Thanks all for the suggestions. I’ve decided to try and limit myself to the price of a new pair of SCM7 so less than £1000. As far a dealers, my options are rather limited (West Devon on edge of Dartmoor) so I expect I will buying from eBay unless I go for the ATC’s.
Perhaps i’m moving the goalposts slightly but current list for consideration is as follows…
ATC SCM 7
Proac Tablette 10
Linn Kan or LS3/5a
…and possibly Harbeth P3ESR if I can find a pair at the right price.
I own a pair of the ATC SCM 7’s and they are a lovely speaker. I enjoy ProAc speakers and have owned a pair of D2D and currently a pair of D30RS. No experience with the Harbeth P3ESR.
I don’t believe you could go wrong with the ATC 7’s and as HiFi-dog above mentioned the SCM 11’s which are easier to drive and sound fantastic as well. The ProAc Tablette 10’s are enjoyed by many on this forum and have a separate thread discussing them.
Try and go listen at a dealer showroom if you can. Good luck with your decision.
The problem is that the five pairs you list are so different from each other it is really hard to offer much help, except to advise against buying blind on someone else’s say so.
Enjoy your music via the one pair you can hear for yourself.
As other posts on here will illustrate I have a bit of a thing for Kans but I recently replaced a pair of SCM7s with a lovely pair of mk1 Kans, am very happy with the results and wouldn’t go back
I’ve had a few pairs of ATCs over the years including SCM11 and SCM50A and really like the brand and products, I just found that with my system and in my room I had better results with the older boxes
ProAc Tab 10s would be much better with a 72/140 than the ATCs. I’ve had both. The 140 without a hicap is underpowered for the 7s. Even with a hicap it’s a bit too light. The Tab 10s on the other hand are easier to drive and have an obvious synergy with the olive amps.
I’ve done some quick calcs and at my listening position (3m from speakers) max spl (assuming the Nap140 actually does output 45w pc @ 8r) with the ATCs would be about 88db (84db 1w/1m) which is half as loud as my existing speakers ~94db (90db 1w/1m). Not necessarily a huge problem considering I rarely lift the volume above 8 o’clock but could potentially eat into some of the amplifier’s headroom, especially when playing high dynamic range material, and also expose the noise floor. So I can see why some are saying this may not be enough amp for the speaker. I think the sweet spot is something 86-87 db 1w/1m at 8r.
SCM 7 84db 1w/1m @8r seems touch and go. SCM 11 85db 1w/1m (maybe not a discernible difference). Proac Tablette 10 86db 1w/1m @ 10r looks closer to being suitable.
The 72 volume goes from 7 o’clock all the way round to 5 o’clock, which is the highest volume. At 5, your speakers (and probably your house) would explode.
If you play music at 5 o’clock and it is normal volume, there is something wrong with your 72.
On my 72 the knob position for min volume is about 4 and max is about 2. Sounds like the knob has been removed and replaced at the wrong angle at some point.
That sounds more like it should be. Now, I don’t know if this has been asked, but can you reorganise things so that your speakers are at ear height rather than ceiling height? I’m not sure it’s worth trying other speakers until you can get them better positioned.
That positioning, in this case, is actually preferable as the off axis response of the tweeters is slightly softer resulting in a more pleasant and balanced sound. But for sure I will try alternative arrangements with a higher end pair of speakers.
I had a bit of a shift around last night and speakers are now about a foot lower down, which is about as good as its going to get when taking into account the wife acceptance factor.
