Recommendation for ATC SCM150 Amp/Pre

And you're correct he asked about amps for passive ATCs but they are still on order and probably can be changed and I strongly believe active ATCs are superior and also will save money.

Also ATCs are designed to be active and passive ones are secondary since admittedly there is a real market for them.

I’ve read all the reviews about passive vs. actives and debated for a while about which one would work best for me. While it is true that actives have their advantages, I ultimately decided to go with passives so I could change amplification later on to get different signatures. It’s part of this hobby. I would have loved to get an Active if I could interchange the amps but I was told it’s not possible. I would like to have some measure of control and continue to tweak for the sound I enjoy.

Have the ATC SC-2 which is a brilliant pre-amp. Add an ATC P2 and your done, even with two P2's your are ready for less than 20k (New)

Get Active ATC's but a Tube Preamp! I have a BAT VK-80 Tube preamp and am loving it with my Coda #8 amp. I also am considering getting some ATC's so am interested in this.

One of the engineers at ATC was an intern with us, when he left it was to go to California to work at ATC.

@ei001h If you get the active version, it has a balanced input that conforms to the balanced standard, AES48. A lot of high end audio balanced preamps don't actually support the standard; if they support the standard then the interconnect cable you use will matter far less or not at all (one of the benefits of balanced line if done properly). There are  balanced tube preamps that have no problem at all with the 10KOhm input impedance.

The passive version of the speaker is an easy load. There are now class D amps out there that are every bit as musical (smooth and involving in the mids and highs) as the best tube amps or class A solid state amps so that might be something to put on the radar as well.