@Thegreatroberto in simple terms I immediately felt more connected to the performance, be it live or studio. I changed from a NAP300DR which is no slouch, but the PMC amplifiers deliver more drive combined with greater insight.
PMC compared the active module with one of their Brystons in passive mode and felt the active module out performed it. There’s a youtube video of this I think.
I have 23i so there may be something that your dealers feel about the 24i that would be less successful? Or you may prefer what you have. There’s only one way to find out…
Yes, clearly a ( home) demo is required. I was surprised my dealer was prepared to not take the money off me. Good if they believe that to be the best advice.
Ill press for a home demo of the modules.
It all stated after I asked them how id connect my supercap to the active module-ive still not heard back from PMC central command centre😠
I covered this in a post five days ago on this thread. Rather than repeating myself, have a quick scroll up.
When I got the active modules I didn’t try them at home, or even hear them at the dealer. Having discussed it with PMC I simply placed an order. I wanted an Atom HE to replace the Nova and if the active was at least as good I would have been happy. So the fact that to me the sound is much improved was a bonus. Part of that is the HE and part is active, and I cannot separate the two out.
I’ve recently given some thought to active speakers, primarily ATC’S, SCM20ASL’s or SCM40A’s, but, aside from organising dealer or home demo’s, I can’t find any easy way of comparing/contrasting any of those options against my current NC NAP250/Kudos Titan 505’s.
I guess the $64k question, as always, is would moving to active actually deliver any real improvement or would it boil down to a change for change’s sake, undoubtedly sounding different but neither better nor worse?
I guess the answer, as always, is to try it at home. A huge part of the question is around whether you prefer Kudos to ATC. Whether active or not, so much revolves around which sound signature you prefer.
Can’t agree more. Not unsurprisingly, my dealer thinks to 40’s are a better option than the 20’s due to their addition of ATC’s apparently well respected mid-range driver……
TBH, I really enjoy the 505’s and on a simple price comparison, anything but apples with apples , they should be the better option and the 40’s soak up a lot more power than the NAP250 on standby, although that’ll only amount to a few quid a year.
Time for a couple of aspirin and a lie down perhaps….?
It’s the dealers conundrum, once they’ve sold you a really good system, both well integrated and well balanced, it’s usually very difficult to ‘upgrade’ by just changing a single element, the only practical alternative being a ‘forklift’ upgrade; eg 200 to 300 Series or Naim to dCS or something similar which is typically (nearly always) financially unattractive, especially as it’s also a bit of a leap in the dark…….
I switch mine off at the end of a listening session and on again half an hour or so before another one starts. Occasionally, though, I forget and find I’ve left them on. TBH I can’t hear any difference in SQ when left on compared with ½ hrs warm up.
That’s a tricky one. I have active 40s and have wondered about the new smaller active 20s. I’ve heard the 20s a couple of times, though not at home, and to my ears it’s a case of swings and roundabouts. The 20s have a bit more insight into the performance and are a tad drier, the 40s go a bit lower and are slightly warmer. To my ears one is not obviously “better” than the other.
That’s without subwoofers in play. I suspect adding SWs might well give 20s the edge.
Given that you are fully familiar with the speakers themselves, if a home trial is tricky to arrange I would have thought that it would suffice to do the comparison in the dealer’s premises.
If I read your post correctly, the question you are asking seems to be whether one speaker active is better than a different speaker passive, which is nothing to do with whether or not active is better than passive. You really have to just try to find some way of hearing yourself. If you have the Titans yourself, then you could take them and your amp to a dealer selling ATC and compare directly, whether initially against passive or straight away against active ATCs.
At the end of the day it is the because it are primarily responsible for the sound character of your system. You may or may not prefer the ATC to the Titan, it could be a considerable upgrade or not
This appeared in my email from a well known retailer promoting an ATC event:
Passive vs Active: What’s the Difference?
One of the most interesting parts of the session was the comparison between passive and active ATC models.
Passive speakers use an internal crossover and external amplification.
Active speakers move the crossover earlier in the signal path and use dedicated amplifiers for bass, mid and treble.
This approach reduces losses and gives each drive unit more control. The result is more detail, more precision and a noticeably more effortless presentation. If you haven’t heard ATC in active mode before, it’s genuinely worth experiencing.
Are there limitations on how far the active speakers can be away from source? Ie speaker cable length can be a consideration in passive-do the ‘interconnect’ lengths need to be considered (I have 7m distance between source/amp and speakers)
If you hear a pair of SCM20asl against SCM40a speakers, you may question their definition of “better”. I considered both initially but gravitated towards the 20s due to my small listening room (3x4m) after a brief discussion with ATC. The 20s Midrange performance is way beyond what my 135/Keilidhs can achieve. I always take a dealers opinion with a pinch of salt. You may get information overload when asking for advice on this forum but if you can sift through everything you’ll end up with a reasonable starting point and good shortlist whether you must buy blind or have dems first.
, they should be the better option and the 40’s soak up a lot more power than the NAP250 on standby, although that’ll only amount to a few quid a year.
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