Thats fine, twin 15m runs would go the length of my house. Just picked up the Epic demo cables from my dealer for a couple of days…
Let us know how it sounds. But as we’ve been discussing elsewhere give it 24 hours or over night to settle in.
Just over a week of listening, experimenting with positioning, speaker cables etc, on Friday night, my father in law and I both sat there and said the sound was missing something. It was hard to discern exactly what, but no amount of tweaking with the positioning would fill that void. We concluded it was something very imperceptible, you didn’t feel you could reach out and “touch” the music. It sounded great after my Dali mentor menuets, but lacked the atmosphere
So, yesterday, I made a lightning trip to Wrexham and picked up some Dali Epicon 2s and Rubicon 6s. The Epicons are currently in situ and sound amazing, but it’s the extended listening that will tell.
Another dealer tapped up to source some ATC SCM40s and kudos super 20As for me for next weekend. I always feel guilty if I don’t buy from a dealer that has gone to the trouble of a home demo, but unfortunately not all dealers stock all speakers, and sound is a very personal choice…I want to get this right. I’ll buy speaker cable from the original dealer so they will get something out of it.
Did you ever get a chance to listen to the ProAc’s?
No - I have 3 decent dealers within an hours drive and none of them stock ProAc
That’s to bad.
Interested to see (hear) what you think about the ATC SCM40’s…they continue to surprise me how good they are at their price point.
I was at the local Dealer yesterday and listened (via 282/SCap/250DR/NDX2/555PS) to Kudos Titan 606 - overall a very nice sound, very detailed mid & upper, good bass, balanced sound…not quite my cuppa tea after some listening, but close. Then Titan 707 - more of everything, but to me not in a balanced way…not enjoyable to me…prefer my SCM40’s to both of them.
Finished off with ATC SCM50 (which I home demoed a while back), wonderful sound and scale, maybe not quite as detailed as Titans, however very listenable/enjoyable and prob no surprise as I have the SCM40’s.
Following some recent upgrades/layout changes will home demo them again…
Good luck with your search.
Interesting, I listened to Titan 808s while I was having my LP12 upgraded on Friday. The karousel and Radikal upgrades from Friday continue to put a smile on my face.
The 808s were tri-amped with 3 X 250DRs in an active configuration, fed from a 552 via a snaxo. The sound was simply stunning. But I took the opportunity to listen to some Super 20As. I have a dealer that stocks both kudos and ATCs so that is on my list for next weekend
Hi yorkshirepud what are the scm40 like for staging and placement near walls. I’m very interested in them
Good luck, interesting what your end choice will be. Every speaker no matter the price point will be a compromise so it is interesting what compromise you will be willing to live with.
My thought is that you really need to take a speaker which can work close to the rear wall. But what you may miss in “touching” the music is related to imaging and soundstage, which in a normal speaker is achieved by taking the speaker far away from side and front boundaries. As far as i understood that is not possible in your room (the chimney beeing in between the speakers) so do not forget that it may be possible you are chasing your own tail.
Hi, I have them approx 27/28cm from rear wall, side walls 1@ 56cm, 1@143cm.
One of the main criteria was for a speaker that could sit near to the rear wall, the ATC’s are a sealed speaker design, so are placement non-fussy…
The other main criteria was that it sounded good, both at low & high levels. Sound is detailed, effortless, and very listenable, whether loud or quiet listening…
I am happy with the soundstage, some prefer their speakers further out to improve this, however, for me it works ok as is. We are all different, so a demo of course is the way to go.
To reiterate my previous comments, in my experience the performance of the SCM40’s for their price point is very impressive.
Hi thank you very much for your reply I’m looking forward to home demo from Doug brady in two weeks time. Like you I prefer sealed speakers ported design booms too much for my environment plus I really like the whole concept of atc making their own drive units.
I home dem some atc scm 11 2 weeks ago and really enjoyed them so I’ll skip my booking with spendor and go scm40 to bring home. Plus space is limited even though living room is 4.7 x 4.9 solid floor and carpet I can only have speakers about 600mm out from wall
Thanks again for reply
Good luck, hope they work out for you.
(About same size as my room, 60cm should be more than enough for the SCM40’s)
I’ll be buying new speakers this year. Wish I could put B&W on my list but those hideous tweeters sitting on top of the cabinet are a deal breaker
Would appreciate if you can update on the outcome. The Epicon 2 was in my radar about a year ago as I thought it would be a significant improvement on the Dali Mentor Menuet. It is unfortunate I didn’t get to listen to it and went for something else instead. I’m sure they are wonderful speakers.
Hi, does they have to be floor standers? I have demoed at home the Contour 20s and they have one of the finest tweeters I’ve heard, a very mild ‘hifi’ voice but a magnificent stage and lots of coherent detail.
But this is my opinion only; in general, I always prefer an excellent, two way stand mount to any average floor stander. Anyway, when I had my 282/SC/250 (non DR, old stock fully serviced) my n-Sats sounded gorgeous.
m.
@anon96879789 thanks, and no they don’t have to be floorstanders, in fact at the moment I am demoing the Dali Epicon 2 which are also stand mounts. I’ll add the contours to me list, one of my dealers stock dynaudios
You’re welcome - try to have a listen at the Contour 20s. And if you see some 2nd hand Sats for sale just give them one second of thought.
m.
My speaker test playlist:
- Desperado, Karen Carpenter
- Another in bites the dust, Queen
- Hotel California, Eagles, live Hell Freezes Over
- Mozart’s concerto for flute, harp and orchestra in F Major, Albrecht Mayer
- Closest Thing to Crazy, Katie Melua
This list test, rythmn, bass, vocal, instrumentals and a bit of atmosphere with live music…
I would listen Devore gibbon 3xl and vivid kaya s12. I own the first one, in a sn3 chain and they works really well. I didn t audition the second option but I feel that with the refinement and verve of 250dr it could be a perfect marriage