ATC SCM40 stumbles the SN2?

I've had blind faith once or twice in hifi brands. Some you win, some you lose. I pre-ordered a Hugo 2 as I loved my Hugo TT but soon realised after using it, it wasn't for me or my system.

I'm surprised in a thread discussing how to drive ATC speakers nonone has yet mentioned ATC P1 power amp. In typical ATC manner you get an awful lot of quality for your money - true dual mono design, low noise and distortion, natural sound (nothing added, nothing taken away, as with other brands they do timing accuracy, emotion comes from the music not the hardware), 6 year warranty, and enough juice to drive just about anything. I've previously demo'd P1 with SCM40 and SCM19 and thought they were a perfect match. They're not the prettiest though.

Halloween Man posted:

I've had blind faith once or twice in hifi brands. Some you win, some you lose. I pre-ordered a Hugo 2 as I loved my Hugo TT but soon realised after using it, it wasn't for me or my system.

I'm surprised in a thread discussing how to drive ATC speakers nonone has yet mentioned ATC P1 power amp. In typical ATC manner you get an awful lot of quality for your money - true dual mono design, low noise and distortion, natural sound (nothing added, nothing taken away, yes as with other brands they do timing accuracy and emotion comes from the music, not the hardware), and enough juice to drive just about anything. I've previously demo'd P1 with SCM40 and SCM19 and thought they were a perfect match. They're not the prettiest though.

I think we have all done the blind faith bit once or twice, or moved up the chain without consideration of other manufacturers products.

like you i looked at chopping in my TT for the H2, but after hearing it i new it wasn't for me. Clear example of no guarantee a new product is better than the last, no matter how many reviews say to the contrary.

interestinly ive not heard the ATC amps driving the speakers, well other than in active form. I guess its the same amp just in external chassis.

Foxman50 posted:

analogmusic posted

You can’t really understand the Naim sound until you hear a properly set up Naim system.

it not about frequency response at all. It’s more about timing accuracy and emotional aspect of the music

so no other manufacturer produces equipment with timing accuracy and emotion. Interesting.

have you ever thought its just a simple matter of you having a preference for Naim. The brand?

many make comments on here about how the amps sound different to other but still blindly move up the ever costly chain. Each to there own i suppose but i would want to evaluate at each stage. Either the products have the same sound but provide more detail etc or they don't, the consesus seems to be they don't. Just my observations from others posts, but just look at comments made by the dr upgrade, makes a huge change to the sound signature.

One individual has just put an order down for the new Naim streamer without even hearing it. Whats that all about. £12K and not even heard it. Will they do any comparison with other products, lets see but i doubt it. You pays yer money and makes yer choice.

crazy hobby this, but by god don't it make interesting conversation 

No, I wouldn't pay this much money for a preference.

The Naim equipment has to perform musically for me.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Interesting simile  ...especially as when I have tried Red Bull I didn’t detect any effect on me, other than the lingering rather unpleasant aftertaste, I assume due to its artificial nature whether due to its active ingredient or its artificial flavouring.

The often vague hints more than direct statements about the ‘Naim sound” seem to suggest anything from an enhanced frequency band in the area covering the prime rhythmic information, to being ‘shouty’, to there being no house sound at all, while it has also been said to be different today from a so e years ago. This is what makes me prick up my ears when someone raises the subject of the ‘Naim sound’, trying to understand it better.

My own preference is for a natural sound.

When I had the Naim System the interaction between musicians was very exciting, ofcourse 'PRAT' existed but when I played classical to the  music something was missing but then my system was only entry level.  On bands such as Santana, or any bands Naim is second to none for toe tapping musical experience, but I still felt that the Naim sound added something akin  to the excitement factor to the whole sound.  As one rewier commented that the excitement factor is like grain added to digital photography to make it look like film.  Anyway its all subjective, lucky is the audiophile who has found his or her audio nirvana!

Hungryhalibut posted:

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. 

Hi HungryHalibut,

did you receive those ATC , and if so , have you been able to hear them in your setup ?

Thanks

Simon

Hi Simon

Thanks for asking. In the end I decided not to try them. My system is sounding really good and I decided it would be daft to sell a 300 and wires that I’ve only had for six months, with the loss that would entail. I had some SL2s about ten years ago, sold them and wasn’t really satisfied with speakers until I got some more. It’s very easy to get carried away with an idea and sometimes, if you just do nothing, the idea simply goes away. I’m sure the ATCs are lovely, but it’s not the right time for me. 

Shame - i was looking forward to finding out how you got on with them but understand the lack of motivation when your own system is providing a lot of pleasure. 

James

Thanks for the reply HH,
Great and simple lesson to all of us : just be happy with what you have. If it is sounding great , it is time to call off the hunt for more

The funny thing is that as soon as I gave up on the idea of trying the ATCs, my enjoyment of what I have improved. All the time you are thinking of something different, it’s like you are saying that what you have isn’t good enough. Which in the case of my system is just silly. 

a most wise decision HangryHalibut  - I am not the least bit interested in trying ATC active speaker myself.

If it works (Naim SL2 and NAP 300), why try to break it? 

You always make right Naim decisions, I salute you.

analogmusic posted:

a most wise decision HangryHalibut  - I am not the least bit interested in trying ATC active speaker myself.

If it works, why try to break it? 

Blinkers on as usual!  

Hungryhalibut posted:

Hi Simon

Thanks for asking. In the end I decided not to try them. My system is sounding really good and I decided it would be daft to sell a 300 and wires that I’ve only had for six months, with the loss that would entail. I had some SL2s about ten years ago, sold them and wasn’t really satisfied with speakers until I got some more. It’s very easy to get carried away with an idea and sometimes, if you just do nothing, the idea simply goes away. I’m sure the ATCs are lovely, but it’s not the right time for me. 

Very sensible. If the system pleases, leave it alone and just enjoy the music. 

Muttonjef posted:

analogmusic posted:

a most wise decision HangryHalibut  - I am not the least bit interested in trying ATC active speaker myself.

If it works, why try to break it? 

Blinkers on as usual!  

oh - so somebody doesn't like the ATC and you have to say something insipid and banal

what would be blinkers is for HH to try to waste his time on the  mongrel combination of Naim preamp and ATC speaker.

As I said, there's no need to try and improve on what Naim's engineers have spend thousands of hours on already.

analogmusic posted:

.

If it works (Naim SL2 and NAP 300), why try to break it? 

.

You could say that at every upgrade stage in every system, as long the each previous upgrade has been good. 

(But thismis not suggesting HH is wrong to decide as he has at this point in time)

analogmusic posted:

Muttonjef posted:

analogmusic posted:

a most wise decision HangryHalibut  - I am not the least bit interested in trying ATC active speaker myself.

If it works, why try to break it? 

Blinkers on as usual!  

oh - so somebody doesn't like the ATC and you have to say something insipid and banal

Some people will never understand Naim - and Naim never really wasted their time on those people.

 

If you actually would’ve heard any ATC speaker then your word would possibly have some weight behind it but you base your opinion of ATC on someone else saying that they didn’t like them in their system. That’s simply ridiculous. Please stop provoking people and bashing a brand you know nothing about, thank you. 

To HH: Good decision! If there’s nothing clearly wrong with your system, just listen and enjoy. 

analogmusic posted:

Muttonjef posted:

analogmusic posted:

a most wise decision HangryHalibut  - I am not the least bit interested in trying ATC active speaker myself.

If it works, why try to break it? 

Blinkers on as usual!  

oh - so somebody doesn't like the ATC and you have to say something insipid and banal

what would be blinkers is moving away from a full Naim system to a Mongrel ATC one.

 

 

 

No my comment said it all and not insipid and banal in any way.

You have never heard the ATC's and yet you say "I am not the least bit interested in trying ATC active speaker myself" So blinkered!!!

Speakers are a very personal choice and down to the individual, which I completely respect without question. Therefore I have no issue if someone doesn't like ATC's.

The fact that I moved away from Naim as my main system, was my choice and in no way a criticism of Naim. Therefore blinkers is very inappropriate as my ears and eyes were wide open, unlike yours.

Now hold on. There is no need for any argument here. It simply wasn’t the right time for me. It seems wholly inappropriate for Analogmusic to step in here and to slag off ATC. I’m sure they make great speakers. It seems very odd to refer to ‘mongrel systems’ when one has non Naim speakers and source. Naim is not the be all and end all, and it’s up to individuals to find what they like. My system is pure Naim but that’s not to say it wouldn’t be better with ATC speakers, or many others. Let’s live and let live. 

What you fail to understand in your ignorance and lack of understanding, is that Naim designed their amplifiers to work together, down to the very cable that links them together.

I've tried Naim preamp and Dynaudio active speakers, didn't work out (and Dynaudio is a much better match for Naim),  and while there are gains in clarity, the Naim boogie is gone..... Do you understand, can you understand that? 

It seems no. 

Life is too short and money too, and my Naim system makes me happy, so I would be very reckless indeed to trust your ears, (and who are you anyway? Some  guy on the Naim forum - who sold most of his Naim kit  ...) rather than my own and Naim's engineers.

Your comment is very much boring, mundane and banal. 

I am never  interested in views of people who sold their Naim kit. End of.

Get a grip. This isn’t the playground. Stop slinging insults. It just makes you appear foolish. 

Analog .... I’m still very perplexed as to why a number of years ago, you criticised the Chord Hugo without ever hearing one.

Having done a complete u-turn, you are now a zeolot for all things Chord ... regularly quoting Rob Watts as some kind of Guru.

The same pattern appears to manifest itself regularly and now you turn your attention to ATC .... weird.

Either you are over enthusiastic and consider your posts somehow helpful, or as I suspect, you like to wind folk up.

Why not just listen to the music and enjoy ...

Yes I have ATC and Chord Hugo (and Naim), but don’t bang on about it.

Please don’t take offence ... absolutely none intended.

just a well intentioned reality check ????

By all means it’s fine to comment on things you are qualified to .... but rather destructive and misleading if you are basing your opinions on little known facts, which are seemingly put across as fact.

Once again, no offence intended but it may help to consider the whole picture ????

analogmusic posted:

What you fail to understand in your ignorance and blinkered mind, is that Naim designed their amplifiers to work together, down to the very cable that links them together.

I've tried Naim preamp and Dynaudio active speakers, didn't work out (and Dynaudio is a much better match for Naim),  and while there are gains in clarity, the Naim boogie is gone..... Do you understand, can you understand that? 

It seems no. 

Life is too short and money too, and my Naim system makes me happy, so I would be very stupid indeed to trust your ears, (and who are you anyway? Some strange guy on the Naim forum...) rather than my own and Naim's engineers.

Your comment is very much boring, mundane and banal.  

HH is correct, this isn't the playground!

I'm sure others will judge your comments with the contempt they clearly deserve.

 Mr Frog.

ask for an inch, take a foot isn't going to happen here.

as you can see, I am still full of admiration of a full Naim system.

If I change my speakers from Dynaudio - it would be for some Naim speakers. 

analogmusic posted:

 Mr Frog.

ask for an inch, take a foot isn't going to happen here.

as you can see, I am still full of admiration of a full Naim system.

But you don't have a full Naim system. Far from it!! 

well it's a bit like the Blu2 upscaler.  one can always admire.... like the SL2.... out of reach, but full of admiration.

Waiting for the opportunity to hear ND555 

Analog ... Naim don’t make speakers any more!

I really think you are simply trying to wind folk up .... not very helpful