Am I going wrong somewhere? Your advice and views, please.

[Anonymous]

I use ATC SCM100ASL Professional monitors which are mostly driven by the SCA2 Reference pre amplifier and i've yet to hear a passive system better this 🙂

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft

Hi, I must admit I like the idea of active speakers and they probably don't come better that ATC but the one thing that worries me is that I hear a lot that these bigger actives only sound good with the wick turned up, is that true?

I live in an appartment and don't want to fall out with the neighbours every time I listen to music.

 

[steve_1979]

the one thing that worries me is that I hear a lot that these bigger actives only sound good with the wick turned up, is that true?

I think that good active speakers sound good at any volume.

 

[WinterRacer]

Another advocate of active speakers here.

I changed from an £8K passive setup to £2K active setup and wouldn't consider passive speakers now. IME, the added clarity and lack of bass boom from a good active system are beneficial at any volume.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

I use ATC SCM100ASL Professional monitors which are mostly driven by the SCA2 Reference pre amplifier and i've yet to hear a passive system better this 🙂

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft

At the best part of £14,000 retail for that little lot , I suspect that is a bit more than Atticus was thinking of spending !

Still, I wouldn't mind hearing them for myself someday ,

Nick

Hi Nick

My post wasn't meant as a recommendation to Atticus but rather my view on the active v passive speakers debate. Anyway as of April 1st this year the SCA2 retails at £5261 and SCM100ASL Professional monitors at £10985. Well if you're ever in my neck of the woods then you're more than welcome to have a listen to this combination 🙂

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[atticus]

Given the amount of feedback I've had centring around active speakers; I am going to audition some AVI's and some ATC's to see what all the fuss is about

 

[atticus]

Given the amount of feedback I've had that centres around active speakers; I am going to audition some AVI's and some ATC's to see what all the fuss is about

 

[Overdose]

Please keep us informed. I for one, am very interested in what you discover.

 

[atticus]

I think we are getting somewhere.

This whole thing was initially precipitated by me wanting to play back my computer audio files through my hifi. There is the JB7 Brennan doo-hickey, but that has had too many sightly suspect reviews and needs Big Bucks spending to get a really decent capacity hardrive. The more I looked at the options, the less they made sense; there are Network Streamers, Sonos's, Olives' etc. But all priced well over the the sum of their component parts. And that's it, really, as HiFi inches closer to the PC market and good old Moore's Law comes into play (essentially that every 18 months, transistor capacity doubles) then why the hell should I fork out £MANY for something that will be technologically superceded a month or two later?

I can buy an external 2TB drive for around £70; store all the music I own and have space for a lot more. All I then need to do is get this to my speakers (circumnavigating the CD player, which along with its CDs is no more than the de facto format and media of choice for storing and playing back music files). We are supposed to be in the Technological Age FFS!

I digress....

My original beef was, and still is, that my Sound (quality) Per £Pound is, I am sorry to say, not cutting the mustard. It has been pointed out that my Preamp (Cyrus PreVs2) is a weak link; but I am not about to spend 2.5K upgrading it to the Cyrus DAC XP+. This is all starting to get very silly.

Another few folks have mentioned that my speakers (Tannoy DC8) are not suited to my system or putting out the kind of sound I want (look for them on eBay soon!). The suggestion is that I would be better off with studio monitors to give a totally clear and transparent sound.

So, I have auditioned the ADM 9.1's and subwoofer and they are very good indeed. The only niggle I had was that they were not quite 'airy' enough (though this could have been down the listening room's acoustics). Ashley James has very kindly invited me to his house to listen to the upcoming ADM 40 floorstanders, which he reckons will seriously outperform the ADM9.1's. I look forward to hearing them.

Opinions, please!

If I want an 'airy' and 'spacious' sound and soundstage and have the following: Cyrus CD8SE, PreVs2, Mono X's, PSX-R's, Genesis Silver Spiral speaker cable, Atlas Equator interconnects and (currently) Tannoy DC8's....

...what speakers would you suggest I go for?

Thanks to all!

 

[CnoEvil]

IMO Spacious and airy is quite an elusive quality, as it involves so many factors.

System wise, it starts with the source, is carried through the amp and is finally relayed through the speakers. If there is any weak link in the chain, the effect is spoiled.

The trouble is, the system can be right, but if the acoustics in the room are wrong (too "live" or too damped), the sound won't be right either.

The final factor, is the quality of the mains and how "noisy" it is. True Blue is now reaping the benefits of paying attention to this area.

IMO The amps that achieve this best are Class A (either SS or Valves), with Hybrids coming in second.....but this is personal, and I have previously listed SS amps that sound well (eg. Lavardin)

Whether speakers meet this criteria is personal, and greatly dependent on how good/well matched the rest of the system is. Ones that might be suitable are ATC, Kef Reference/R series, MA Platinum/GX, Focal, Spendor ST, PMC and B&W 800 series.

 

[atticus]

Well, well, well - what a long way I've come in only two weeks.

I did go and listen to the AVI ADM 40's and they are, without a doubt, the finest sounding speakers I have heard for a long time. Please note my use of the words "I have heard". After a fortnight on this forum, amongst others, I am not unaware that there are a number of different schools of thought when it comes to certain topics, not least of which is AVI HiFi.

At this time I have decided to simplify things and exchange my current gear for the new ADM's once they are released. [edited by mods: house rules; no selling please]

I will be sorry to see it go, since it was hard-won and took a considerable amount of time to put together. However, with my current situation being what it is, I feel it is the right thing to do and I look forward to yet another step in my quest for the ultimate music experience. I hope to meet some of you along the way again and will enjoy hearing your own findings.

 

[CnoEvil]

I'm glad your hifi journey is nearing its conclusion (for the present!), and you start getting back the element that was missing.

:cheers:

Cno

 

[Anonymous]

Well done Att1cus, I would love to hear those beasts. Can't wait for some user reviews.

 

[the record spot]

*sigh* if only I had £3,000 to spare...!

 

[AEJim]

Well, well, well - what a long way I've come in only two weeks.

I did go and listen to the AVI ADM 40's and they are, without a doubt, the finest sounding speakers I have heard for a long time. Please note my use of the words "I have heard". After a fortnight on this forum, amongst others, I am not unaware that there are a number of different schools of thought when it comes to certain topics, not least of which is AVI HiFi.

At this time I have decided to simplify things and exchange my current gear for the new ADM's once they are released. [edited by mods: house rules; no selling please]

I will be sorry to see it go, since it was hard-won and took a considerable amount of time to put together. However, with my current situation being what it is, I feel it is the right thing to do and I look forward to yet another step in my quest for the ultimate music experience. I hope to meet some of you along the way again and will enjoy hearing your own findings.

Glad you've found what you're after Atticus! AVI make some great gear, I still use the Lab Series CD player and Amp in the office and while Ashley may be a polarising figure I've always found him to be a good guy with strong opinions - nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn't harm anyone! 🙂

 

[Cpt.Issues]

Someone mentioned the problem with trying to get the perfect setup is not really knowing what your after so to speak.

A while back I drove my friend out to a gig in the countryside where she was singing, the gentleman who arranged the gig took a recording whilst she was performing. Afterwards we all went back to his place where he had a huge dedicated listening room setup by a studio professional complete with acoustic panelling etc. We listened to a few other tracks as well as the recording from the gig, the setup sounded genuinely incredible even before I ascertained we were listening to probably more than £30k worth of kit..

I returned home expecting my system to sound crap after that however on the contrary it made me feel quite content with my current setup, in a bedroom, actually it didn't sound too bad. I knew it would never sound as good as the other system even if I spent silly money on it. I now know what high end kit sounds like setup properly and instead of compelling me to keep upgrading I'm now quite happy to wait until I at least have a decent space first. (I doubt I could even fit the twin SCM0.-1-15s in the room :roll: )

The upgradibility 'thing' in the persuit of perfection seems endless but hearing that system has given me a benchmark of what an ultimate system might sound like thus when buying in future I've now got an idea how close (or more realistically) how far I am off the mark instead of endlessly spending out upgrading.

(Though I did go and splash out £40 on a mains conditioner straight away )

 

[Electro]

Someone mentioned the problem with trying to get the perfect setup is not really knowing what your after so to speak.

It was me who said ,

Hi atticus,

The story describing your HiFi journey is similar to so many others and unfortunately very few people truly find what they are looking for usually because they don't really know what they want .



It seem you are very fortunate in that you now have a reference point in sound after hearing a live performance and then a recording of that performance .

You are very lucky to have experienced that not many people get this sort of opportunity, and you are still content with your system so you must have been on the right track anyway 🙂 .

I think it would be a good thing if more people who are thinking of upgrading their HiFi system went to some small live gigs at a venue with good acoustics to give themselves a reference to guide them when listening to new equipment .

I found just such a venue not to far from me in Essex called High Barn .

http://www.high-barn.com/?main_page=contact_us

This is the sort of place where it is possible to hear great live music and get an idea of what a good balanced HiFi should sound like .

 

[Anonymous]

I've auditioned very expensive systems, some of them costing 100.000 pound, which will never be affordable for my standard. However, none of them even got close to real live music ...

 

[Cpt.Issues]

I've auditioned very expensive systems, some of them costing 100.000 pound, which will never be affordable for my standard. However, none of them even got close to real live music ...

Sometimes I feel the setup and quality of PA equipment can taint a performance undesirably and I actually think the studio recording sounds better (unless of course its a huge concert etc). However in the instance I'm referring to and small gigs where no PA equipment is used then I'd agree with your comment entirely.

 

[Farmitou]

Surely the best sound quality to rival "real performance " has to be very linar in it's projection. Will active speakers give this as well as traditional. I too want the sound to be performance like and acurate so am presently saving for a pair of Peak consult Empress. I know these blow the budgets on most people spend and hence why I'm saving, but not much will sound as good and as real! I'm presently running the Princess from their range and these are amazing, very acurate and easy to drive! They are still blown away by the larger, more fluid big sisters.

If you can listen, want real performance "v" engineered sounding equipment, you'll be hooked and saving 🙂.

 

[atticus]

Well, well, well.

A nice, new pair of Cherrywood ADM40's turned up this arvo. First impressions are that the absence of cable mayhem is a big plus. The g/f thinks they look very smart too, so also a plus. An infection in my left ear arrived with eminent timing two days ago, so I am unable to speak with authority about the sound they produce.

However, the imaging depth is superb and the g/f finds the bass 'cleaner and less boomy'.

Off to the Chemists in the AM for ear-drops......

 

[CnoEvil]

Well, well, well.

A nice, new pair of Cherrywood ADM40's turned up this arvo. First impressions are that the absence of cable mayhem is a big plus. The g/f thinks they look very smart too, so also a plus. An infection in my left ear arrived with eminent timing two days ago, so I am unable to speak with authority about the sound they produce.

However, the imaging depth is superb and the g/f finds the bass 'cleaner and less boomy'.

Off to the Chemists in the AM for ear-drops......

Good to see you back, and look forward to your thoughts, once the ear infection has cleared.

Cno

 

[atticus]

That's it; I've found my speaker!

Good looking, no more box madness, fewer leads and a clean, powerful and neutral sound.

With my background in Sound Engineering perhaps I should have known this already, but Active speakers were always going to be the better option for me. What these speakers will not do is flatter a poor recording, and I have more of these than I had previously realised (poor recordings, not speakers!)

The advantage of the ADM40 is that the makers (AVI) picked a very good driver (Scanspeak Illuminator @ £300 each) and designed the amplifier to complement the drivers' performance exactly. So what you have is an amplifier that is tailor-made for the driver it is powering. With a multi-box system, every time you change a box or a speaker, you get a different set of characteristics from the new combination.

The 40's have passed the WAF/gf test, as well as the coveted 'Father with Ears of Cloth Assessment' ("I say, these are quite good, aren't they! Would they plug into the back of my Steepletone machine, I wonder?")

And the simple fact is, that they have a much better Actual Component Cost to Selling Price ratio than anything I have previously owned. As computer based audio continues to converge with traditional HiFi systems, I think that this kind of kit is going to be much more prevalent than it is at the moment. And this should only be good news for the end user and music lover!

atticus: iPad 2 w/ Remote App, Western Digital 2TB external hard drive, Plusnet Fibre Broadband, Apple TV, AVI ADM40 floorstanders

 

[John Duncan]

Yes, good to see you back atticus, and good to hear you've found a system to suit.

 

[atticus]

...and a small update, a few years on.

I have just bought a pair of AVi DM10's. They're presently perched on top of my ADM 40's.

I'm listening to Penguin Cafe Orchestra's first album and it sounds outstanding.

Now to move house so the DM10's can have their own room. 🙂

 

[atticus]

And finally:

The ADM40's have been rehomed with my father. I went to a sawmill and got the chap to cut some beech into 200x200x900mm 'stands'. I have added the AVi Sub to the DM10's and I have to say, I think I've 'found' the sound I've been looking for all this time.

So thanks to all for your input and if there any other folks out there who don't fancy pick and mix-ing their way to a cracking sounding setup up, then look no further!