I use active 40’s and tried 50’s with 552/NDS/555.
The 50’s were amazing but too much for my room but I have now moved rooms and will likely revisit the 50’s. Naim and ATC work well but as always home demo before you jump in and no harm considered the active / passive option.
Gary
I will probably buy 40A, I have a 272, a classic RCA/XLR cable (Mogami or Sommer for example) is enough? not need a custom cable?
Mogami is great, you need a DIN to XLR
Gary…what cables do you use between the 552 and the ATCs please?
Also how long, I’m wondering what the limit might be for length from pre-amp to speakers?
Thx
When I got my SCM40As, they came with balanced cables; all I needed to do was specify the length I needed. I’m not sure if that would be the case for unbalanced leads, as you’d need with a 272, but I have since replaced the originals with Mogami and the SQ is at least as good.
Roger
Thank you for your answers but this is not the brand of the cable my question, but is what a commercial RCA/ XLR cable is well wired for ATC… I can’t find a DIN/XLR in France, I asked Design cable.
Gary…what cables do you use between the 552 and the ATCs please?
Also how long, I’m wondering what the limit might be for length from pre-amp to speakers?
Thx
I just use the standard blue one, mine is a good 6m and for aesthetics I will be getting a longer one so I can hide it round the outside of the room. 2 different ATC dealers have said the standard blue cable is good and I’m not aware of any impact on length.
Gary
According to the interweb, true balanced cables can be used in lengths up to 1000 feet.
I have gone a different route to some other ATC active users by using unbalanced to balanced transformers to effectively give me a true balanced output from my Supercap.
This has featured in earlier comments in this thread. I seem to be in a minority here, but this is what I have done, using 5m XLR cables.
I got Designacable to make me a 4pin din to 2 phono, and the XLR cables, and Canford Audio supplied the transformers.
I have DIN to XLR 5 m Mogami cables.
From 272 to ATC. No problems without any additional equipment. But up to 10m it will be necessary.
Hi @BigAl, I’m looking towards obtaining some ATC SCM 40a’s and putting them on my 252/Supercap. However, I cannot get my head around how to go from unbalanced to balanced. My cables need to be 9-10 metres in length and I’ve looked at the Canford Audio website and cannot work out exactly what item to buy.
I would really appreciate it if you could not only point me in the right direction but show me exactly what to purchase.
Many thanks
Tim
Hi Tim.
First off, I got Designacable to supply me with a 4-pin DIN to 2 phono cable, taking the stereo output from my Supercap and thereby splitting it into L/R signals.
I then added 2 CanfordAudio supplied RDL TX-AFC1M Audio Converters. These are unpowered, surprisingly heavy little boxes, into which I plugged the 5m XLRcables I had Designacable make up for me.
Put "Canford Audio unbalanced to balanced transformers " into your search engine and you will see options including the one I have detailed.
Supercap-4 pin din to 2 phono-2x Canford Transformers-XLR cables-ATC speakers = sonic nirvana 
This is exactly the route I have taken. I am seriously impressed with the 40A’s. In HIFI terms they are a bargain, and probably underpriced, fortunately for me.
HTH, Al
I’ll buy these Mogami, is that okay with the ATC?
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/7182PJ6lpIS.AC_SL1500.jpg
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61FoGFz2LzL.AC_SL1500.jpg
In a short time I will surely buy the ATC CDA2 Mk2 equipped with XLR…
Mogami should be fine with ATCs, but the plugs used and how well they’re made up also matter. Also, if they’re not balanced, they need to be wired correctly at the speaker end. There’s a simple wiring diagram in the instructions for my SCM40As and online. Like some others I used Designacable and it would be sensible to contact them before ordering.
Roger
I found the schematic on the ATC manual… it matches the Mogami cable above.
[https://atc.audio/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ENTRY-MANUAL-040919-webres.pdf]
@BigAl - Brilliant, thanks. I’ll get right on it, I was so looking at a completely different thing on the Canford Audio website.
Tim
Hi Tim
Glad you found what you need.
Other people have done other things, but what I have done has worked flawlessly, and presents the 40A’s with a true balanced signal which, I am given to understand, is more important the longer the cable run.
ATB, Al
As requested by @Sinewave, here are a few photos of my ‘refurbished’ SCM 12’s originally purchased over 20 years ago.
They are already pictured in this thread but not for a while. I’ve recently upgraded the signal path from the SuperCap to the NAP 250 with a new Van Damme DIN - XLR interconnect. £30 from a from a well-known auction site. An immediate improvement in detail against the original Naim NA-51. I also added Tellurium Q Black II jumpers replacing the ATC brass links. Again, a little more top-end detail and sparkle.
Over the last few years though, I’ve had to adjust the balance of the pre-amp more and more, and after having the 282, NAPSC, SuperCap and 250 serviced by Darren at Class A, I was assured the problem lay with the speakers.
I spoke to Ben Lilly from ATC at the Bristol Hifi Show last month about the problem. He suggested that the crossovers and bass drivers would all be fine, but the ferrofluid contained in the tweeters would certainly be drying out, creating a db drop. He offered to send out new tweeters but said that their stock replacement item had a slightly different rear heat sink which would require some alteration to the front baffle; a job I do not have the skills to accomplish. He made a phone call back the the factory for me and confirmed an off-the-shelf replacement from the company that bought Vifa Drivers. Willy’s Hifi delivered a matched pair this week for £59 plus VAT. Easy to swap out.
On the first power-up, they sounded a little harsh and the bass had seemed to have washed off a little. But over the last few days and after running the speakers at continuous high volume, the frequency response has evened out and the top end is becoming softer and more detailed. I’m told to expect the SQ to improve over the next few hundred hours.
A great little project, not costing the earth and the SCM12s restored to out-of-the-box condition. And they sound great. Naim and ATC do have a natural synergy.
The medium future will be to replace a lot of my kit basing the new system around ATC SCM40As. I’ll be auditioning the NSC222, Linn, an Auralic streaming pre-amp, pre-amp/DAC combos from Chord and, ATCs own CA-2 and SCA-2. My gold-plated system would be a one-box solution. So all change over the next year or two.
I thought the new Chord integrated amp fed by a Qutest and M Scaler and driving the SCM40s was the star of Bristol '24. It easily bettered Naim’s, Dynaudio’s and even ATC’s demo setup. But I do think Chord were lucky with their room allocation. This is of course my opinion!
Daz
Interesting post. Thanks!
