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Recommendation for ATC SCM150 Amp/Pre

I ordered SCM150 passive speakers and awaiting shipment in about 2 months. 

Looking for an amp/pre amp combination that would best work with these speakers. 

I have a large pretty well treated room, 45' x 16' x 8' 

My taste is classical large scale symphony, piano, cello etc. 

Dynamics  are very important but so is tone and instrument timbre. 

I love harmonically rich tube sound but understand that I will be limited by power. 

Front end: Technics 1200G with umami red cart, luxman eq500 phono, Aurender A100 streamer/dac. 

I am open to Bi-amping options if anyone can recommend from personal experience. 

budget 20k for amps, 10k preamp, used market ok. 

possibilities : Electrocompaniet  AW 300M, single AW800,  Audio research Ref 250 or possibly 750, luxman m10x, etc. 

ei001h
ei001h OP
290 posts
 

I’ve read all the reviews about passive vs. actives and debated for a while about which one would work best for me. While it is true that actives have their advantages, I ultimately decided to go with passives so I could change amplification later on to get different signatures. It’s part of this hobby. I would have loved to get an Active if I could interchange the amps but I was told it’s not possible. I would like to have some measure of control and continue to tweak for the sound I enjoy.

 

erice64
4 posts
 

Have the ATC SC-2 which is a brilliant pre-amp. Add an ATC P2 and your done, even with two P2's your are ready for less than 20k (New)

 

willywonka
248 posts
 

Get Active ATC's but a Tube Preamp! I have a BAT VK-80 Tube preamp and am loving it with my Coda #8 amp. I also am considering getting some ATC's so am interested in this.

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,841 posts
 

One of the engineers at ATC was an intern with us, when he left it was to go to California to work at ATC.

@ei001h If you get the active version, it has a balanced input that conforms to the balanced standard, AES48. A lot of high end audio balanced preamps don't actually support the standard; if they support the standard then the interconnect cable you use will matter far less or not at all (one of the benefits of balanced line if done properly). There are  balanced tube preamps that have no problem at all with the 10KOhm input impedance.

The passive version of the speaker is an easy load. There are now class D amps out there that are every bit as musical (smooth and involving in the mids and highs) as the best tube amps or class A solid state amps so that might be something to put on the radar as well.

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