Getting The Best From ATC SCM11s

the more you toe them in the more top end you will hear so try firing them so that they point well behind the listening position and see if that improves matters. also the closer to the rear and side walls the more bass. id say 6 foot apart, firing behind the listening position, and 1-2 foot from side and rear walls (keep side and rear wall distance different if u can) would be a good place to start. listening 6-8 foot away from speakers.

you do have another option, scm19a or scm40a active speakers (do not require power amp).

We need more information to provide you with meaningful advice...

What size and shape is your room?

Are you prepared to consider using any form of digital room correction?

Which is your balance of priorities: Which is most important to you, more bass or more resolution?
The different solutions will balance these differently.

Try them pointing straight ahead. Then toe them in just enough to get a stable central image on vocals. You'll get a much bigger, more open sound, which will hopefully give you what you are looking for. 

ATC recommend listening to all their speakers on-axis and with the tweeter (or midrange if there is one) at or a little above ear height, and about as far away from the speakers as they are apart, so I would start there. Having them out from the walls makes sense. Move around the room, and closer or further away from the speakers, to see whether you are sitting in a bass null. A single voice should (usually) sound dead centre and relatively narrow - this indicates a good speaker, without any phase issues.  Nothing like a decent amount of power though. If you are tempted to go up the range  hold your horses until you've heard the active SCM19s .. might as well do the job properly

My SCM11's are about 30cms from wall, the sound is bass light. They are on a monitor shelf, on my "Studio" desk, they are toed in, so that the "inside" surfaces of the baffle are visible. The stereo image from swivel chair, is superb. Better than the image from SCM40's in the lounge (very difficult room). I'm going to gradually slide the 11's back, in an attempt to bring the bass up a little.

Distance from wall for 3 pairs of ATC speakers in our house -

SCM 7's - 5cm "depth of wall brackets"

SCM11's - 30cm, think about 10-15cm should do it.

SCM40's - 60cm, as per ATC's recommendation, bass is plentiful, tight, and tuneful. Shame re " slight hole in middle sound stage" due to large distance between speakers, but I had to live with this, with last 2 pairs of speakers due to room layout.

I tried my 250 into SCM11's, on stands, result was the chest pounding bass, with greater control.

As Huge said, more info, re your room would help.

Hi Neil, i think with the ATC sealed cabinets - its less about closeness to walls for bass - but more about stands and height. I have found higher mass stands reinforce bass sometimes overly so  - but treble performance falls off in terms of clarity. I find light rigid stands about 60cms tall sound best across the frequency range and resolves micro transients and details the best - albeit with the 19s. I find the closer to the walls you take the ATCs - bass doesn't necessarily increase but imaging and dynamics  seem to lessen - perhaps more refraction form the wall..

You might find you have some room cancellations - and so you might find the bass comes and goes depending where you sit - because the ATCs are relatively so neutral across the frequency band this sort of room effect can become more apparent than ported speaker with a bass enhancement boost.

Thanks for the responses so far. I'll try to fill in the blanks.

Room is 17' x 11.5' and the speakers are firing down the width of the room, at least 4' either side of the side walls. I have the speakers over 8' apart, with the seated position the same distance to form an equilateral triangle. They're on Altacama SE24s 25" high which puts the tweeters at ear height. Stands not filled yet.

I know nothing on the digital correction front, so I'll say no for now.

And if I were to have to choose between more bass at lower volumes and better resolution at higher levels, as a former clubber with damaged hearing I'd have to go for better resolution, so long as the bass is unaffected.

Simon - The treble is fine, very good in fact...I just want a bit more control at higher levels

I'll certainly give toeing the speakers to just behind the listening position and fill the speaker stands to see if there's an improvement.

Again, thanks

Neil

Hi Neil - although I have just a given several speaker stand sets away to charity - I have played around with many stand types over the years with the ATC entry series speakers (the 12, 11 and 19). Light open rigid like Russ Andrews or Something Solid appear to give the best balance - although special care is needed between speaker and stand. I use Pulsar Point decouplers.

Stands designed to be mass filled should be - although you can 'tune' them with the amount you fill. I have found typically around 60% optimal to provide weight and reduce (although not to the extent of open rigid stands) treble/mid smearing through ringing (will remove very fine detail and atmospheric realism - get a 252 or 552 and you will almost definitely notice this). Therefore I strongly suggest you fill you stands to increase bass (and physical) weight. I have previously used filled Atacama SL series stands - great for parties with bass weight - but not great at subtlety for the reasons I guess I outline above... Also if you talk to ATC they suggest for their  two way speakers that optimum height should be such that the point between the treble and bass/mid drivers is in line with your ears and not the tweeter... though I doubt it makes a huge difference.....

Simon