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Your thoughts about ATC loudspeakers

I’m interested in the ATC SCM-40 from their HiFi series and would like to hear from people who have owned or spent a lot of time with ATC speakers. This is a fairly new model and may be a bit of a departure from their classic sound.

At the show in Newport last weekend, I was quite taken by these speakers. I went back the next day and heard the same things that I liked about them, but a couple of red flags also went up:

Microdynamics – not sure these speakers do them well and microdynamics are critical to communicating inflection and nuance and to making music sound alive

Imaging, specifically wrt depth. Nothing much outside of the plane of the speakers, so recording venue info is not there and even instrument and vocal body may suffer a bit.

Were these shortcomings of setup or associated gear, or is this what ATC does?
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keoliphant
86 posts
 
I'm interested in the SCM19V2's for my office setup. Currently KEF LS50's with PS Audio BHK 300 monos, BHK preamplifier, and Directstream DAC. 

Overall, I'm happy with the sound but the KEF's are my system's weak spot. I'm looking for more speaker dynamics at low and medium volumes, better sound staging (if possible), and better bass.

Any thoughts on the SCM19V2's for (1) near-field listening or (2) putting them close to my back wall?

Better speaker options? I was thinking Harbeth Compact 7's, Dynaudio Contour 20, and KEF Reference 1's. I think the sealed ATC's or Harbeths would be best since they'll be close to the back wall. Plus the KeF and Dynaudio's are far deeper speakers.

I'm mostly into Willie/Merle, acoustic/folk, chamber, jazz...5% rock!

Thanks!Ken 
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audiotroy
3,837 posts
 
We are both displaying Kef and ATC dealers if you have any particular questions give us a call.

We also sell Elac, Paradigm, Kef Reference, and Quad. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
biscorbit
143 posts
 
@keoliphant You can’t go wrong with Harbeth c7es3! I love mine! I was also looking at atc 19’s but something was lacking for me!   Good luck! 
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@keoliphant

At lower volumes Harbeth is a great choice even with SS. ATC are bone crunching dynamic at louder SPL with SS but at lower volumes (if that is mostly what you are after for an office) then I would advise a warm traditional style tube preamp to warm them up but definitely SS power amp to drive them. KEF is similar to ATC - fairly neutral. Harbeth sound really good at low volume - they have almost a tube warmth to them in the bass (so not the last word in bass but great for casual listening at lower volume - think BBC classical radio all day )

I am not familiar with how warm the BHK preamp sounds. I see both BHK pre and monos are MOSFET output which will have no problem with ATC but probably won’t be as warm as a conventional tube amp with autotransformer.
keoliphant
86 posts
 
Thanks for the responses - I've been wanting to try Harbeths for awhile now and your responses definitely help get me to pull the trigger. I believe the BHK's would be a nice match...they have a tube input stage which warms them up nicely.

Now to figure out if I go c7es3 or M30.2!!! Any thoughts?
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