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ATC SCM40As sound quality at low voume

I recently became very intrigued by the concept of powered speakers with active crossovers, particularly the ATC SCM40A. I read all the reviews I could find and more than one of them mentioned that while they sounded great at loud volume levels, they sounded poor at low volumes. I was surprised. I'm not used to hearing that. I'm not really sure what could explain this. In the grand scheme of things, I'd much rather have a speaker that played loud without strain, but I do often listen to music during "quiet hours" when I shouldn't disturb others in the house. Has anyone experienced the ATCs at lower volumes? Does anyone have an explanation?
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Showing 2 responses by shadorne

shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
No issue at all. 

Anything as as accurate as ATC will sound great at normal listening levels or live concert  levels (ATC are impressive because they play cleanly at much higher levels than the majority of speakers).

However equal loudness contours mean that bass sounds perceptively too light at very low listening levels. This has everything to do with our ears and nothing to do with the speaker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

That said, a speaker with excessive bass will ONLY sound good at lower than normal level. Again due to the way we hear.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
@dancekerl

Check out Benchmark AHB2

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/power-amplifiers-the-importance-of-the-first-watt

Other than the above, Class A is preferred or at least heavily biased Class A with sliding bias. And Class D is getting better every year.
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