Thanks muchly S - fabulous report and great that you’re enjoying them so much. Will be interesting to see if they continue to get better as H-d says. The ATC’s are just an incredible bargain - not sure how they do it especially with so much in-house ware. Perhaps Billy drives a Fiesta rather than a Bentley.
Do let us know how things are with time.
I have first-world problems (yes, I’m embarrassed but hooked) - either 282/250dr (hicap dr) into current proac d28’s or scm40a (with the atc ca2 pre)? ATC option is 5k cheaper! Source is NDS/555dr. Currently just running a SN2. Can’t try the ATC’s - would have to purchase blind (ughhh….). Any thoughts comrades?
I think ATC’s staple income is from tge pro market, where they carved a niche decades ago at the quality end, and have maintained it. I suspect their domestic sales are only a small proportion.
Thanks for the writeup. I share most of your views now after I’ve had my pair for ~3 months. They’re truly awesome speakers and only really showed their full potential when driven active. There was this short period of time when they sounded slightly too bright and edgy with some older rock albums but it went away. It’s normal variation during burn-in period I guess. To me they sound great with lower volume levels also. The active version brought huge improvement on this area over the passives. My only problem with them was the sheer amount and power of bass, which was simply too much in my ~20m2 room. With Linn’s space optimisation, it’s now under control though. It’s amazing that one box (Linn ADSM) + active speakers bring this level of sound quality which easily outperforms my previous five box setup.
One question for all owners. Since 40A don’t have automatic sleep mode, do you always switch yours off or keep always on? They have 40w power consumption per speaker when idle, and for that reason I switch them off but it’s not that convenient since the power switch is on the floor level behind the speaker. I tried these HomeKit controlled remote controlled sockets but they clearly affected the sound quality. Have someone found solution which wouldn’t affect sq?
Thanks Seadog - appreciate your feedback. I’m just wondering what 19a’s would be like in my room. I have bass issues with my current set up so I wonder if 40a’s would be too much - on the other hand, I tried some totem forests and they sounded empty (a friend had them in a much larger room with a very similar front end to mine and sounded superb!). It’s so damn fickle - ‘red alert’ purchasing without demoing…of course. Hummphh, I have such an itch but I wonder if it’s best just to sell the lot, buy a muso 2 and be done with! Hifitis - a pathological addiction to perfect sound reproduction through expensive electronic devices; prognosis poor without active (pardon the pun) management - current clinical guidelines recommend either massive salary or…please feel to contribute treatment options, doctors…
Yes, speakers are such a coin toss if will they work or not in your room with your gear. I live in hi fi hell as far as speaker demos. are concerned. Sometimes only a few choices of brands to choose from and sometimes even only a few models within those brands to even get a chance to listen to at a delaer let alone my home.
Is it possible to hear them at a dealer and see if they can set up in a room of at least similar area to yours ? At least that will get you some of the way there to see if they will be OK for you.
Django84, I had SCM40 in my room which is about 4m x 4.3m, although they sounded amazing I ultimately felt they offered too much bass for the room. I also tried the 19s but felt they were bass light and too forward/incisive for my taste.
I finally settled on Harbeth 30.1. I’ve owned these for around 9 months now and have no regrets. For me, vocals and instruments on the Harbeths exceed the sound quality of the ATCs. ATC mids and top end are top drawer and I never expected the Harbeth’s to match or perhaps better them. Where ATC have the Harbeth’s licked is in the bass. The ATCs are tighter and more accurate, probably due to the sealed design of the speakers. For a ported design the bass on the Harbeth’s is excellent, the port being relatively benign. I found they need at least 40cm to the rear and at least double that to the side for the bass to work well in my room.
Harbeth 30.1 have the ability to fill the room with a beguiling and beautiful sound. They play all genres well.
Great to hear you are enjoying your ATC SCM40 so much.
I borrowed a pair from Audio T and they were very helpful to try in my room before buying. Although you have to put the whole cost of the speakers on a credit card as deposit I think they only charged £20 for home demo which is refundable if you buy them.
Well worth doing if you need to check how a speaker works in your room.
For what it’s worth I’m utterly thrilled with mine - the system is now finally sounding how I always dreamed my hifi could sound, indeed I will go further and say it’s one of the nicest sounding systems I have ever heard - and I never would have said that before getting the ATC’s and the NAC82. The bass tautness and clarity has to be heard to be believed.
I think where I live the choice is probably even less than you. Surprisingly, at least there’s a great Naim dealer! Unfortunately, the only ATC dealer in the country is 700km away and he’s not too keen to send his 40a’s down for a demo! I guess I could travel for a listen but as you say it’s such a coin toss as to whether things would work at home. Even halloweenman’s suggestion of Harbeth (which was great) is a 700km away job too. Safest thing is to keep it local I guess, rather than have an expensive disaster. As mentioned earlier, at least I can try a muso 2! Or maybe I’d be pleasantly surprised by a pair of Polk Audio or Wharfedale…(that wasn’t very nice of me).
That to me is a sign of a good speaker, though not necessarily whether any particular person would like the character. (One often hears people saying a particular speaker is good for genres X or Y but not good for Z - that just tells me either that the speaker is excessively coloured, or the individual likes their music excessively coloured, or both). Out of interest, did you try any transmission line designs, which to my ears when done well have given the best bass I’ve heard?
For the cost of the speakers, and given that there is a choice at that location (assuming one isn’t 700 one way and the other the opposite way), maybe it is worth a flight if that is practicable, maybe combined with a few days’ break, to audition. Even better if the dealer(s) have your existing speakers available so you can hear in the demo room: even though not the same as in your room, your own speakers in the dealer’s room gives a good baseline for comparison… It won’t tell you what they’re like in your room, nor with your system unless the dealer has same as well, but it would still give you a good indication, though you’d want the demo in whatever room the. Dealer has that is closest to your own in dimensions. Whilst listening in isolation tells you something, if the dealer doesn’t have your speakers or amp, an alternative, though more demanding on you is to drive there taking your amp and speakers with you.
My last suggestion is not an idle one: last time I bought speakers I carted my huge and heavy IMF RSPM speakers, plus amp, with me on a similar distance round trip, involving two 3.5 hour ferry trips, and about 1400km of driving, visiting a private seller at home and two dealers unloading and setting up my speakers at all locations, and my amp once, the others having the same amp available. It was a successful trip, and I was very happy with my purchase when they arrived by carrier a week later. (I could, of course, have taken with me if I was doing a trade-in.) With ferry, hotel and fuel it was not a cheap trip, but worth it against the value of what I was considering.
I’d say so. The perception that Harbeth 30.1 only does classical music is mistaken in my experience. Foals - What Went Down and Mountain at My Gates sound fantastic on them.
30.1 is the most musical speaker I’ve listened to. Over the years at home I’ve previously owned or tried:
That makes total sense. SCM40 does the same but alas too much bass for my room.
I did, the best match for my room were PMC 25.22 - I felt the Harbeth’s totally outclassed the PMC’s in every department except for bass. 25.22 sounded thin compared to 30.1. 25.22 offered more bass than ATC SCM19.
One thing I’ve learned, you must try speakers at home before deciding. Matching speaker to room (bass response) is the hardest thing to get right in this hobby imho.
Yeah actually I auditioned them for two weeks at home and ended up ordering 40A’s. My old speakers were 40 passives.
19A is good but surprisingly quite different sound signature than 40A. It’s more pinpoint and maybe in some sense even more accurate than 40. It’s very sensitive to the front end and with wrong gear, sounds edgy and fatiguing. Very revealing speaker.
40A sounds bigger and more powerful. Low end performance is on another level and overall sound signature just a bit more relaxed. Dedicated midrange does its magic. I like this sound signature clearly more.
I had got used to the powerful bottom end of 40 passives and 19A couldn’t match it. That was the biggest reason for ordering the 40A’s. In the end, it surprised me how much more powerful the active version is compared to SN2 + passive.
Btw. I come from PMC. Before passive 40’s I owned 20.23 and before them, GB1i. 40 passives simply destroyed 20.23 on every single area.