NAC + active speakers. Crazy idea?

Naim 272 + ATC SCM40A won lots of hearts, just search for reviews.

Not clear what are ‘shelf’ speakers. Active ATCs of various levels are popular, the primary issue as far as I can glean is that Naim preamps don’t like long output cable lengths so possibly works best when the preamp is sited close to the speakers, e.g between them.

The benefits of active speakers are: 1) no passove crossover, instead direct drive of loudspeaker units (the same of course would apply with bi- or tri- amplificationwith a separate active crossover). And 2) power amps suited/complementary to the speaker - that doesn’t mean tgey can’t be beaten, but maybe not so easy to beat.

SCM40A must be great speakers! The price is saying for them At least.

But I look for smaller solution. Bookshelf ones. So far only Acoustic Energy AE1 active speakers are in the least. But I am not sure if this will be a proper match for NAC. First of all because of different "leagues".

The AE spekers are good, but maybe have a look at studio monitors such as Mackie HR624 or Genelec G4. They are designed to be transparent, have adjustment controls for shelf/near wall placement and in my experience pro gear tends to give more bang for the buck in terms of sound than that aimed at audiophiles.

Alternatively, Elac just released the new Andrew Jones designed active speakers which may well be worthy of a 272 front end.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Not clear what are ‘shelf’ speakers. Active ATCs of various levels are popular, the primary issue as far as I can glean is that Naim preamps don’t like long output cable lengths so possibly works best when the preamp is sited close to the speakers, e.g between them.

The benefits of active speakers are: 1) no passove crossover, instead direct drive of loudspeaker units (the same of course would apply with bi- or tri- amplificationwith a separate active crossover). And 2) power amps suited/complementary to the speaker - that doesn’t mean tgey can’t be beaten, but maybe not so easy to beat.

My ATC active speakers sit on the end of 5m VanDamme leads and sound wonderful.

They also sat on the end of 10m Chord Signature TA for a couple of weeks demo, but then the ND555 started shipping so I put the £2,000 (for a 5m pair) toward one of those instead.   The 5m Chord cables are relegated to the 'wanted one day' list.

My ATC active speakers sit on the end of 5m VanDamme leads and sound wonderful.

They also sat on the end of 10m Chord Signature TA for a couple of weeks demo, but then the ND555 started shipping so I put the £2,000 (for a 5m pair) toward one of those instead.   The 5m Chord cables are relegated to the 'wanted one day' list.

Hiya. If poss could you give me your thoughts on your move to active ATC. I'm considering SCM50asl as a replacement for my 500dr / SL2. I'm having a dem next week but would be interested in your perspective as someone who has done the switch and lived with them for a while!

Thanks

Hi Andrew, I had a NAP500 running B&W 802Ds (through 5m Super Lumia).  I heard the ATC active speakers at my dealer in Chester at an ATC weekend, and loved what I heard.  I borrowed the 100 passive towers for a couple of weeks and ran them with my NAP500 (non-DR), but was not convinced I should change. Then someone on this forum (sorry, forgot who) said I have to hear the active version, so my dealer swapped out the passive crossover for the active amps modules...  and the rest is history,  There was no way these were going back to the dealer, so I held onto them until my own (stand mount version) arrived six weeks later.   That was 10 months ago and I don't regret a minute of it.  My dealer sold my NAP500 and B&Ws  and S/L for me.

Bottom line... there's a very strong chance you'll like what you hear. The strength of these ATC speakers is their lack of coloration, so you hear more or less what the sound engineer was hearing  (given that many studios use ATC monitors).

So, I'll be looking forward to reading how you got on the the dem pair 

DC71 posted:

The AE spekers are good, but maybe have a look at studio monitors such as Mackie HR624 or Genelec G4. They are designed to be transparent, have adjustment controls for shelf/near wall placement and in my experience pro gear tends to give more bang for the buck in terms of sound than that aimed at audiophiles.

Alternatively, Elac just released the new Andrew Jones designed active speakers which may well be worthy of a 272 front end.

Thank you, for interesting ideas, DC71!

Especially ELAC NAVIS ARB-51 seems interesting. But this model seems to be very new. Cannot find them around... 

What do you think about ELAC AIR-X 403 version? Or course, without wireless module.

Last several days I spent for studying Lyngdorf TDAI-3400. D class emplifier+streamer with Room correction function. For my conditions this could be an interesting solution but this is "pure digital" machine. So far no possibility to hear its quality.