ATC SCM40 stumbles the SN2?

Russt- how big is your room? I’ve heard that the 40s need quite a lot of space. 

Hi HH, I'm currently working away from home and don't actually know the size of my room! They are situated either side of a fireplace approx. 5.5 - 6 feet apart. The lounge opens up into the dining room. I'll be home tomorrow, and I'll let you know dimensions then! I've had no issues with overwhelming bass or anything but they are still running in, with only about 30 hours use so far. Even the demo models I tried which were fully run-in had no bass issues whatsoever. I used to have Passive 19's with a 250DR but these active 40's are far superior in all respects.

Thanks, that would be very kind of you. 

Hi HH, my lounge is 17 x 11 ft then a 3ft 6ins doorway leading into a 11 x 9 ft dining room. The Active 40’s are 5ft 4 ins apart, firing across the width of the lounge, either side of the fireplace (I can’t move them any further apart due to a tv unit one side and a sideboard the other). The speakers are 8 inches out from the back wall and the listening position is approx 8 ft from the speakers. The speakers are connected to the wall with Naim Powerlines which are a massive improvement over the standard power leads supplied by ATC. I have Chord Shawline RCA to XLR between the 272 and the speakers. No need for a power amp, speaker cables or interconnects between power amp and 272. Just the 272, 555DR and the Active speakers. A simple system but sounds mighty fine to these cloth ears!

Hungryhalibut posted:

Thanks, that would be very kind of you. 

Tempted then Nigel ?

Russt posted:

Hi HH, my lounge is 17 x 11 ft then a 3ft 6ins doorway leading into a 11 x 9 ft dining room. The Active 40’s are 5ft 4 ins apart, firing across the width of the lounge, either side of the fireplace (I can’t move them any further apart due to a tv unit one side and a sideboard the other). The speakers are 8 inches out from the back wall and the listening position is approx 8 ft from the speakers. The speakers are connected to the wall with Naim Powerlines which are a massive improvement over the standard power leads supplied by ATC. I have Chord Shawline RCA to XLR between the 272 and the speakers. No need for a power amp, speaker cables or interconnects between power amp and 272. Just the 272, 555DR and the Active speakers. A simple system but sounds mighty fine to these cloth ears!

Thank you so much for going to the effort with all that detail, it’s absolutely perfect and much appreciated. ATC are sending me some 19A to try, but I was also wondering about the 40. My room is 12’ wide, and they’d be firing across that distance. 

The slight issue is that if I wanted to connect the speakers to the mains spur, which I would, I’d need to run the mains lead and din to XLR through a conduit behind the fireplace, which is not ideal with an unbalanced connection. ATC reckon it would be ok for the four feet of conduit. They don’t have 40s available so I’ll see how the 19s work. The 20 is the one I’m really interested in but they don’t have any available. 

I must say that the idea of not having tweaky burndies and SL wires rather appeals. We’ll see what transpires. 

james n posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

Thanks, that would be very kind of you. 

Tempted then Nigel ?

See above...

Very interesting. I'll be interested in how you get on (same issue here with the fireplace). 

James

HH, my room is only 11 feet wide and the Active 40's work fine. When I spoke to my dealer about trying the Active 19's first, he thought that the Active 40's are far superior with the infamous midrange unit and larger bass unit and the additional power of having 3 separate amps per speaker but with the same footprint of the Active 19's. So he suggested trying the 40's first and if they didn't work in my room with my system to then try the 19's. I tried the 40's from ATC and the rest is history, as they say!

So I would strongly suggest you try the Active 40's in your room, with your system, if you can get hold of a pair prior to making a decision about the 19's. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

Russt posted:

Hi HH, my lounge is 17 x 11 ft then a 3ft 6ins doorway leading into a 11 x 9 ft dining room. The Active 40’s are 5ft 4 ins apart, firing across the width of the lounge, either side of the fireplace (I can’t move them any further apart due to a tv unit one side and a sideboard the other). The speakers are 8 inches out from the back wall and the listening position is approx 8 ft from the speakers. The speakers are connected to the wall with Naim Powerlines which are a massive improvement over the standard power leads supplied by ATC. I have Chord Shawline RCA to XLR between the 272 and the speakers. No need for a power amp, speaker cables or interconnects between power amp and 272. Just the 272, 555DR and the Active speakers. A simple system but sounds mighty fine to these cloth ears!

Thank you so much for going to the effort with all that detail, it’s absolutely perfect and much appreciated. ATC are sending me some 19A to try, but I was also wondering about the 40. My room is 12’ wide, and they’d be firing across that distance. 

The slight issue is that if I wanted to connect the speakers to the mains spur, which I would, I’d need to run the mains lead and din to XLR through a conduit behind the fireplace, which is not ideal with an unbalanced connection. ATC reckon it would be ok for the four feet of conduit. They don’t have 40s available so I’ll see how the 19s work. The 20 is the one I’m really interested in but they don’t have any available. 

I must say that the idea of not having tweaky burndies and SL wires rather appeals. We’ll see what transpires. 

HH, your new 555, 300 and wires are barely run in... 

272 into Active 40s is very, very  good.

But Goldmund/passive 20s is glorious.

Naim matches well with ATC so I'd expect a nap300 to be a very interesting proposal.

No problems with Passive 40s here , they fill the room better than my 19s now I’ve extended the living room into the kitchen. Very nice speakers on their own in passive form , I’ll be ordering the Active 40s . 

Antonio1 posted:

272 into Active 40s is very, very  good.

But Goldmund/passive 20s is glorious.

Naim matches well with ATC so I'd expect a nap300 to be a very interesting proposal.

as I've mentioned in other threads I'm (or I should say we are) a fan of the simple visual approach and now been listening to 2boxes, 2speakers for nearly 18 months.  recent N272 update to 4.6 has moving things up another notch. 

Fronted by a N272/555 I listened to SCM40 passive with  (my) 250DR & then 300DR,   The 300 raised the bar significantly as you would expect....however linking the front end to SCM40A with some inexpensive and very thin ATC made up cables seemed to play music so right.  This was directly afterwards, and the 'active magic' even from cold.     
I will say the 300/scm40 pair had a fuller bottom end. 

kaydee6 posted:

I am currently waiting for the NDX2 and presently have the Allodigital One>NDAC>SN2/HicapDR. I would appreciate feedback from existing ATC 40 owner on their experience. Thanks

I did a (not so quick) search on what forum members post in their profiles with the key word "ATC" to find out what Naim amplification they hook up their ATC's with

So yeah... there might be hundreds of other users who never post on the forum and/or don't have their profile here so this does not pretend to be a statistically valid sample. I've also excluded those systems that do not use Naim amplification, and no, I am not bothered about the electronics in front of the power amp. I excluded the ATC actives since those preclude the use of a power amp and I was not too interested since my idea involved an external (Naim) Amp

I did this instead of asking forum members, I felt this 'put your money where your mouth is' but reversed (i.e. what do people ACTUALLY own) would give me a better idea than asking for opinions and get answers like 'I've never had X speakers but my experience with Y is...." 

Each line represents one user

NAP200 ATC SCM11

NAP200 ATC SCM11

NAP250 ATC SCM11

NAP250 ATC SCM11

NAP250 ATC SCM11

NAP300 ATC SCM11

NAP250 ATC SCM11

NAP250 ATC SCM11

SN2 ATC SCM19

SN2 ATC SCM19

NAP250 ATC SCM19

NAP250 ATC SCM19

NAP250 ATC SCM19

NAP250 ATC SCM19

NAP250 ATC SCM19

NAP250 ATC SCM19

SN2 ATC SCM40

SN2 ATC SCM40

NAP150 ATC SCM40

NAP200 ATC SCM40

NAP200 ATC SCM40

NAP250 ATC SCM40

NAP300 ATC SCM40

NAP300 ATC SCM40

NAP300 ATC SCM50

Amplifiers such as the NAP 250DR and NAP300 DR will get on top of and energize the 40's more effectively however the SN2 is still more than capable of driving 40's perfectly well. We've had no issues in using SN2/40's in the last five years. In fact we've not also had any issue with NAP100/40's either.

Musicraft (Derby) posted:

Amplifiers such as the NAP 250DR and NAP300 DR will get on top of and energize the 40's more effectively however the SN2 is still more than capable of driving 40's perfectly well. We've had no issues in using SN2/40's in the last five years. In fact we've not also had any issue with NAP100/40's either.

A few things;

1. I agree with you that the NAP250 is a perfectly capable amp to drive the passive SCM40

2.  I once hooked up a Nait XS to the SCM40 and also found it, 'perfectly acceptable' So when you say "We've had no issues in using SN2/40' what do you mean? 

3. The million dollar question is: Will a NAP250, NAP 300 or even a NAP 500 will be better than a pair of ATC SCM40A?

1. I think you mean the SN2

2. Good tonal match, ample power and no breakdowns. A good marriage

3. I don't think a price can be put on having a look/listen and deciding which you prefer

Musicraft (Derby) posted:

we've not also had any issue with NAP100/40's either.

i find that part a bit hard to swallow...

I know the NAP 200 + ATC SCM 40 can struggle depending on the music played.

Or the NAD C325BEE 50w/ch discontinued at £270. No issues over eleven years with 40's MK1 and 40's MK2's

Musicraft (Derby) posted:

Or the NAD C325BEE 50w/ch discontinued at £270. No issues over eleven years with 40's MK1 and 40's MK2's

maybe the Topping too ?? 

Dont like the tri amp speaker conectors of the 40's,does atc have a good solution or are we supposed to strugle with all kind of f connections.

mpw posted:

Musicraft (Derby) posted:

Or the NAD C325BEE 50w/ch discontinued at £270. No issues over eleven years with 40's MK1 and 40's MK2's

maybe the Topping too ?? 

From the NAP200 and SU2 ‘struggling’ with the SCM40 to NAD’s C325BEE and NAP100 having no issues with it

I once asked ATC and their response was “buy our amps or go active” so we can’t ask the parents 

Can anybody with actual experience with these ‘extremes’ inject some objectivity here? 

Alonso posted:

mpw posted:

Musicraft (Derby) posted:

Or the NAD C325BEE 50w/ch discontinued at £270. No issues over eleven years with 40's MK1 and 40's MK2's

maybe the Topping too ?? 

From the NAP200 and SU2 ‘struggling’ with the SCM40 to NAD’s C325BEE and NAP100 having no issues with it

I once asked ATC and their response was “buy our amps or go active” so we can’t ask the parents 

Can anybody with actual experience with these ‘extremes’ inject some objectivity here? 

 

 

 

 

 

The ATC SiA 150V2 is a 150W amp

that should say a lot about what is required.

mpw posted:

Alonso posted:

mpw posted:

Musicraft (Derby) posted:

Or the NAD C325BEE 50w/ch discontinued at £270. No issues over eleven years with 40's MK1 and 40's MK2's

maybe the Topping too ?? 

From the NAP200 and SU2 ‘struggling’ with the SCM40 to NAD’s C325BEE and NAP100 having no issues with it

I once asked ATC and their response was “buy our amps or go active” so we can’t ask the parents 

Can anybody with actual experience with these ‘extremes’ inject some objectivity here? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ATC SiA 150V2 is a 150W amp

that should say a lot about what is required.

Alonso posted:

mpw posted:

Musicraft (Derby) posted:

Or the NAD C325BEE 50w/ch discontinued at £270. No issues over eleven years with 40's MK1 and 40's MK2's

maybe the Topping too ?? 

From the NAP200 and SU2 ‘struggling’ with the SCM40 to NAD’s C325BEE and NAP100 having no issues with it

I once asked ATC and their response was “buy our amps or go active” so we can’t ask the parents 

Can anybody with actual experience with these ‘extremes’ inject some objectivity here? 

I can’t speak for the 40s, but I can the 19s and 12s (earlier model). I found, perhaps unsurprisingly, the musclier the amp, the tighter the bass, other than all Naim amps I tried sound good in their own way with their own amp character passing through, even the Nait XS2... I perhaps found the 200 a little thin with the 19, but the 250.2 sounds glorious in my room. The 40s having more drivers are going to be no doubt somewhat more demanding on amp for control, so I would use at least one of the regulated Naim amps such as the 250... The amp regulation is there for more demanding speakers in terms of control, it not just about the Watts.