Recommendation all-rounded speaker (small room)

Ohm Micro Walsh

Hi Brad @lonemountain 

Thanks for your suggestion,  I do have bookshelves and curtain as first reflection side walls, I am going to add 8" (4"+4") corner bass trap from floor to ceiling at four-corner walls.

Ya, got mine speaker stand from our local ATC distributor,  quite heavy , slightly lighter than SCM11.

Hi @jim5559 , Classical is one of my favorite genres, sometimes I listen to fast , dynamic tracks pop to rock, depends on mood. I believe ATC should suit and meet my music preference . Thanks for your recommendation nevertheless 

If you listen Classical at all by for that period . Totem and Kef  are good .

Next step is first reflection absorbers-this will improve imaging quite a bit.  Get the 4 inch deep panels if you can.  Just get two and start with that. 

I forgot to ask about stands -very important.  High mass ones work best.  

Brad

Busy on other things 😆,  only manage an hour or two per day.

I am satisfied with the sound , did slight toe in speaker with equalateral triangle from listening spot  due to small room /near field to reduce boomy noise, slight improvement. Will continue to observe and enjoy auditioning familiar tracks. 😉 

How are you liking them...to busy probably.They should warn people not mess with them.Are you enjoying what your hearing so far.

Appreciate your advise, not sure how to upload the photo in my previous post was not proper loaded (though I have inserted the URL image and photo size) Nevermind, since it's very minor issue, not going to touch or bother the woofer. I may use air dust blower (camera lens) to blow away the dirt if need be. Thanks again guys. 

Cheers

Windex in moderation, applied first on a relatively lint free soft cloth, a old worn out t-shirt works well. I’ve cleaned my tar stricken drivers with this method since the late 80’s with fantastic results. Hope this helps

That sticky stuff on some drivers is a dampening material, like a tar if you will, that is used to improve the driver response.  It is tacky on purpose, as you sort of paint it on the cone.  You cannot clean it- dust is a problem-but fortunately dust doesn't affect driver performance.   So best not touch it.  

TO fix it cosmetically, you have to recone the driver (start over with fresh parts and fresh dampening material) or replace the driver.  Both are not cheap.  If it bothers you, then Id get both drivers reconed so they look the same.  Use an air cleaner (not an ozone generator which destroys rubber) to reduce dust in the room.

Don't beat yourself up, about it, I did it myself years ago before I understood. 

Lone Mountain Audio

Brad 

Awe man...i learned that lesson too auronthas...try to fetch small lint.Not catastrophic but...Kef used the same sticky goo.Sorry for your doh!.

@lonemountain  Hi Brad.

Thanks for your clarification on ATC speaker break in.

On similar woofer glue you mentioned. I have had made a mistake using dry microfiber to remove dirt on woofer.  Alas, few fabric sticked to woofer and glue, I didn't know the woofer is "wet and sticky".  Bad thing happen when I used my finger to remove fabric at the woofer rubber ring, the glue rolled together with fabric as photo attached.

Luckily it does not affect the sound.  The woofer no longer look aesthetically nice.   I dare not touch the woofer.  Any treatment to make good the glue or just leave it ? Thanks 

Thanks for posting brad...so they are good to go out of box?...interesting read.What about crossover?...Looks like your friends spoke truth auronthas.🎶

I have imported ATC for a along time, I have never experienced break in with them. ATC beats the HECK out of them before they ever get shipped-7Hz at 20Volts for LF drivers! Massive excursion is part of the normal QC for every single driver. The fly in the ointment of break in is that if true:

1) any older speaker would sound very different from any newer speaker of the same model.

2) how does a driver "know" when to stop breaking in? The break in argument is the glue and the paper or materials gain in flexibility, then how does that driver magically stop "breaking in"?

3) There’s precision in how flexible the glue and paper is?  IF you design a speaker to sound a certain way, post break in,  why ship ANY speaker that does not sound like that? Meaning you have to ship and test only broken in speakers?  Why would not every speaker maker break in his or her own speakers prior to shipment?    

4) If speakers break in, then a replacement or a recone would never ever sound like the other speaker in the pair. Why has no one every called me and said "wow, the repair sounds different compared to my other speaker". I have precision mastering houses using these speakers, they hear a faulty cap. Why would they not hear two drivers sounding different?

Brad

OP,  “Is that considered break in?”

No you need one or two hundred hours of the woofers flapping back and forth to “loosen” them up and reduce the resistance to movement… they are stiff at first.

Not quite.The factors that are in my understanding and experience are the mechanical movement of surround and the crossover>the problem i feel with just listening to music doesnt get the surrounds hopping and moving.The ayre burnin disk track 4 works and can get speaker mechanically moving.Other than that bass heavy tracks.I like to use my bela fleck/greatest hits?...even flight of cosmic hippo doesnt get my 19’s moving unless cranked.Hope this makes sense...read up on all you can...time and patience.

I was told by few friends that ATC speakers have been tested with wide range frequencies during QA/QC test, is that consider break in ? 

Boomy or wooly bass is a common artifact of speakers that are not yet broken in. Give them a hundred or two of use before concluding it is a characteristic of the speakers.

Thanks guys again for your valuable inputs, i should have be more patient to audition the change of sound . My last speaker "break in" was 15 years ago lol.  

Would like to know about your setup...stands,on shelves.How far out into room are you allowed lol.Kidding...Its a process to achieve great performance from any speaker/soundstage,but atc are very well controlled speaker having no port.I started with room treatments but felt it dead’nd the room too much.I toed them in at just over the shoulder to avoid side wall/1st reflection...i ended up with no treatments and let the ears adjust to what im hearing.Liver performance,better bass and vocals,soundstage as well.I think as speaker gets run in bass will tighten up and improve.This is were people either do the work/readup for setup or sell them and blame the speaker...they will take at least 300 hrs initially imho.Let us know your changes...and yes congrats!

Congrats on your purchase! Give those babies some time to break in before making any judgements on their sound. I've never owned ATC stand mounts but I would say at least 150 hours. Just put a CD on repeat all day if you can.

@ghdprentice @digsmithd Thanks guys.

Finally I got SCM11 setup and listened over the weekend. Initial impression , it delivers a wider sound stage than my previous Sonus Faber.  Deeper bass and sweet mid range (vocal) and much detail on higher midrange frequency .  

But some tracks giving boomy bass than my previous speaker.  At the moment I only have two bass traps at lower bottom corner of front wall.  Should I treat my room, four wall corner with extended foam acoustic panel upto ceiling ? 

 I have both shelves and curtain on side walls, it will act as diffuser.

Would like to hear your thoughts on bass related issues.

Late to the game.... I have had harbeth and others in the past. If going valve a small ls3 like falcon ls3/5 they have a 15ohm speaker which my Leben 18w loved. Harbeth need a bit of oomph to drive. A great option if changing amp is to get a powered Ls50 meta (active)

Wharfedale Linton a cheap great bet..... 

Good for you...cant see you not liking them.If your system is dialed in reasonably youll hear it through them...Be sure to let us know progress and ask questions?

OP, congradulations. I am looking forward to hearing what your impressions.

LS 3/5 ... 

op

should be a good match, small room, smooth yet powerful accuphase driving

enjoy

Thanks so much for all your inputs and sharing.  I have ordered SCM 11, hope it will serve me another 10, 20 years in my small room with privacy.

Cheers to all !

I would suggest a couple of vintage speakers: Spica TC50 or Celestial SL700.

+1 for ATC! Had the 11s and now have the 40s. Someday….I’ll have the 50s and maybe even the 150s. I can’t imagine you being disappointed with the 11s or the 19s really… I saw some 19s used somewhere the other day for a pretty good price. 
best of luck!

It has to be a 2 way.  No way around that I don’t think.  Is there a budget?

You have posted your preference for the 11 scm.Not surprised...and i do think they would work quite well in your room,considering music preferences.I am not familiar with roon...my source is cd player/no dac.

As i stated before i started with the 11’s and went with the 19’s.I wanted as much speaker as i could get to ward off upgradeitis.They sit on top of sound anchors which are as much a part of the whole deal imho.

People can fire there suggestions at you and you sometimes have to go with your gut and feel the experience.(I have pic of them in virtual system in my 13 by 10 room fwiw).

Op, thanks for identifying your equipment. Given what you have and want… nothing jumps out from my experience. 

Considering your listening preferences, I’d audition Small spendor sa1 or harbeth p3esr speakers.

All round speaker? Cabasse but they are more than round, they are spherical. 

Easiest to drive : REFERENCE 3a MM De Capo ( 92db efficiency)

personal taste: HARBETH ,,, tailor which model to your room  size and speaker placement options therein for optimum choice

budget?  subs?

@newbee Unfortunately not in my listening room, I listened to both SCM7 and SCM 11 at distributor showroom, slighly bigger than mine by 20% , both are quite well performed, I prefer the latter as it may be easier to drive with larger volume. 

@ghdprentice basically listen mostly on Jazz / Classical , I tends to listen to relaxing music than shouty rock/pop . As i said, it depends on mood/stress ...

No pre-amp, but integrated amp of Accuphase. Currently speaker is Sonus Faber Concertino Domus , not good in fast and dynamic music.

Sounds like a good choice (on paper at least). Are you able to audition them in your home? Also, for best sound (imaging anyway) you'd probably enjoy them most set up in a 'near field' configuration.

What kind of music do you listen to? My first thought would be Totem. Punchy, natural sounding, pretty easy to drive, attractive.

What is your preamp? What speakers are you using now?