The passive speakers are usually a less exacting sound, the nature of passive crossovers is to smear the sound a little which makes them more forgiving. There is nothing wrong with the active amplifiers in the ATC's they remind me of McCormack or Pass amplifiers not dry but not wet and no weird stuff going on. They are very good. I am not familiar with the Cary SS amps. A guess would be that they are softer sounding than the on board amplifiers.
The advantage is the direct drive of each driver and the high current capabilities of the amps make the SCM20's some of the most brutally revealing speakers and dynamic compact speakers you can own at any price. But not because they are bright. These speakers will reveal the recording in such a away that even the weird noises you once thought were flaws become background instruments and other discernable glitches etc. Matching components is over rated unless you're dealing with marginal gear. Which many people are.
You won't need expensive cables to make the speakers sound good with your surround processor. I can think of some cables under $100 for all three that will do the job more than adequately. So no worries there. Cables are your last worry. No cable will make or break this system.
So should you go active? If your near future likely holds a larger room and the thought of more detail and dynamic range seem enticing then go active.
Remember if you get a good surround processor your days of listening to two channel are over and god will not punish you for occasionally using a tone control. This concept is foriegn here, but two channel is a compromise especially for digital playback. Use all the resources that are available to you in your system. The most idiotic thing on the planet is a surround processor optimized for 2 channel. Because its like bringing five players to the basketball game and only playing two at a time. But that's another issue.
Lastly SCM7's make very good matching rear channels $800 and the Concept 5 Center channel will require you to remove animals and small children from your room while playing.
The advantage is the direct drive of each driver and the high current capabilities of the amps make the SCM20's some of the most brutally revealing speakers and dynamic compact speakers you can own at any price. But not because they are bright. These speakers will reveal the recording in such a away that even the weird noises you once thought were flaws become background instruments and other discernable glitches etc. Matching components is over rated unless you're dealing with marginal gear. Which many people are.
You won't need expensive cables to make the speakers sound good with your surround processor. I can think of some cables under $100 for all three that will do the job more than adequately. So no worries there. Cables are your last worry. No cable will make or break this system.
So should you go active? If your near future likely holds a larger room and the thought of more detail and dynamic range seem enticing then go active.
Remember if you get a good surround processor your days of listening to two channel are over and god will not punish you for occasionally using a tone control. This concept is foriegn here, but two channel is a compromise especially for digital playback. Use all the resources that are available to you in your system. The most idiotic thing on the planet is a surround processor optimized for 2 channel. Because its like bringing five players to the basketball game and only playing two at a time. But that's another issue.
Lastly SCM7's make very good matching rear channels $800 and the Concept 5 Center channel will require you to remove animals and small children from your room while playing.