Down to 2 speakers & I can't decide, ProAc D48R vs Spendor D9

I was just about to jump onto the ProAc D48R when I had an long demo. of the ATC SCM 40A. My goodness the active version really did beat the passive, and not by a small amount either.

Would / should the ATC SCM 40A beat the D48R/ naim 300DR driving them ?

I heard an active will beat a passive everytime (within reason e.g. similar priced/quality speakers & power amp or even a bit higher).

There seems to be a consensus that active is the way to go with ATC. Was the difference between active ATC SCM40 and passive as big as the price difference? ($7K vs $14K list). What amp was driving the passive?

what about naim loudspeakers? also great speakers on audiogon sell for incredible prices. you can buy way better speakers for the money. just an opinion. 

So you've heard the ProAcs and the ATCs, and I assume/hope you listened to them with your own music.  What did you think?  I personally love both these speakers, but for very different reasons.  If I'm looking for dynamics and the feeling of a live performance, I'd go ATC no doubt.  If I'm looking more for "audiophile" characteristics like a deep, 3D soundstage, speakers disappearing, etc. then it's ProAc.  To me, these major speaker strengths and inherent characteristics override the mode of amplification in this particular situation.  Only you can make that final decision, but with your preferred music my strong bias would be for ATC.  And yes, their active speakers are clearly superior to passive, which you've obvious already found.  From what I've heard from you so far, if it's me I'd sell my current amp to help finance active ATCs.  Just my $0.02 and FWIW. 

I just traded in my atcsm40s for spendor d9.   The atc need to be played very loud to hit their stride. D9 I can listen to at a lower  volume and still sound nice.  Soundstage is great