It’s a bit strange but I feel I need a speaker made inside this building. Cousy!
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I wouldn’t bother spending large sums on a torque driver which will, at best, only give an approximate measure of the actual load applied by the screw.
Not sure about these imperial type scales, they seem fairly uncommon outside of N America from what I’ve seen. I use a little Sealey digital torque driver which claims to go down to 0.05Nm and didn’t cost too much.
I am in the UK I use both the Imperial and metric scales of torque. The ATC chap must do so as well as he quoted both.
You get what you pay for in sensitive technical instruments but relatively cheap ones are available. Yes, they measure what the screw is applying but that is what is required and intended when quoting values. It’s better than guessing.
An old-fashioned mechanical torque bar can be very good and not expensive but takes an experienced hand to use well.
It is quite reassuring to hear views like this. I deliberated for a long time which speakers to choose as my “end game” ones and ATC always came to the top. I would have liked a pair of 50s but I could not justify that price. Therefore the 40s were the logical choice. Was lucky to get a 3 yr old pair for £2k and I love them. I don’t really know why some people describe them as thin on base or recommend adding a sub though. There is plenty of base and a sub is certainly not required. Unless people prefer boomy base?
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I have 2 questions regarding ATC active 40s:
- The bass response specs suggest they don’t go down that low but the reviews I have read suggest they put out plenty of bass. How are they in this regard? I really don’t want to have a subwoofer in the living room.
- Do they pair well with a 272 which doesn’t have balanced outputs?
Thanks in advance!
I had used non balanced preamplifier to connect to active ATC before, without issue. You will need a RCA to XLR interconnect or adaptor to facilitate the connection. In your case, probably DIN to XLR. Music was enjoyable, however, I did not have a true balanced preamplifier before to hear what I was missing.
Specs indicated they do not go low, however, speakers interact with your room and cause room nodes, hence one may hear more bass than specs indicated. You’ll have to find a better position for the speakers and implement some bass traps in such situation.
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ATC does not cheat with their specifications… Other brands would have given 30hz to -3db without problem, what they do in my 24m2 room with the sofa 2m from the back wall and treated room.
It is like the diameter of the bass speaker…
I have to say personally I have never wanted more bass out of my passive SCM40’s driven by an olive NAP250. When I first got them a friend who is also into Hi-fi and music came over for a listen and he spent a few minutes thinking I had tricked him and had my REL 15/10 Predator sub in circuit because if you play something with genuine low bass like Buddha Bar or Hey Now by London Grammar the floor shakes and you can feel the air in the room actually resonating the way you can with a good subwoofer.
Just to put some flesh on that statement here’s a frequency plot of my response in room using REW software and a fully calibrated UMIK-1 test microphone. This is measured from the listening position around 12-14 feet away from the loudspeakers with the UMIK-1 on a boom to correspond with hot-seat ear position.
I am no expert in acoustic engineering, but what this shows is that the SCM40 in room is actually pretty flat down to 20Hz which was the start frequency of the test sweep. There is a bass peak from around 30Hz to 50Hz which is probably caused by boundary reinforcement or room modes, but that low down it would be very hard to treat with just bass traps.
I really like the way the SCM40 sounds in this room which is untreated and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t yet gone down the treatment route. If I really like the sound I am getting why change anything which could throw the system off? The response plot looks pretty good to my untrained eyes and that bass hump probably does give a little extra kick which is handy for rock!
I only posted this because it just shows how the SCM40 in room is barely tailing off even approaching 20Hz so to these ears and in this room they sound full bandwidth and I have certainly never craved more bass.
I hope this is helpful,
JonathanG
PS I think ATC tend to be rather modest with their specifications and I am reminded of an Aston Martin advert when they launched their V8 Vantage sports car and described the performance as “adequate” Don’t you just love British understatement!!
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ATC specs are quite conservative. Remember that the room often boosts the low end quite dramatically. So it’s not necessarily a bad thing if the ATC’s don’t go down to 20-30hz on paper.
I use 50ASL’s in ~32m2 space and they’re specced going down to 38hz -6dB. When measured with REW and UMIK-1 micropohone from the sweet spot, they go down to ~23hz -0dB in my room. There’s also a nasty room mode spiking the ~36hz region, which I’ve tamed with an advanced DSP (virtual bass array filter).
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Hi @Rap
As others have indicated, I wouldn’t go by the specs. I’ve certainly encountered speakers that supposedly go lower but when listening, that’s not what I’ve heard. Smaller ATCs, including 40s have sealed cabinets which means bass roll-off is much gentler than with a ported design.
There’s also the question of quality as well as quantity. I find the bass from the 40As to be very tight and it doesn’t suffer from the bloom that some speakers offer as “bass”.
All said, though, if you’re a fan of cathedral organ and want those massive pipes to vibrate your innards, perhaps look elsewhere. For anything else, I doubt you’ll find the 40A’s bass lacking unless you’ve a really large room.
Roger
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I recently went to a dealer demo which showcased two systems, one of which had active 100s (gloss black towers) and I found them very impressive, particularly when I persuaded them to play some heavyorchestral stuff.
There’s a “but” though. All ATCs I’ve heard are very revealing of the source and this was also shown up by the demo. When I got home, I put on some of the music I’d been listening to and whilst my system couldn’t recreate the sheer weight of the demo setup I did hear an extra transparency and insight. I put that down to my source (Linn DSM with Organik DAC) as compared with the Auralic stack used in the demo.
We’re always listening to more than just the speakers!
Roger
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I spent a few hours with the atc scm150 active for the first time in Melbourne on Thursday and it is an experience I will never forget. Not a naim component in sight but what I heard was phenomenal. I have active dbls and the extra refinement from atcs dome HF and MF drivers was pretty obvious. I heard no over analytical sound or lack of involvement, I just didnt want to stop listening. that is the sign of speakers that make real music. CSPort turntable, kuzma arm emt cart, rcm phono, audionet stern pre, atc150 active, WOW, fantastic!
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Those 150’s look great, sadly I couldn’t get 50’s to work in my room…. But others seem to get big ATC’s to work in rooms of similar size… pesky room dynamics…
Gary
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If one likes the “ATC sound”, it makes the actives in particular a relative bargain.
Excluding the premium finishes, 150 ASLT’s (I prefer the towers) are cheaper than a pair of Kudos T808’s (which I am using for a price reference, and because they are well-regarded on this forum). I don’t have a clue which is a “better” speaker, but active T808’s would be pretty pricey.
Unfortunately, neither speaker is on my radar: my 40A’s are end-game now.
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Given their size vs room size. No isseus with unbalance presentation mainly the bass?
I’ve just home auditioned Atc40 passives vs ProAc D30s. I bought the ProAcs. ATC were good, but at “domestic” listening levels I found them lacking in lower registers. I also found the ProAcs more “open” and musically engaging. I realise this might not be the right thread to offer such a comment though.
But I’d recommend the ProAcs as something to listen to as an option if possible.
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May I ask, what were you driving the speakers with?
Was that with your SN2?
Personally, passive SCM40s are not the speakers I’d use with an SN. When I auditioned them, I wasn’t even convinced a 250DR was quite up to the task of getting the most out of them. (Sorry, JonathanG.) For me a 300DR is a better match, or possibly a NC 250, but I’ve not heard that pairing.
Ultimately, though it’s the actives that really do sing. ATC have been building amp packs for decades and by now they do know how to get the best out of their speakers, for me, at least.
Roger
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My 40A do not lack bass at low volume, listening remains balanced… After all depends on what we call bass and its level.
The quality of the preamp (as well as the source) is important, when I replaced the 272/xpsdr by the SPL Director mk2 the extreme bass (the real one!) appeared magically without talking about the rest…
My supernait 2