ATC scm50asl Pro

[Matt]

My ATC scm50asl Pro's arrived today.

After planning the purchase since around March and selling most of my existing hifi, i finally made the move.
They are made to order and took about 8 weeks to arrive.

You can buy them as a domestic version in any finish you like, but i ordered the pro version as used in many top recording studio's.

Here's a few pics i took as i unpacked these 50kg+ beasts

[Adrian]

Great photos Matt,

I don't know anything about ATC's, but what may I ask made up your mind about them? Had you heard them before?

I think you were selling their smaller brother earlier on in the year if my memory is correct.

Adrian.

[Matt]

Hi Adrian

Yes, i had the scm19's at the start of the year.

I had a pair of PMC IB1's a few years ago and loved the large 3 way speaker sound. I sold these when we moved house and regretted it ever since.

I bought some Tiny PMC DB1i's when i downsized the system and used them with a Rel sub but missed the large speaker sound. I blew the DB1i's on new years eve being over generous with the volume dial after a few drinks.

I knew of ATC from reading hifi magazines and hearing them in England some years ago and knew that they were regarded as one of the best monitors available with bomb proof build.
So i bought the scm19's as they were still small to please my girlfriend, but about twice the size of the DB1i's. Although a big improvement in all area's, i still wanted that big effortless 3 way speaker sound.
I upgraded my Krell Kav300i integrated to a Chapter audio pre and power amp. This brought the scm19's to another level, but they were still relatively small loudspeakers and i wasn't happy considering the money i had spent.

At this stage i had joined up on an ATC forum in the UK and got chatting to a few different people including Rick at Musicraft in Derby who owns the forum. I decided that if i sold my amp's, speakers and cables, that i could nearly afford a pair of scm50 actives.
So around March i started to sell everything and save up for the scm50 pro's.
I ordered them around the end of July.

Cheers
Matt

[Diapason]

Congratulations, Matt. Looking forward to a report on sonics!

[Matt]

Thanks Simon

At the moment im using a Tc Level Pilot(passive volume control) fed directly from my Cd player into the scm50's.
http://www.tcelectronic.com/levelpilot.asp

Its not ideal as you can imagine, but works surprisingly well. I got this just to get the speakers going while i save up for a Dac with built in volume control.

Ive had my Cd player since 2003, and through many amplifier and speaker changes, so its good to use this volume control with the new speakers to get a feel for the sound before introducing a new Dac into the equation.

First impressions:

The ATC house sound. Its a love or hate thing. The sound is so clean and lacking in distortion that its a shock to the system at first. All ATC loudspeakers are described as sounding the same, but you just get more of it as you move up the range. This is definitely true as they sound just like the scm19's with that clean, razor sharp sound.

I have that sound back that i have looked for since selling the IB1's, that only a large 3 way speaker can produce.

Extremely revealing and faithful to the recording/source. If there is bass there you will know all about it, but some lesser recordings have little bass.
Ive heard things in some of my favorite cd's that i haven't even heard on decent headphones.
There is a massive sense of ease with the sound, like the music just flows from the speakers.

Ill report back when i get a Dac or pre amp sorted

[Diapason]

Great stuff. Enjoy the new toys!

[Matt]

A few more pics taken with old digital camera, so slightly better than the phone pics.

[Adrian]

Good photos Matt,

What sensitivity are they? That was some sacrifice to upgrade, you let go some good kit, however all part of the persuit of Upgraditis!!

On the front view photos, there appears to be a panel which can be removed. Is this for a upgrade, ie second bass port, mid range driver etc, any ideas?

Adrian

[Fran]

Best of luck with the speakers Matt - its not the conventional route that you've gone, but you've obviously researched it all well.

Well you may wear!!

Keep us posted on how you get on with them....


Fran

[Matt]

Good photos Matt,

What sensitivity are they? That was some sacrifice to upgrade, you let go some good kit, however all part of the persuit of Upgraditis!!

On the front view photos, there appears to be a panel which can be removed. Is this for a upgrade, ie second bass port, mid range driver etc, any ideas?

Adrian

Hi Adrian

They are active so dont state a sensitivity, but the passive version is 85db.
Yes i was without a hifi for about 5 months, 3.5 of which i was out of work. So it was a struggle, selling my equipment to fund the ATC's and ending up spending some of it due to being unemployed. But as soon as i was back in work i ordered the speakers, knowing i had 6-8 weeks to get all the money together.
It was worth it in the end.

The removable panel on the front is to allow you to move the position of the tweeter and rotate it for the correct dispersion when lying the monitors on their sides on a mixing desk like this



There will however be a tweeter upgrade available in the not to distant future. ATC manufacture the bass and midrange units in house, but use a Seas Excel silver voice coil tweeter. They are currently working on their own tweeter.

Cheers
Matt