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ATC SCM 19 v2

Woodface said:
I probably listen louder on my ATCs because they just sound so clean & open. However, they still sound great at lower levels.
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When I moved from my moderate-sized Proac floor-standers to some bigger ATCs I too slowly realized that I was listening at a louder level. Then gradually I found myself returning to a lower volume setting as I got used to them. I actually suspect I listen now at a slightly lower level than before because volume-setting cues from musical detail are now more apparent.

With no intention to be over-critical of my previous loudspeakers (which I enjoyed for a long time) their smaller drivers did not maintain their good sound at any more than my then-normal mid-field listening level. Above that they quickly sounded increasingly congested. That was one of their constraints I identified that needed fixing with new loudspeakers.

I suspect that freedom from this constraint meant that I temporarily over-indulged the volume control. But now it's back to normal and I too don't experience the common meme that ATC loudspeakers come to life at high volumes. What I experience is that they stay healthy at high high volumes where I found my previous loudspeakers started sounding poorly.

I am quite sure people do perceive the difference they describe. But I have come to use different words to describe my version of the experience.
 
So yesterday I went for my demo, ended up listening to the atc scm 11s and also spendor A7 on the end of a naim nait xs3. Didn’t listen to the 40s as atc said the 11s would be closer so didn’t see the point.

Re the A7s I was so surprised by how little I liked them, good detail but a bit etched and very thin in the bass. Always thought I would like these given what I had previously read.

Then listened to the ATCs and thought they were better than the A7s particularly mid and high frequencies, however definitely missing bass which meant they sounded a little light weight to me. Of course this could be the demo room, amplification or the fact I am used to the fuller sounding shl5+.

However, I am looking forward to my home demo of the 19s which from what I have read and given they are nearly twice the volume I am expecting a much fuller sound. So have high hopes. This will of course also be in my room with my amplifier (exposure 3010S2D), can’t say I was impressed with the xs3 although maybe not a fair comparison on different speakers/ room.

will report back.
 
Allaboutmusic said:
...Then listened to the ATCs and thought they were better than the A7s particularly mid and high frequencies, however definitely missing bass which meant they sounded a little light weight to me. Of course this could be the demo room, amplification or the fact I am used to the fuller sounding shl5+. ...
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Bass levels are one of those really key matters for individual taste. However I have some thoughts about the "lean" bass reported from most ATC loudspeakers that might be checked on home demo.

If you are not into room correction, getting rid of excess bass is a hard problem. With lean bass you have what may be the easier option of moving the loudspeakers towards room boundaries and getting some audio reinforcement. Within reason, of course - so not for big problems. It worked perfectly for my SCM50As guided by REW measurement.

However, if using room correction then (again within reason) cutting bass levels electronically is considered preferable to applying boost. So loudspeakers with much too lean a bass presentation for taste may not be best here.
 
No sure I get the modern ATC sound..... years ago I had a pair of the ATC SCM 12 standmounters, a model which seems to be forgotten nowadays. It was current around 2000-2006 I think, there was a matching SCM7 and SCM 35 at around the same time before the square boxed black baffled SCM 7,11, 19 and 40 appeared. Anyway the SCM12s were marvellous, then I sadly "upgraded" to pair of passive SCM20s SL.... bigger sound but not as nice.

In recent years I have demo'd the passive ATC 19 and active SCM 20 pro at home, many thanks to Hifi Corner for that, but they just did nothing for me at all. All kinds of speakers have worked well in this room, in roughly the same sort of positions, but those ATCs never sounded any better than "nice" or "ok".... the sound just never seemed to get out of the box and into the room. I'd like to hear the active 40s some time in this room too, but based on those experiences I'll be surprised if they changed my mind.

I also owned ATC SCM50A for a year... I felt like they were shouting at me all the time, sort of a sergeant-major of speakers. Hard work.
 
Put my 19’s in a bedroom system today…broke some audiophile rules: one speaker almost in the corner, plonked down on a glass topped shelf, old Onkyo midi system as the source/amp (similar to the more popular Denons)…surprising result was superb sound: lots of clean deep, warm bass, lovely mids and highs, better than in my living room! Deadmau5, Sibelius, Ali Farka Toure, Led Zepplin, Múm, Miles Davis all sounded fantastic.
 
Allaboutmusic said:
So yesterday I went for my demo, ended up listening to the atc scm 11s and also spendor A7 on the end of a naim nait xs3. Didn’t listen to the 40s as atc said the 11s would be closer so didn’t see the point.

Re the A7s I was so surprised by how little I liked them, good detail but a bit etched and very thin in the bass. Always thought I would like these given what I had previously read.

Then listened to the ATCs and thought they were better than the A7s particularly mid and high frequencies, however definitely missing bass which meant they sounded a little light weight to me. Of course this could be the demo room, amplification or the fact I am used to the fuller sounding shl5+.

However, I am looking forward to my home demo of the 19s which from what I have read and given they are nearly twice the volume I am expecting a much fuller sound. So have high hopes. This will of course also be in my room with my amplifier (exposure 3010S2D), can’t say I was impressed with the xs3 although maybe not a fair comparison on different speakers/ room.

will report back.
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That matches my experience with the Spendor A4. A little etched and bright in the highs, a not-invisible crossover between mids and highs, bass slightly lumpy. Wasn't impressed. The Classic series far exceeded the A line in my experience. Richer, but also more open and detailed, with a tauter bass and better sense of cohesion. The A series by comparison sound a bit crude, but are also a bit more forward, which done people prefer.

Looking forward to your thoughts on the SCM19.
 
Allaboutmusic said:
I am looking forward to my home demo of the 19s which from what I have read and given they are nearly twice the volume I am expecting a much fuller sound.
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The SCM19 v2 has much more gratifying bass extension than ATC's specifications may suggest, keep in mind that a sealed enclosure has a much more gradual roll off than a comparable competing reflex speaker will have. I've been living with a new pair of 19s since the end of December and I can't see myself enjoying with anything else more.
 
Heckyman said:
Put my 19’s in a bedroom system today…broke some audiophile rules: one speaker almost in the corner, plonked down on a glass topped shelf, old Onkyo midi system as the source/amp (similar to the more popular Denons)…surprising result was superb sound: lots of clean deep, warm bass, lovely mids and highs, better than in my living room! Deadmau5, Sibelius, Ali Farka Toure, Led Zepplin, Múm, Miles Davis all sounded fantastic.
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COVID has given me an excuse to have three system: amps Chord Toby, Chord 265, Sugden Masterclass; speakers Spendor D1 and Harbeth psr. Answer the question of which configuration sounds best: the one that's playing in the single bedroom.
 
Brian S said:
COVID has given me an excuse to have three system: amps Chord Toby, Chord 265, Sugden Masterclass; speakers Spendor D1 and Harbeth psr. Answer the question of which configuration sounds best: the one that's playing in the single bedroom.
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I’m thus erring towards the bigger room needing bigger speakers ;-) :-(
 
Allaboutmusic said:
So yesterday I went for my demo, ended up listening to the atc scm 11s and also spendor A7 on the end of a naim nait xs3. Didn’t listen to the 40s as atc said the 11s would be closer so didn’t see the point.

Re the A7s I was so surprised by how little I liked them, good detail but a bit etched and very thin in the bass. Always thought I would like these given what I had previously read.

Then listened to the ATCs and thought they were better than the A7s particularly mid and high frequencies, however definitely missing bass which meant they sounded a little light weight to me. Of course this could be the demo room, amplification or the fact I am used to the fuller sounding shl5+.

However, I am looking forward to my home demo of the 19s which from what I have read and given they are nearly twice the volume I am expecting a much fuller sound. So have high hopes. This will of course also be in my room with my amplifier (exposure 3010S2D), can’t say I was impressed with the xs3 although maybe not a fair comparison on different speakers/ room.

will report back.
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Hi @Allaboutmusic did you manage to home demo the 19?

Did you also have the neat iota alpha and harbeth super 5? If so, how do you compare the 19 with it?
 
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Allaboutmusic said:
What cables do folk use? I don’t usually pay much attention to cables but noticed the handbook (available on their website says you need a cable with a min cross section of 2.5 mm2, however I currently use Atlas Hyper 2.0 which as I understand it is 2 mm2 so would need to change, so that would be an additional expense.
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I have had a very illuminating experience with this recently having changed my speaker cable from very thick pure copper shotgun Van Damme cable ( made up myself and very reasonably priced for 5m) to Chord Rumour X cable a much smaller cross sectional area silver coated cable (1.31mm2) in order to cure the bloated bass on my Proac DT8s which surprisingly it has largely achieved.

I never really believed that cables can make this much difference. I then tried the new (thinner) cable with my ATC scm11 and frankly they are unlistenable which concurs with ATC's advice not to use cables with a cross sectional are of less than 2.5mm2.They sounded thin, bass light and a mess and I turned them off after a few minutes.

I have been a happy owner of ATCs for some years completely unaware of the need for thicker cables but by chance that's what I had at home when I purchased them.

Some years prior to purchase of the scm 11's I listened at a dealer and they sounded awful: thin, bass light and reedy and strongly suspect it was because of the cable used.

Subsequently heard them at the Bristol show and in a different dealer and was blown away.

I wonder how many people have bought ATC speakers and not rated them because they were using inappropriate cabling?

The ATC' s also benefit hugely from boundary reinforcement and are in my opinion excellent speakers as long as used with the right set up, cabling and partnering equipment.

Interestingly they work best in a warm room above 19 degrees C as demonstrated by the review in HiFi Critic where they commented that they were temperature dependent the bass being wooden below that temperature.
 
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yunie_ said:
Hi @Allaboutmusic did you manage to home demo the 19?

Did you also have the neat iota alpha and harbeth super 5? If so, how do you compare the 19 with it?
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No never got round to it actually. I did go and listen to the 11s and some spendor A7s on the end of a nait xs3 but neither were for me. Kept the shl5s which have been very good but now time for a change and thinking about getting a pair of Neat Xplorers. I figured my neat momentum sx3i weren’t big enough for my room so the 19s may have struggled also.

Edit
although saying all that would have been good to hear them and probably would consider second hand once I sell my speakers or could even swap I guess.
 
I see.

I heard naim is never a good match for atc.

I'm recently heard the neat iota alpha but found the sound inconsistent depending on listening distance

I've also had the slh5+ but xd. Looking to get the 19 as well
 
Doyard said:
I have had a very illuminating experience with this recently having changed my speaker cable from very thick pure copper shotgun Van Damme cable ( made up myself and very reasonably priced for 5m) to Chord Rumour X cable a much smaller cross sectional area silver coated cable (1.31mm2) in order to cure the bloated bass on my Proac DT8s which surprisingly it has largely achieved.

I never really believed that cables can make this much difference. I then tried the new (thinner) cable with my ATC scm11 and frankly they are unlistenable which concurs with ATC's advice not to use cables with a cross sectional are of less than 2.5mm2.They sounded thin, bass light and a mess and I turned them off after a few minutes.

I have been a happy owner of ATCs for some years completely unaware of the need for thicker cables but by chance that's what I had at home when I purchased them.

Some years prior to purchase of the scm 11's I listened at a dealer and they sounded awful: thin, bass light and reedy and strongly suspect it was because of the cable used.

Subsequently heard them at the Bristol show and in a different dealer and was blown away.

I wonder how many people have bought ATC speakers and not rated them because they were using inappropriate cabling?

The ATC' s also benefit hugely from boundary reinforcement and are in my opinion excellent speakers as long as used with the right set up, cabling and partnering equipment.

Interestingly they work best in a warm room above 19 degrees C as demonstrated by the review in HiFi Critic where they commented that they were temperature dependent the bass being wooden below that temperature.
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Where did they say nt to use <2.5mm2?
 
yunie_ said:
Where did they say nt to use <2.5mm2?
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See ATC's Electronics FAQs. Specifically:

"4. What cable do you recommend for loudspeaker and line-level connections?
For loudspeaker cables we recommend using oxygen free multi-stranded copper cables., For lengths under 5 metres we recommend using 2.5mm2, and for longer cables up to 10m we recommend using 4mm2.
For line level cables we suggest good quality oxygen free multi-strand copper cable. Ideally bare silver-plated copper with less than 100pF/metre capacitance from core to screen."​
 
I had both SCM19 Actives and Beolab 9 Actives at one point. I sold the ATCs as to my ears they did not perform as well at medium to low levels, which is my normal listening level. However, the 19s performed better at higher levels where the sound remained tighter. So my comment would be the 19s are not ideal for listening at lower levels but otherwise great speakers.
 
yunie_ said:
I see.

I heard naim is never a good match for atc.

I'm recently heard the neat iota alpha but found the sound inconsistent depending on listening distance

I've also had the slh5+ but xd. Looking to get the 19 as well
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seems not to be the case on the naim forum.. plenty of atc users including me who is very happy with scm11 on a supernait 3
 
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