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ATC SCM 40A Active Speakers

Isobarik

Isobarik

pfm Member
I've been contemplating buying a pair of these for quite awhile now, these will be the last pair of loudspeakers I'll probably own.
Saw a pair on the net for £3,200 in excellent condition. I heard a pair of ATC's many moons ago and the sound I heard has stayed with me.

I only have a Naim 42.5 so a new Pre-Amp seems inevitable.

Your thoughts would be most welcome.
 
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Fantastic speaker. Probably not the most “relaxing” speaker in the world, but it does so many things so well.
£3200 is a total bargain for something that’s difficult to beat even if you had £10k to spend.
 
Bear in mind the inputs into the 40’s is XLR, so you’d have to get some 4-pin DIN-to- 2 XLR cables made up.
As you say, probably time to get a diff PreAmp as well.
I use my 40a’s with a Linn Akurate, but have also used it with a Naim Atom HE, a Bel Canto Pre & even a NAD 658 pre for a short time.
Speakers are always a personal choice & room interaction will have a say. But the 40a’s seem to usually work well in a wide variety of rooms & placements.
Downsides?… Some say they need a reasonable volume level to really come to life & don’t work so well at very low volumes.
I think the Grilles are ugly, so they’re still in the box.
And the Power switch is inconveniently located low down on the rear panel. Some leave them switched on 24/7, I use a remote control power switch.
 
Isobarik said:
I've been contemplating buying a pair of these for quite awhile now, these will be the last pair of loudspeakers I'll probably own.
Saw a pair on the net for £3,200 in excellent condition. I heard a pair of ATC's many moons ago and the sound I heard has stayed with me.

I only have a Naim 42.5 so a new Pre-Amp seems inevitable.

Your thoughts would be most welcome.
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If you remember liking the sound of (probably passive) ATCs, you’ll be blown away by the sound of the actives. I have the (Mk2, curved cabinet) 40A’s and they continue to put a smile on my face.
They’re neutral, so feed them a bright/forward signal and they’ll sound bright/forward, ditto whatever other flavour you inject. I don’t think they have a sound signature at all except “great”!
 
£3200 is a decent deal, probably out of warranty so make sure they are fully working. I went from a full fat naim system to ATCCDA2 into active 40s, they just do everything really well, voices are astonishing. Plenty of power, loads of insight, can be played very loud but don’t need to be.

The grills look better in the room than on pictures, apparently they offer some acoustic benefits. You could probably cover them in some kind of elasticated cloth if it really bothers you.

To be honest speakers are rarely things of beauty.

I bought mine new, worth every penny.
 

manicatel said:
I use my 40a’s with a Linn Akurate, but have also used it with a Naim Atom HE, a Bel Canto Pre & even a NAD 658 pre for a short time.
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I'm still using a NAD C658 with my '40As. Have you found the other preamps to be significantly better?
 
Isobarik said:
I've been contemplating buying a pair of these for quite awhile now, these will be the last pair of loudspeakers I'll probably own.
Saw a pair on the net for £3,200 in excellent condition. I heard a pair of ATC's many moons ago and the sound I heard has stayed with me.

I only have a Naim 42.5 so a new Pre-Amp seems inevitable.

Your thoughts would be most welcome.
Click to expand...
I have them and think they are great. What particularly stands out is the mid-range clarity, and effortless ability to just go louder without doing anything else.
I don’t know what your source set up is, but for digital I would not bother with a preamp, but either way would ideally use something with a decent balanced output. That’s it really, (although I do use Dirac too).
 
On the preamp front, I drove my ProAc passives with my Arcam A49 integrated which is quite a beast and surprised a good few people (I had had and enjoyed a few Arcam amps and this is the best by a mile, probabnly their best ever). When I went active I've kept the A49 on preamp duty - it also drives the kitchen Dali Opticons so this is partly for domestic convenience. The logical step for sound quality would be an MFA Baby Ref passive though that's probably more money for a lot less functionality. However, everyone who hears my system is wowed so I don't think the A49 is holding it back too much...
If your current integrated has pre out connections then I'd certainly start off using this.

Final thought is that we all tend to refer to the SCM40A's as speakers, but of course you're getting six drivers and six amps... and the crossover is on the right side of (before) the amps, so they represent extraordinary value in hifi kit terms... and that's before we get to their extraordinary sonic value.
 
Toaster said:
I'm still using a NAD C658 with my '40As. Have you found the other preamps to be significantly better?
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Different rather than better. Except for the Linn Akurate with Katalyst DAC which is a fairly big step up.
The NAD was a loaner whilst my Bel canto Pre3 was being repaired. I was very pleasantly surprised as to how good the NAD was. The BC was ultimately better, a bit smoother, more depth etc but the difference wasn’t huge to my ears.
Think the remote & finish on the NAD was a bit cheap feeling, but sound-wise it was very good especially at its price.
 
manicatel said:
Different rather than better. Except for the Linn Akurate with Katalyst DAC which is a fairly big step up.
The NAD was a loaner whilst my Bel canto Pre3 was being repaired. I was very pleasantly surprised as to how good the NAD was. The BC was ultimately better, a bit smoother, more depth etc but the difference wasn’t huge to my ears.
Think the remote & finish on the NAD was a bit cheap feeling, but sound-wise it was very good especially at its price.
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Thanks. I've also found the NAD to sound very good for what it cost. I will be trying my Bent Audio AVC-1 (copper-wired, balanced autoformers) at some point, which will be interesting. The NAD does do a lot of useful things as well as being a preamp, in a single box, which is why it's taken so long to break out the AVC-1. I also found that the Audiolab 8200CDQ worked well as a preamp, before I got the NAD.

I've considered Auralics, the Lyngdorf TDAi3400, the T+A DAC/ pre and a couple of the MiniDSP options and others, including the CDA2, but the wide range of features and the difficulty of hearing a decent range of options in one place make it difficult to compare. The NAD M66 is also a possibility of course. I should really have a proper look at the Linn options too, which I haven't done up until now. Great speakers, but I suspect there's still more potential in the tank.
 
Gaff (formerly Getgaff) said:
They were just outside the warranty period which was enough to put me off from bidding.
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In future maybe be braver? My experience of ATC out of warranty repairs is that in the unlikely event of them being needed is that they do not milk it in terms of their prices. Being out of warranty would not put me off a pair of 40 actives.
 
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