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Review ATC SCM 40 A floorstanders.....finally

I thought I knew.  I thought I knew all about imaging, dynamics, resolution, PRaT, all the audiophile buzz words allowing one into the coded audiophile secret society pontifications.  I got schooled.  It’s called ACTIVE.  Everthing I’ve been yearning for has been solved with my new ATCs.  They just do musical reproduction with immediacy.  The attack is instantanious.  Bad recording, bad reproduction.  Great recording, great reproduction.  Period.  Fin.  Ende.

I’ve progressed through some fairly serious talent.  Great equipment I’ve enjoyed over the decades: always the journey, never having arrived at the ultimate destination.  I do not know why it took so long to depart the traditional souce, preamp, monoblocks, cabling and transducers formula.  I hope this encourages others to at least consider leaving the world of so many pieces and cabling.

System:  Naim UnitiServe with unknown serious external PSU, Nordost Valhalla II digital cable, Mojo Audio Mystique V3 DAC, Manley Neo Classic preamp with Takatsuki 300B tubes.  Decware ICs, Patrick Cullum Crossover II PCs, Furman IT Reference 15i power conditioner.  All components sit on Quadraspire Reference X stand.  Wireworld Silver Elipse 8 RCA to XLR interconnects from Manley 300B to ATCs.  Isoacoustics Gaia II footers.  I’m really there for now.  Tchau
celtic66

Showing 5 responses by shadorne

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shadorne
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Welcome to a rather exclusive club. There is nothing quite like Active ATCs. Revealing, immediate and yet entirely natural sounding.

You join the likes of Diana Krall to Mark Knopfler. Jack White to Coldplay to Sting to Enya to Pink Floyd. Countless musicians, studios and sound engineers.

This user list is far from exhaustive as I know many musicians using them that aren’t on the list like New Order drummer Stephen Morris.

http://atcloudspeakers.co.uk/client-list/

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shadorne
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@celtic66   

All pale in comparison.

My experience exactly. I have been using ATCs in various forms since 1994. I keep auditioning other speakers - most recently a top of the line Monitor Audio. Other SOTA speakers are indeed extremely good and I could happily live with a couple of the great Wilson models, top of the line Focals, KEF and Harbeth to name a few. Most other designs just don’t work for me and a few seconds of listening can confirm that all too quickly - the majority sound too much like hi-fi with over emphasis here and there and the sense you are listening to individual drivers rather than natural instruments or vocals.
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shadorne
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The volume issue is simply that they are voiced at realistic music levels. The equal loudness contours effectvmeans that relatively speaking ATCs sweetspot (where treble and bass are balanced) is a little higher than your typical smilie EQ speaker.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Sound/eqloud.html

Comparatively Harbeth, B&W and many others are voiced so that they have more bass and work better at lower volume. Of course, excessive bass will ruin the balance of sound at louder levels but most speakers aren’t capable of live loudness levels anyway. This is the pro aspect of the ATC design - the drivers play cleanly and without stress at relatively much louder/dynamic levels than other speakers.
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shadorne
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@peter_s   

The best overall floor stander or “tower” in the ATC line up is the SCM 150 Active or SCM 50 Active (depending on room size with the 50 suitable for smaller rooms).

The best bang for the buck would be ATC SCM 40 Active. The 50 and upwards use the “super” version of the mid range dome.

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shadorne
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+1 Quested. Quested used the ATC mid range which the testimonial from Hans Zimmer singles out. Some of the higher end PMC speakers used it too. Not sure if either of these companies still do, as Volt now makes a copy of ATC’s super dome. Both designs tend to have more bass emphasis than ATC.

PMC is another alternative to check out.
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