ATC are excellent no doubt,but IF I were to buy anything ATC it would be a powered version.
i agree w this - still have my scm10 and 20 actives, fondly recall that driven by arc ref 3 linestage the sound was lovely lovely... need to break them out and listen to them again sometime soon
passive atc’s are fine but you just need a very strong, pure solid state amplification to do them justice (not cheap)
one just needs to understand with all atc’s they are real monitors, in that they don’t smooth over warts or harshness... they play pretty much exactly what is fed to them for you to hear, and so you had better have a damn good signal coming in, or they may not bring the joy one may seek