Joseph audio perspectives, magico a3, ATC scm40 v2

Fair enough, Brad. I was just trying to give the OP some options to upgrade, cause the SCM40A new cost is prohibitive, and he'd mentioned driving the passives was an issue, and they couldn't find any used actives. Maybe you could swing some other options for them!

@yuhengdu_tiger I think you are fighting two battles at once: room acoustics and speakers.

No matter what speakers you choose, your room size and placement constraints close to boundaries create issues in terms of room modes and resonances. Serious acoustic treatment will be worth every penny, starting with bass traps in all corners and acoustic panels on the front wall. Also much cheaper than new equipment!

On speakers, I have 2 more suggestions. The first is the Living Voice Auditorium series. These are really excellent, deeply musical speakers, which still have a compact footprint similar to the SCM40s, but far higher sensitivity so much easier to drive, and have a strong synergy with tube amps. Though they are also not EDM bass monsters, they have higher cone surface area from the dual woofers for lower frequencies, and fantastically integrated mids and highs. They are absolutely worth adding to your shortlist.

The second is the SCM19A tower version. Same footprint as SCM40, all the benefits of ATC active biamping, and the new ATC tweeter. Going active should result in better dynamics, detail and bass authority than the SCM40 passive, even foregoing the separate mid driver. Note that the SCM19/20 has the SL midbass with the mid dome grafted onto the cone. Nobody argues that the SCM19 is preferable to the SCM50, but many users have  found they preferred the SMC19 to the SCM40. They both share the same basic sound signature, but some find the 19/20s drivers sound more integrated. This was actually my experience when I demoed the passive v1s.

I was considering getting the ATC p2 amp and pair with ATC scm40 v2. How do you feel this p2+atc40 passives would stack up against the atc40a? The atc40a is a bit pricer than the passives combo though.. Since I can only find new ones of them which is $13k a pair.

@yuhengdu_tiger Good to know you've already compared the SCM19A and preferred your SCM40s. That's significant! So again we figure that SCM40As would be the ideal solution for your room but I completely empathize they are so expensive new, and finding used/demo pairs is almost impossible.The P1/P2/SIA2-150 are all perfect matches for the passives, but they can't match the full performance of an active tri-amped pair. But recall also that there is the option of passive biamping and triamping.

Very crudely, and with some margin of error, let's figure that: 

• SCM40A = 100% sound potential (active triamp)
• SCM40v1 + P1 = 65% (passive stereo)
• SCM40v1 + P2 = 75% (passive stereo)
• SCM40v1 + 2 x P1 (passive biamp) = 80%
• SCM40v1 + 3 x P1 (passive triamp) = 85%
• SCM40v1 + 2 x P2 (passive biamp) = 90%
• SCM40v1 + 3 x P2 (passive triamp) = 95%

If we consider the cost of each config, we hit irrational returns with passive triamping, as we exceed the cost of the SCM40A itself, but there are some interesting options before that. 

The amp ratings for each SCM40A are: 150w for the bass driver, 60w for the midrange, 32w for the tweeter. Which would let you play at higher listening levels than you wrote that you ever do. So let's call that 100% performance is also an overkill.

I suggested before you may get really good improvements in clarity and poise from passive biamping (one amp per speaker; one output dedicated to the bass terminals + remove the bass-mid jumper, the other amp outut goes to the mids or tweeter terminals + keep the mid-tweeter jumper). 

Is there any way you can try this out? It doesn't necessarily need to be ATC amps, even though they are proven matches technically and sonically; there are going to be many great amp matches out there. You'd need two stereo power amps with the same gain (thus easier to do if they're identical). Compare the difference using one of the amps for both speakers, vs one amp per speaker, and one amp channel each for the bass terminals.

P.S. The pro audio versions of the P1 and P2 (same inside as the consumer ones!) can be bought new from pro audio stores much cheaper than from hi fi stores, weirdly.