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ATC SCM 7 v2

N

nbaptista

pfm Member
Are these speakers an easy drive for a Densen B 110 or not? I’ve read that they are not an easy load, and they need a more powerful amplifier...
 
I don't know how the impedance curves differ (if at all), but not too long ago I heard the v3 with a little Rega Brio and a lowly Arcam, and neither amp had any trouble driving the speakers to loud levels listening at about 3-4m from the speakers. I thought the SCM 7v3 was a great speaker, and fantastic value compared with, say, the Harbeth P3ESR, which I own. ATC use big heavy woofers, and they have always specified powerful amps for their small speakers, but in a small to medium sized room, my impression is that their minimum recommendation of 75 watts is perfectly adequate. People often say the small passive ATC speakers need a lot of power, but it depends on the room size/listening position (these were meant to be listened to fairly close) and how loud you play your music. They do have low sensitivity (82dB for the v3), but that shouldn't be an issue.
 
The frequent comments about smaller ATC speakers needing power to come alive are true. I wouldn’t use 7s with a lower powered amp. If I needed an IB mini with a smaller amp, I’d go down the Spendor, Harbeth route.
 
I demo'ed the SCM7's with a Naim Atom, which is not the most powerful amp in the world but does have a decent kick to it and in my opinion the ATCs sounded flat and lifeless. You get sound, just not a lot of dynamics, I would definitely go for a potent amp with those speakers.
 
None of the ATC passive designs are difficult loads as such but, at the same time, none of them are very efficient designs either.
 
ATC amps are designed to work with the ATC passive speakers and are underrated. My SIA2-150 lets my Harbeths know who's boss.:)
 
Cato said:
I demo'ed the SCM7's with a Naim Atom, which is not the most powerful amp in the world but does have a decent kick to it and in my opinion the ATCs sounded flat and lifeless. You get sound, just not a lot of dynamics, I would definitely go for a potent amp with those speakers.
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I had exactly the same experience. Wish now I'd tried the little the SCM7's with a more muscular amp to see what they can really do.
 
YNWOAN said:
None of the ATC passive designs are difficult loads as such but, at the same time, none of them are very efficient designs either.
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Quite, most of the ATC range (SCM7, 11 and even 19) are actually very easy to drive with a very nice impedance curve, its just very inefficient.

I used the older SCM10s at around 80dB, in a tiny room (~8ft square) and they were fine with a 10wpc T-Amp, anything bigger of course, they will just need oodles of power.
Later, I used the SCM10s with a Rega Brio-R, not bad in a bigger room, but even the Bryston B60 was a massive jump despite on paper being very similar. As long as its not clipping, I'd go for the amp that sounds the best rather than just going by the most powerful.
Don't get me wrong, I also had a pair of Mk2 SCM7s, and tried them with 250wpc Audiolab 8200MB and Bryston 4BSST, superb if you needed the volume.


Hifi by Robert Seymour, on Flickr


System by Robert Seymour, on Flickr
 
Loved my ATC SCM7 mk1, they were a great little closed box speaker, needed a bit of juice to get them going but a Denson chucking out 120W into 4ohms should be fine.
 
Think I got mine in 2009 but it doesn't matter a good speaker is still good no matter the age.

It's synergy and all that bollocks :)
 
The B110 is extraordinary. Similarly, the scm7 are extraordinary mini monitors. But we cannot ignore that although they practice related philosophies, Densen historically uses a very radical design. This entails having to take special care with the load demanded by the speakers. Do not forget that it is electronics without feedback, because of that we have a certain factor damping, which is not the best idea for some scm7 ...... more if we talk about the B110. I have enjoyed my dm10mk2 with scm7 in 30 meters! But a B110 is not a dm10. That does not make it worse in itself. The B110 is faster than Oscar de la hoya, but the scm7 would deactivate that innate power. If you like the scm7, you have the perfect option opting for pmc, electrically related to the radical Densen concept and similarly related to purely flatearth philosophy.
 
DM-10 said:
The B110 is extraordinary. Similarly, the scm7 are extraordinary mini monitors. But we cannot ignore that although they practice related philosophies, Densen historically uses a very radical design. This entails having to take special care with the load demanded by the speakers. Do not forget that it is electronics without feedback, because of that we have a certain factor damping, which is not the best idea for some scm7 ...... more if we talk about the B110. I have enjoyed my dm10mk2 with scm7 in 30 meters! But a B110 is not a dm10. That does not make it worse in itself. The B110 is faster than Oscar de la hoya, but the scm7 would deactivate that innate power. If you like the scm7, you have the perfect option opting for pmc, electrically related to the radical Densen concept and similarly related to purely flatearth philosophy.
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Hello DM10... Can you elaborate a bit on this electrical matching required for Densen amps?
My DM30 seems to drive about everything I've tried (not too many), currently a pair of small BBC family monitors.
Omer.
 
Yes, you are right. In fact, a DM30 is basically a DM10 without a preamp. Now, your Dm30 will surely attack it with an active preamp. The dm10 is traced to a Dm30 but with transformers with threads in its secondary of higher voltage and in addition the dm10 implements a passive preamplifier reduced to a 10k logarithmic volume attenuator. The real difference before the margin of each one to be able to attack or a greater range of electric charges does not lie in that higher secondary voltage. The difference is that the dm10 attacked with active is called Dm30.
This, by the way, does not make either better or worse either. It's just about knowing what we have in hand
I finish as I started. True, the Dm30 spits a brute force and an almost insulting effortless dynamic

Cheers
 
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