Weight/manhandability considerations are valid concerns …in part:
I used to have a pair of IMF speakers that each weighed somewhere something like 60 kg. They were fitted with castors, making manoeuvring easy, when I changed, I was trying ti choose between two speakers, both PMC, EB1i and MB2SE. Latter did sound better, though the EB1 was very good. EB1 weighs 48kg, is a 1.2m tall floorstander, and though it has no castors it is easily manoeuvred by walking. MB2 weighs 58kg and us 0.9m tall, with no handholds, and has to be lifted onto its 0.5m tall stand, and very difficult then to manoeuvre. For once I let my commonsense head grew over sound quality, and bought the EBs, on the basis that the MB2 would be a practical problem I’d come to regret .
Whilst the EB1s were great, and I improved them running active with a better midrange unit, I had niggling, lingering, pangs of regret. 6 years later when some MB2 speakers cane up at a too-good-to-be-missed price I corrected my mistake: I realised my concerns were baseless, as apart from initial setting up there’d be no reason ever to move them until/unless I were to move house, and both for initial set up and such possible future event I could simply enlist help. Weight/manageability were irrelevant. My itch is permanently satiated.
If you look at the photographs of these speakers fitted in pro studios most are either mounted on the wall or in the wall, in front of the mixing desk. There may be an issue of near field Vs far field to consider but obviously it can work.
My advice, as stated above, is to ask ATC for advice, I suspect Ben could be very helpful.
Paul
@JonathanG reviewed the SCM 50 and considered a minimum of 18” from the wall was needed in order to avoid bass boom. The manual certainly says that stands should be used, with a considerable space behind them. It seems a potty idea to try to wall mount such a large and heavy speaker but hey, what do I know?
FWIW, I use a NC250.3 with my new ATC SCM40s in a 5x5m room, with high ceiling. They are 30cm from a back wall.
They sound incredibly alive, fast, dynamic and punchy with this amp. I auditioned them with a 250DR and made the assumption that the extra wattage of the latest 250 would not go amiss…
In studios when not freestanding they are not normally wall mounted, but mounted within the walls so that the front baffle is flush with the face of the wall, the front wall angled differently each side so as to give the correct “toe in” while also reducing parallelism. This is called “soffiit mounting” and has the singular and very distinct advantage of completely eliminating comb filtering effects from sound waves that bounce off the wall behind the speaker to alternately be in phase and out of phase so enhancing and cancelling at different frequencies. Bass boom is eliminated by treatment of the studio, the rear wall (behind the engineer) often having several metres of absorbent material in front of it. To me this would seem an ideal approach - but not easy in a normal house, and indeed probably impossible in many.
As for weight, I don’t think it is much more challenging to hang 58kg than it is 50kg. However it does depend on the construction of the wall! If active, however, you’d need to be mindful of the amp’s need for circulating air. If the wall isn’t strong enough you could put on stands… But why so high up? The SCM50 is not a midget speaker, and I guess tweeter & midrange are at a level where a seated listener’s ears would likely be horizontally between them .
I’ve always preferred ATC50’s run passive vs the active amp pack option. I think a NC250 would be adequate for a small listening room, 350’s or a 500 for the best experience. They are a power hungry speaker. Throw a set of GAIA’s under them to clean up the sound.
I also auditioned the ATC SCM40 some years ago with a 250DR. In my case the decision was made in favour of the SCM 19 on the assumption that more power would not go amiss for the SCM40. I’ve yet to try a NC250.
ATC do all sorts of custom installs for studios but you’d need to contact them to see what, if anything, was possible. A much simpler route would be to go for the 40s which are available specifically in a wall-mounted version: HTS 40.
I hadn’t picked up on the 40 being in the wall range. Yes, seems a very good solution. I don’t know how it compares with the freestanding 40, and bass won’t be as extended as the 50 in in the wall, but the HTS40 wall’s response will be tailored for that position so there should be no unexpected step/hump in response. I don’t think there’s a choice of active so that would resolve that aspect. It would just be a matter of whether the OP likes their sound and whether the bass is sufficiently extended for his/her needs.