Demo pair of ATC SCM50’s..😎

Steely Dan and Donald Fagen albums sound sublime on these ATCs too btw!

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Beekeeper, thanks love the way Atcs deliver brutally honest but stunning. Recording studios are so complex
James Guthrie was able to open up the original album. The original album had some compression, it was originally there, however James Guthrie used high tech mixing studio to open it up. Maybe used Dolby atmos perhaps I don’t know but it’s good :hushed::slightly_smiling_face:

Agreed, great remix, and not just for ATC speakers! :slightly_smiling_face: Same on my current speakers and previous Monitor Audio 300s. Can also be heard on DSOTM, and Roger Waters’ Amused to Death.
I believe it’s done with a phase shift.

Mark

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Mark63 that’s it phase shift :slightly_smiling_face: thanks, Amused to death a stunning album opening track The ballad of Bill Hubbard Wow :hushed::hushed: really shows holographic soundstage. Late home tonight part 1 the skylark is above me loads of detail and nuances.
Last but not least Three wishes the genie :hushed::hushed::hushed: the bass is deep, you don’t just hear it, you feel it.
Stunning, sublime listen :grinning::hushed:

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I’ve decided to audition the scm 50s passive with my system. I am a big fan of standmount speakers for their imaging but I do understand they don’t possess the grunt that Naim gear has in reserve so I will now explore this.

My only fear is they will overpower my small room of approximately 4m by 4. My speakers are offset in the room which helps with a pretty even dispersion of the frequency range but obviously no room is perfect.

Any ideas on whether I’m on the right path or I am wasting my time?

Fyi my system is 552DR/135s

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I feel they will overpower your room, I have scm40 passive in a 4.5 x 5.5. They are 930 mm from tweeter to back wall and 2.3 mt apart. I’d say after careful placement they are borderline in my setup. I think they will load your room too much

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Hi Omegaman
Really interested in your thoughts on this. My gear and room is very similar to Khan84. (552dr/300dr/40s) . Ive been thinking hard about the 50s after demo of 606s and missing the atc sound (notably the mid range which felt puny in the 606s). Can you tell me more about the concept of an overpwered room? I know that sounds like a stupid question (and maybe is!), but what does ‘overpowered’ sound like? With thanks in advance

I don’t agree they’ll necessarily over-power your room. I’m into my 3rd week demo of the 50’s in a room of similar size and they are absolutely sublime. I love my 40’s and they’re a superb listen so I’m not going to say anything contrary about them but the 50’s are a step up and the larger drivers bring a significant improvement especially in the way they handle the lower frequencies. They are a wonderful listen. My wife also tells me they’re far better looking than the 40’s :man_shrugging:t4:.

So I’ve ordered a pair in the Burr High Gloss and they’re currently in build at ATC :sunglasses:

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It really is a case of doing a home demo. I tried both and the 50’s were better for sure but not in my room so bought the 40’s
The dealer had plenty of stories of 50’s working in small rooms so I think it really is room dependant.
Regards
Gary

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That’s reassuring, certainly makes me determined to further explore with a demo, thanks!

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Marcjaffrey all speakers as we know are room dependent and personal preference. I found after several speaker home demos the atc 40s worked best. The spendor d7.2 created too much bass boom, it felt like the whole room was resonating overpowering had to keep turning the volume down and up within a track.
The bass was too deep even though they were same distance as my Atcs. The Atcs do have a stunning midrange and in my environment a controlled bass.
However Atcs shine more once turned up a bit something i could never do with spendor d7.2 unfortunately.
Summing up sealed speakers work better in my listening room with no bass boom I’m lucky that WAF doesn’t mind them so far away from wall.
Stand mount atc scm19 came in at same height and size stunning speakers but just rolled off to early in bass

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Some speaker cables add quite a lot of bass bloom so I would not give up before trying other set of cables if having such issues. Naca5, TQ Ultra Black II etc in my room is adding too much bass bloom. My Oephi Ascendance are perfect. I tend to believe KS-1 is a step in that direction to.

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With effective implementation and correct aligning, DSP/room correction calibration and dialling in it’s perfectly possible to have these and other speakers of similar design/specs to work perfectly well in an environment of this size.

eg. Pics below show SCM50ASLT’s against the wall and for good measure a C4 sub in the back right hand corner of the room all working in harmony with it’s environment.

The end result is this system performs to a much higher level than some systems incorporating SCM50’s and SCM100’s I’ve come across over the years being used in bigger environments.

Btw, there is no passive room treatment in the small living room of this terraced house :slightly_smiling_face:

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Good points all.

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This is exactly why a home audition is so important. Good feedback.

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This is a good point also re cable. I have the Chord Epic XL and have no complaints but you make a good point regards the importance of good quality cabling. It can make a huge difference.

Room size isn’t the only defining factor. Wall materials, acousic treatment, speaker placement etc. all have huge effect. Small but well treated room can work very well with 50’s. If the walls are thin (drywall for example) then they also leak bass. Thick concrete will reflect pretty much everything and you need more bass traps.

IME 50’s aren’t that much different than 40’s when it comes to placement. They don’t artificially boost bass but they do play about 10hz lower than 40’s.

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:+1:t4:

What a lot of members are saying here is you can have potentially overwhelming speakers in a small room and speaker cables are going to cure the problem.

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What’s the price on the premium finishes please?

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