Hi dudes
I am planning to upgrade my bookshelf speakers as SCM20. Just wonder 250DR is capable to drive this pair. My listening room is about 12ft long and 7ft width. May I know if anyone with this setup in use and like to share your experience?
Best regards
Dordor
Yes that amp will be fine driving the SCM20s… you will get a good Naim type presentation.
I have used a 250.2 with SCM19s which are similar to the 20s (assuming recent SCM20 design with ATC as opposed to SEAS tweeter)
The 250 power in my experience can just not be quite enough to really punch the deep bass which falls away with 20 and can sometimes require a stiffer amp to really push out in a tight manner, but it depends what music you listen to whether that is noticeable.
I enjoyed the 250.2 on ATC SCM 20/19s for many years.
BTW you refer to them as book shelf speakers… the SCM20s are definitely not that… they need to be on solid sturdy stands, so they are stand mounts rather than book shelf speakers.
Try may collapse a bookshelf as the ATC are very heavy, and would perform very poorly if situated on a book shelf
Thx Simon.
I am mainly to play the Jazz and sometimes classical. Your point “250 power … can just not be quite enough to really punch the deep bass” is exactly what I worry about. Intensionally the SCM20 will be placed on my current Foundation classic II stands.
I presume you like SCM20 because of its presentation of sound, why not choose ATC amplification which has the power and a robust bass, but then you will be moving away from the ‘Naim’ sound…
And in the main it’s the LF area where the 250 DR with it’s deeper but yet tight fisted, punchier and faster bass shows it’s clear superiority over the 250.2 with SCM19’s and SCM20’s or for that matter any other passive speakers.
Please see my previous post regarding some of the differences between the 250.2 v 250 DR.
Btw, what pre amp are you using please?
I noticed that as well on my SCM 11’s when I recapped and DR’d my 250.2.
Much more control and faster, deeper bass. Took about 3 months to break in then it was “holy crap, where’d that deep bass come from?”
Ok interesting, when I was looking at this, I believe this was output impedance related of the amp. Do I take it from your comments the 250DR has a lower output impedance than the 250.2? If so that will be helping here… given the power supplies between the two are the same I believe.
I have noticed from other auditions the 250DR tightens the 80 to 200 Hz range over 250.2… that will result in a faster tighter sound… but that is a difference from the deep bass, rumble and slam I was referring to…( although slam on 19/20 is fairly limited… it will do it to some extent with the right amp).
As I say the key thing is to audition with the music you like. I find good brass band recordings fantastic test recordings. You have fine timbre control, upper mids, and deep bass with the bass drum which are very tight and deep… to hear the emotion from a flugel horn, the amp and speaker matching need to be good… all in my opinion of course.
I am using the Uniti Star as the pre-amp
Testing components with music even with top quality recordings is all fine and well but a more stringent test is movie soundtracks. And in this respect one of the finest in recent years is Universal’s Lone Survivor on Blu Ray (DTS-HD MA). Set the AV Processor up with no Centre, Surrounds or Sub/s and send a full range signal to front left and front right speakers.
Lone Survivor will test an amplifiers mettle to the max. And in this respect the NAP 250 DR has the transparency and the quality of power required to enable SCM19’s and SCM20’s to superbly reproduce and convey the delicacy and the instant and sustained downright vigour of this movies soundtrack. From the lowest to the highest frequency there is simply no place to hide.
Back to music and it’s a walk in the park.
Thanks but not sure that helps, it more subjective comment which we can read anywhere… BTW I am not sure film sound tracks are a good test, they tend to be lossy and heavily processed with exaggerated frequency extremes and quite high compression. They are there usually to support the picture rather than the other way around.
As I say be wary of marketing or review descriptions, treat them as raising your curiosity but nothing else and most importantly do your own assessments for your musical preference.
The ATC SCM 19/20 and 40 speakers are very special, but they tend to be fairly demanding to sound their best in an unforced natural way.
I respectfully disagree, I think music is much harder for an amp to reproduce accurately than a movie soundtrack.
A movie can sound great with a mid grade receiver and a great sub woofer, but try and listen to music with it and it falls short.
But it all depends on what you find more important.
For me it’s music!
After having experienced passive and active SCM19’s , SCM20’s and SCM40’s over the last fifteen years I am aware of their capabilities.
As there is simply no place to hide from the lowest to the highest frequency there when it’s time these speakers move up a gear to reproduce and convey the delicacy and the instant and sustained downright vigour of Hollywood’s finest movie soundtracks.
Then it’s back to music and a walk in the park.
Ime movies are more challenging.
Btw, a subwoofer is just as important for music as it is for movies.
I’m with @sandman922 on this. I have a few types of mainly live music I use for testing systems. One is well-recorded choral music with organ accompaniment, another a good orchestral recording and then, what my ATCs do so well: solo piano, Billy Woodman’s instrument. With these I can compare with my experience of live concerts in a way I can’t with the the over-processed stuff film studios seem to like. It just sounds less natural to me, entirely IMHO, of course.
Roger
Probably 42% of movie soundtracks have been mastered using ATC speakers.
I would imagine those movies worth watching will sound great with them in the home.
Drama, tension, excitement and all those other tropes in movie soundtracks still need to be as convincing as any other musical confection.
The reason I say this is because I’ve had some very nice home theater equipment, for example an onkyo 5008 receiver with paradigm studio 100s a cc 590 adp190 surrounds and and 2 subwoofers one paradigm and one Svs.
For movies it sounded phenomenal, but play 2 channel stereo with the same gear and something was off. It sounded good but not how it should.
Several changes later and now I have Dynaudio c30s still same cc surrounds and some cheap Polk rear surrounds and a marantz 5011 and movies still sound phenomenal.
But for 2 channel I have 202/200dr node2i and bifrost2 dac for digital and erc3 cd player when I choose to use it. And an rp6 tt and music sound phenomenal as well.
So in my personal opinion music is harder to reproduce as the artist intended than a movie soundtrack.
You have to have better quality electronics to get the music to sound right than movies. But may be different for you or others.
I’ve also ran a dedicated pre pro xmc1 and separate amps mono blocks too, that made music sound much better, but not as good as it is now.
Like I said earlier movies such as Lone Survivor will test an amplifiers mettle to the max. And in this respect the NAP 250 DR has the transparency and the quality of power required to help speakers reproduce and convey the delicacy and the instant and sustained downright vigour of this movies soundtrack. From the lowest to the highest frequency there is simply no place to hide.
Back to music and it’s a walk in the park.
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