I have been out of touch with developments of various speaker designs for some while. I’m now in a position to start some serious demoing. However, my room, as always is the limiting factor. Currently I have a pair of Scansonic MB5’s which worked extremely well in my basement in Canada but not so much my current room back in England. I’m lucky that I have a reasonable sized bedroom devoted to music and the Scansonic’s currently live halfway down the long end of the room and as wide as possible, I’ve stuffed some acoustic foam into the rear ports which cut down the bass so the room doesn’t join in with the music. The bedroom is 12’ 10" x 9’ 10" I also have records and CD racks in there as well.
So practically I need a speaker that can tolerate room boundaries and ideally would like to stick with a floor standing unit. So far I have shortlisted the ATC SCM 40 as I like the sound signature and nearly purchased these when I got my Scansonic’s, it was a coin toss between the two. I have a pair of ATC SCM 19 downstairs in the lounge and have tried these upstairs with good effect but they do sound a bit constrained. The others I’m looking at are Kudos C20 and Super 20a, but am wondering if the Titan 606 might work as well.
So just looking for general ideas to guide me then I will book some serious demos. Ideally budget would be around £5000, I know the Titans are a bit expensive but if I see some ex demo I might be able to stretch to them.
Current system NDS-252-300DR and Linn LP12-ITTOK-DV TK Rua- Superline.
As a recent convert to ATC speakers and a very happy owner of a pair of SCM40, I am sure they would work very well in your room. Can you arrange home dem of a pair just to confirm they do? Many reviewers have said how they think the 40s outperform most speakers at their price point.
I have to put in a vote for the Russell K 150s, come in bang on your budget.
Well worth a listen. I have them in a room thats a little too small, so at high volume they do get a bit lively but at normal volumes i absolutly love them, instruments snd vocals are sublime
@Timbo, frankly the world is your oyster! I don’t know ATCs except by reputation but this is really down to your room. Neat, Kudos, Dynaudio, Focal can all be on your shortlist. I have Titan 505s and can highly recommend them.
Hi Tim, I’d say the Kudos 606 may produce too much bass in your room especially if the floor is a conventional boards on joists construction. Despite the fact that they work well near a wall and are generally unfussy they may just be too much in the space with a sprung floor. I have them on a sprung floor but that is in a room 25 ft x 16 ft. They do still occasionally cause a few problems. Fortunately only occasionally!
505s might be less likely to set the floor off given the isolation afforded by the stands.
Thanks so far everyone. I’m not keen on stand mounts due to the fact that my ATC SCM 19’s seem a bit underwhelming.
Agreed the floor is going to be a problem, however I’m hoping that siting the speakers near the boundary which will be an outside wall may help.
I’ve thought of SBL’s, I had a pair once that were active and very nice. I also lived with SL2’s for 10 years but eventually they became boring with the wall of sound (heresy I know), one of the reasons I opted for the Scansonic’s was the 3 dimensional image which was a nice refreshing change.
Preference for titans or atc speakers may be a matter of taste. I have heard a couple of different atc speakers and not liked them, but very much liked all the titans I have heard (although I am less keen on 606s than the others that is a contrary view to many)
I love my T505, which are on the Kudos stands and I use KS - 1 speaker cable - source LP12 with 252/300DR
to e they offer perfect synogy, very easy to place in a small room the sound stage is engauging brings you into the music accross the whole music spectrum - base is a dream in no way flat, great depth - mid range sings dynacmically and high notes are crystal - so yes you might say I am a fan
Thanks again for all of the comments and suggestions. It’s a long journey and it took me ages to demo speakers the last time around.
I did read up on the Kudos Titans and am intrigued with the isobaric design, I once had a pair of Linn Sara’s which were very nice but the drive units kept failing. The 505’s might work for me but I feel they are quite a way out of my budget.
I think my next move will be to grab the ATC SCM 19’s from the lounge and try them in various positions in my music room just to remind me what they sound like. In the lounge using my Supernait 1 they sound very nice and engaging at low volumes, but in my music room I tend to turn up the volume.
In the same (digital) system I find my Kudos S20’s highly successful which I see you mention. They are easy to place, mine are close to the back wall and the bass is well controlled. The NAP300DR was the really game change for me, using these speakers.
I think you need to audition a few speakers at a dealer, hopefully you have some suitable dealers nearby, where are you based?
Thanks for the S20’s recommendation. I have Cymbiosis just up the road from me so easy to audition.
I’ve been up to my music room and did a measure up and I’ve got this inner voice telling me that the Titan 505’s would be the optimum speaker, not very scientific I know but should be a lot of fun doing the demos. Ideally I would like to try my eventual shortlisted speakers at home, but realise that would be a bit of a stretch.