How far have you placed your ATC’s to the wall? The Dutch distributor (with a main focus on studio installation instead of hifi) of ATC swears by placing them close to the wall as, in his opinion, this will minimalize bass issues.
He has his own way of doing things that can something go against the hifi tweaks that many of us apply in our setups.
Would love to hear the forum’s experiences in terms of distance to the wall with your ATC speakers.
Right up to wall tends to enhance bass and minimise comb filtering at higher frequencies (one ideal is set into the wall so front face is flush, totally eliminating latter, standard practice in many, may e most, recording studios to get most accurate sound). Otherwise a long way away to reduce comb filtering, but may bass may be too little. In between generally not so good, albeit commonly done! The bass aspect depends on the speaker design - the 40s are not the most extended so close up may help.
But why ask? It is about the simplest thing possible to try for yourself?!
When I first got my SCM40As I had them firing across my rectangular room with the backs about 20cm from the wall. On a few tracks I felt the bass was a little excessive and not quite realistic, so I decided to experiment by moving them well away from the walls (about a metre from the rear wall) and firing down the room. I preferred this setup and that’s how they’ve stayed. Sealed box speakers are supposed to be more agnostic over positioning than ported models. My experience suggests that, whilst that may be the case, they still benefit from playing around with position.
This is personal, of course. For my taste, many domestic hifi systems rather overdo the bass. I listen almost exclusively to acoustic stuff and want my system to convey a convincing simulacrum of what I hear live. I’d always trade quality for quantity of bass towards that aim.
Roger
Have a look at the thread I started in 2022 “Show us your ATC’s” There has been quite a few responses in this thread. The photos and comments may be of interest, and ,of course you could add yours to the thread!
Was that a reply to me or the OP? I have already contributed a post about positioning on that thread.
Roger
The OP…