I have atc scm40 passive in black the grills are not in your face the same as lighter ones. However I remove them when listening there is just a touch of top end extension only tiny but its there 
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Not at all, Richard, I was well on the way to killing myself, and this gives me the chance to see my darling eight-year-old granddaughter Izzy grow up!
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The top picture looks remarkably (well exactly) like the picture I put up here on the thread…
Grills keep the drivers safe.
And do not change the sound to my cloth deaf ancient ears…
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I have three pairs of QUAD ESL57s, and the black grilles are basically all that you’re looking at.
They were conceived, designed and built by Peter Walker of QUAD, of course, but the look was the brainchild of Christopher Heal, of Heal’s Department Store fame.
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I have to confess they are in place on my black 40s mainly due to some horror stories on here involving cats🤣
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My ears are not good enough to tell any difference
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It is your pic (sorry) too lazy to go and photograph my own!
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Interesting stuff, I did not know that (the Heals bit)!
I quite like the look of them. They were also very good at deterring a couple of sweet mischievous kittens from playing with the drive units. They did pull off the metal grills twice, I am assuming each did it once and decided not to repeat this.
No worries it’s only a tiny amount the tweeter is just a bit clearer that’s all
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Just tried with grilles off, subtle maybe piano tad more precise/cleaner Carla Bley “Life goes on”.
Terry
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It is subtle but its there just a lift in top end extension. I thought I was loosing at one stage 
as we do 
Love them they are very good
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SCM40s ought to work fine in that setup. Mine are about 7ft apart and a bit further from the listening position. But, contrary to many views I have found they are somewhat sensitive to where they’re placed and work best with a bit of space around them. And that’s in spite of them being closed boxes.
Interestingly, the SCM25s are side ported, so might need some experimentation in positioning.
Roger
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Nice to see some action in the ATC thread.
Few comments about the topics discussed now.
About the power matching, it’s true that you’ll want to seek quite a powerful amplifier to get the best out of your ATC’s. That’s just the way it is. Naim SN2 + HCDR wasn’t enough for ATC SCM40’s I first owned. I only realized this after upgrading to the actives. Passives sounded good but they lacked speed, control and raw power compared to the actives. But this can be expected when comparing 80W integrated amp to ~230w of active amplification.
About the room size. It’s not only the size of the room but the surface materials and amount of acoustic treatment also which matters. If you live in a wooden house, then even small room can work since the room “breathes” out some bass energy. With all concrete surfaces, you might have problems in a small room with 50’s.
And it’s recommended to use the grilles with classic-series when listening. The speakers are voiced with the grilles on. I mostly take mine off for pictures only and sometimes when I have the apartment for myself, I might listen to them without the grilles since I just like how they look without the grilles.
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The other thing to take into account with passives, the amp is primarily driving the crossover filters via long speaker cables, both of these have complex impedances, not known by the amplifier designer.
The Actives use active, not passive crossovers before the three amplifiers drive the coils direct. These active crossovers are then “tuned” using a reference microphone to achieve perfection.
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Thanks Roger that is useful information. I noted the ports on the SCM25’s which made me wonder. I would jump at a pair of SCM40A’s as I’ve heard the passive version many times and love them. I’ll have a measure up and see what can be done for them. I suspect I can place them with a couple of feet from the back wall and the sides and maybe get them a bit further away from the listening position.
Cheers
Tim
