burn through an hour of your day to not purchase or then offer $100-$200 less.
Buyers on c-list are a pita. List low, sell fast and easy. Thats my advice |
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I have the 19 v2 in a 10’ by 13’ room and they are remarkably well behaved...I ended up getting rid of all baffles and room control...took me a couple days to tweak placement but i think youll find 40’s the same...i would like a pair fo sho...those big alien eye mid drivers are suppose to sound wonderfull,congrats. |
Any ATC folks care to share how far they have their speakers from the back wall (from the back of the speakers, I mean)? I can do up to about 16" and I was thinking I'd start from there, but if 12" or something works better for anyone... They're big and heavy and we're seniors so the less fiddling the better. The same goes for toe in.
I just mean generally, not specific to a certain type of room.
Thanks.
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