Wow, quite a few questions. I try to answer but I’m not sure if I can answer with enough detail.
First of all, very interesting comments about your audition. But 10m2 room where you auditioned SCM40A sounds awfully small for these speakers. My room is double that and they’re still on the large side for this space. As I described earlier, they were even too powerful with common dac/pre’s like Jade. Only with Linn ADSM and its space optimization I got perfect results out of them.
You don’t sound like you were that impressed with the 40’s? Maybe try some other options also, you might find something better for your preferences.
I mostly listened to the Jade with SCM19A’s, which I had in home demo for over three weeks before the 40’s arrived. I only listened the 40’s with it for two short evenings and it quickly became obvious that the bass performance was overpowering in my space with this combination. It wasn’t because Jade, it’s because of my room. The Jade definitely digs everything there is with the low end. The bass was already powerful and punchy with 19A’s, great performance there. So when I got the ADSM for audition, it was quickly obvious that it was the correct choice for me with the 40’s. But I did compare Jade with many other dac/pre’s and in this comparison I didn’t find the treble rolled off at all. It was extended and with some recording even close to being too much for what I’ve used to.
I struggle describing soundstage since that has never been priority to me. Being a Naim guy for the last ten years I’ve mostly been concerned about PRaT and musicality, the fun factor. To me its important that my setup sounds good out of the sweet spot also. That said, I didn’t feel like Jade was lacking in soundstage. PSAudio DS had slightly deeper and more three dimensional soundstage but pretty much the same width.
I’ve heard many times people saying that ATC, in general, doesn’t sound good with low volume levels. I noticed this with the passives but it’s different game with the actives. No matter the volume, they always stay in perfect control and explicit authority. Built in power amps are the key here I guess. With the actives I can also crank up the volume much higher and still feel ok with the sound levels. There’s less distortion with my current setup than before.
When I first heard passive 40’s in 2015, I immediately loved how they produce bass. Closed enclosure means that the bass is punchier and always hits with extreme control. Never loose or soft. To me this means great bass detail also. Double bass and difficult passages are always played with great clarity. What actives do much better than the passives is the reach and power, they really hit deep and you can feel it.
I almost never listen to classical or jazz, more electronic/rock/progressive guy myself. So I can’t comment about orchestral music.
I would definitely not call Metrum relaxing or too relaxing sounding. It was always somehow on top of the music and very much alive. Very detailed and crispy touch to the music, but not fatiguing. I would’ve hoped slightly better flow of music, which is where my current ADSM excels and is even better than Naim. I did get slight sensation of “separate instruments in the sound space”, if you know what I mean. They didn’t connect as well as I would’ve hoped. By no means did Jade sound sleepy/soft/muffled etc. None of these adjectives match it. If I wouldn’t have had bass problems with it, I’d probably still have the Jade. Maybe 40/60 musical/analytical and on the neutral side.
The casing felt slightly cheap for the price point of Jade. It’s well built though but little bit common and plain otherwise. The volume control is stupid since it’s sunk in to the front plate. So it’s difficult to use manually but the remote control worked well and was high quality.
What helped me most with Jade was this one discussion on SBAF. If this violates rules of Naim forum, then please delete this link:
There’s few good reviews which I found more helpful than commercial reviews. Onyx is identical to Jade but with no pre-amp function.
I hope this helps.