I’ve happily lived with a pair of ATC scm300A towers for the last 12 years. There really is nothing like a pair of large active speakers in a large room, able to crank up the volume to over 110db at the listening position 20ft from the speakers. They don’t just produce music, they create a complete musical event, whether at rock stadium levels or at more modest levels. Given room to breathe, they image surprisingly well for such a wide baffled speaker, giving a spectacularly realistic central image with sound emanating well past the speaker boundaries. Depth is very good, but not outstanding. Musicality is stunning providing they are fed by quality sources, I use an EmmLabs transport/dac feeding an Ayre KXR 20 preamp. But after 12 years with these babies, I feel the urge to try something else. I tried a pair of passive Vivid g2’s, but they surprisingly sounded totally underwhelming in my room, perhaps the Spirits would do the job, but they actually sounded rather clinical and fatiguing even with Ayre MXR20 or Bryston 28b3 monoblocks. So where next, well, in a few weeks I’ve got a pair of the ATC’s direct competitors in for a home dem, a pair of PMC MB2 XBD actives, they’ve only got twin 12” bass drivers vs the ATC’s twin 15” units, but I’ll be interested in whether the transmission line bass loading of the PMCs vs ported for the ATC’s competes. I’ve never heard a TL speaker, so this is gonna be interesting. Similar tweeters, similar mid units, but totally different bass loading. I’ll keep you posted
