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It’s not obvious from the front, but the cabinet has quite a bit sticking out from the rear. Will this affect how far they need to be from the rear wall? Or is this common with all active speakers? I’ve never seen one until recently.
The amp pack doesn’t stick out much from the rear, about 40mm, I don’t think you would be considering placing your speakers that close to the wall ?
Not all makes of active speakers have this feature, for example the recently introduced PMC Twenty5 active speaker range don’t.
No. Class D amps (eg PMC) are typically built into the cabinets as are the Class AB amps on my little AE1 actives. But ATC’s Class AB amp packs on my SCM40s do project further out. That’s because they’re much more powerful and include heat sink fins that get warm and need to be outside the cabinet. However, you wouldn’t want to use them so close to the wall that this would restrict placement.
Roger
It’s bit fascinating that a company like ATC still use the wrong CE logo on their products. I mean, it’s available for download at the European commission web page for free. Makes one wonder if their products are fully tested and fulfil the safety requirements.
What? What’s your source for this?
EDIT: I checked my 50ASL’s and yes the spacing of C and E is wrong and closer to China Export logo. The only difference between these two logos is the spacing between C and E.
I wouldn’t be worried though. ATC is well regarded and known for the durability and sturdiness of their speakers. They have simply picked the wrong logo.
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I was originally sold these with a pair of the wooden Quadraspire “lean back” support stands.
Didn’t last long before they went all wobbly as these speakers, as ATC fans will know, are REALLY heavy.
Without the opportunity due to my planetary location to audition different stands, I asked ATC what stands they recommended and bought their suggestion - HMS 2X and added sand in the legs.
Look closely and you’ll see that the right speaker is sighted more forward than the left. I suffered some hearing loss in my right ear last year and have juggled with placement and hearing aid settings to achieve the best possible sound. It’s not as transcendent as it was before the sonic catastrophe, but the system still sounds better than 99% of everything else I’ve heard. Now spring has sprung here there’s also the option of sitting on the patio with my Xiaomi phone and the wonderful Sennheiser Mo’ 4’s.
I like the visually “blurring” effect that the metal grills have on the black cabinets, can’t say I’d be happy with the alternative though but hey, whatever floats it I guess.
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Sounds like a lot of effort had gone into optimising your system, enjoy!
Gary
Seriously?
Roger
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I agree, ATC have been in business since 1974 so unlikely they will poor processes….
Gary
50+ years in the business and one of the most well regarded studio and audiophile speaker brands in the world. Printing the CE logo with wrong spacing ruins the deal I guess.
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Seriously! Who’s going to control the spacing of the letters in the CE logo… there’s nothing else to do! What does it matter to a brand like ATC? We know they’re serious, right?
Yes those manufacturers that don’t even know how the logo should look like normally have more safety issues than others. Doesn’t mean so here but statistically that is indeed the case.
Are they difficult to drive, Pete.T ? I have an SN3 with HiCap and fancy a pair of 40’s passive, but the sensitivity looks a bit on the low side. Will the SN3 drive them ok, do you think?
That’s interesting. Could you point me to the statistics, please? I’d be interested in whether the analysis just picked up a correlation or looked for causation, and how they did this. Also what populations the results were based on.
Roger
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These things are very subjective, but when I auditioned active vs passive I thought a 250 DR struggled a bit to control them … it really needed a 300 to get them to sing. I know others do use SCM 40s with SN 2 and 3, but I wouldn’t myself.
Roger
As Roger said you need to listen to them primarily in your own environment. I listened to passive 40s at a local dealer driven with a 250DR and wasn’t impressed. The actives were far better. The passive 20s sounded great driven by 250DR to me
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You can contact any European or UK based authority that manage product safety and they will confirm this to you.
My 40s were Active Toby. I did previously have SCM19 with a bare SN2 which was good but really shone when I changed to a NAP 250DR. Your SN3 will definitely power passive 40s and no doubt sound excellent. The 40s will also be at home with amplifiers further up the ladder should you wish to go that way in the future. I would definitely try before you buy though.
Thanks very much guys for the advice.. I’ll see if my local dealer will let me demo a pair at home to see if they’re comfortable with the SN3. I asked the question because I was under the impression they weren’t as easy to drive as, say, Spendor D7.2. I’ll see what transpires over the next few weeks. Thanks again.
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