Your thoughts about ATC loudspeakers

@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.

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?

Keoliphant, we sell the ATC and just took in mint pair of Harbeth C7 in trade towards the ATC SCM 19V2.

Here is the take on both speakers, first you do not want an overly warm amp with Harbeths, Harbeths are polite speakers in the treble. 

As per the ATC they are more dynamic, with a more life like sound, the Harbeths are more laid back perspective in the treble with a richer midrange.

We do not agree with Keoliphant the ATC sound great at all volumes, the issue with ATC is that many people like to play them loud as they do not compress and just get louder without compression. 

Low volume playback is all about a system's total resolution. 

If you like a rich laid back sound then Harbeths are your poison, if you favor a sound which mirrors real life the ATC are the better speaker.

If you like find wooden cabinets Harbeths are much prettier.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I didn't go with the 30.1 at the time cause I listen to mostly live concerts and a good amount electronic music.  I felt the C7 were a more of a all around speaker and more my style in sound.   Rock, jazz, blues, and classical are all great too!  Plus even at low levels they sound great.  I agree they really do sound better with a ss amp and pre.  The definition of the sound wasn't as mushy as with tubes.  Not to say a tube amp wouldn't be great I just know what I heard.   I found the Atc speakers to even be more finicky with matching amps and preamp.  My Mac ss sounds great with my C7, but I heard atc 40's with Mac gear I found them dull.  This is probably why many atc owners say to go active rather than passive.  

Hej

Just wanna say that I’ve had the ATC SCM 19v2 for about three years now. They are 20 cm from backwall and 230 cm from listening position. Room size about 3,9 x 4,5 m. Amp is an old tube amp (EL84 push-pull) with 35w. I`m usually listening at low to normal listening volume. Volume pot never higher than 10 o`clock so there is still more power to use (without distorsion, I`ve checked). Fatigue? Yes, with very bad recordings.

This speakers and this amp sounds wonderful together IMHO😀

Regards

Staffan