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Review ATC SCM20PSL monitors 50 hours listening

My wife's system under construction consists of a Rega Apollo R CD player, Luxman 509X integrated and new ATC SCM20PSL monitors!  In burr magnolia.  They are gorgeous!  All electronics sitting on an IKEA two shelf bench.  I did mention system under construction....before anyone flames. That shelf will be corrected with a Quadraspire SVT stand.  Okay?

Even in this incomplete phase with the monitors sitting on no name massed 29" stands, they are incredible.  The Luxman grabs hold of them firmly and just drives them.  All control.  The ATCs are really quick, image well without completely disappearing and have controlled slam.  Nicely extended highs, beautiful midrange and tight bass easily revealing acoustic bass timbre.  One can easily differentiate between Eddie Gomez, Edgar Meyer and Charnett Moffett.

She is having great fun with it even if Bon Jovi recordings mostly sound, well, marginal to be honest.  Heresy I say, but it's her system.

Zavfino Prima power cables, Decware ICs, Mojo Mystique 3 DAC, Duelund speaker cables, Decware ZLC power conditioner.

celtic66
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lonemountain
448 posts
 

Pro models sonically behave the same as consumer models.  However, pro models are in a different cabinet- an MDF cabinet painted black.  This usually leaves consumers unhappy as it will have multiple visible flaws.   We've had an audiophile try to buy a pro 20 to save money over the classic 20 and sent all three pairs back over a cosmetics (turning them all into B stock although they were all perfectly normal).  Pros don't care about tiny nicks or irregularities in paint.  Pros want the cheapest possible cabinet because it will get banged up anyway after a few years of use.  Most audiophiles do not understand this and think they should all be "assembly line perfect" even though ATC is small production handmade product. 

Consumer product has nice finishes and carefully built cabinets.

Brad   

celtic66 OP
1,651 posts
 

That was weird.  The ATC SCM20PSL monitors now with 100 hrs.  Better.  Insert Quadraspire SVT equipment stand and quite suddenly huge improvement.  Smearing removed allowing far better instrument/vocal attack, space between the aforementioned and a defined sound stage constructed.  

Definitely a blacker background and foundational bass is better defined, extended. Cannot wait for Sound Anchor speaker stands.  Cheers

 

celtic66 OP
1,651 posts
 

ATC SCM20PSL monitors now with 200 hrs. playing time on them, evolving with further help from Sound Anchor stands (thank you Tom from The Big Ear) and Herbie's Fat Dots.  Damn they are heavy!  The stands, not the dots.  The stands and dots cleaned things up further, mostly focusing vocals.

The system is the slightest bass shy so I've invoked the bass control on the Luxman 509X and boosted it a bit.  Is that wrong?

Anyway, if someone told me this would be my endgame system I would willingly accept.  It does so much right and simply breathes life into the performance.

digsmithd
913 posts
 

Glad you got sound anchors for them...I tried dots on mine but found that sound anchors blue just sounded more right in my system.My 19v2 give me enough bass and are setup really close to "perfect" for now 😵.Comments from brad are always spot on...he knows the product.I read some were that they do a pre run in/testing drivers at factory so burn in isnt that necessary?The recent price change makes the 19,ect an easy consideration.The 19 v2 is easily the best sounding monitor i have had in system/using zavfino primas/jumpers as well.Is it the "best"...for what they are asking for them now...enjoy celtic66

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