new house.. need for bigger sound too.

[indietronic]

hi, my gear as you can see from my signature below consists of a pair of ProAc D two standmounts on atacama heavy mass stands , Hegel H1 integrated (120wpc@8Ohm) ....

i've moved to a newly built house of mine and now the listening (living?) room is 6.10m (length) x 4m (width) . actually ive put a big sofa at the 3.5 metres so you're listening that far, and not 6.10.. height of the room is almost 3.10m

the house i used to live till now was quite smaller, with a smaller listening room and the sound was perfect, but now, i think that some things are missing, volume, dynamics, punch ...

i've been offered by a music store near my town an upgrade of speakers/amp (that is ALL i want to upgrade/change, here is that i want your help) . more specific, he can take back hegel and proacs d2 (both 6-8 months old, boxes etc), giving me at the same time ProAc D28 with Plinius 9200. [class="Apple-style-span"]difference in price is not yet calculated but i think it should be near [/class]€4000.

problem is (one whos built his/her own house can understand!) that i cannot afford (at least not now, not yet) to pay such a big amount AGAIN, so since i cannot wait to sit down and enjoy my music, i am thinking of alternate solutions, i mean a cheaper than -d28-plinius 9200- integrated / floorstanders ... what one should logically think is ATC.SCM40 with maybe some SIA-150 or YAMAHA integrated or i dunno. here i want your suggestions...

i've listened to the plinius 9200 with d28 combination . it was excellent.. i have not listened to scm40 (do know ATC' character though, transparent monitor, and i like it too, it's quite cheaper than d28... dunno if it s going to fill my space...)

different sound does not sound bad at all to me , since it would be different anyway due to the new room...

please share your knowledge and opinion with me..

 

[Craig M.]

have you tried moving the sofa back a bit? when i tried firing my speakers down the length of my room (about 8 metres), i found that putting the sofa around the middle resulted in the bass disappearing, in my room the sofa had to be closer to the speakers, or nearer the rear wall.

if you do need new kit, i can vouch for atcs amps and speakers being a great match. not heard either of your other options.

 

[DavidNorway]

hi do you live in Norway,Ris›r? or maybe your someone else.

 

[JoelSim]

Get some good floorstanders and go from there. ATC to me are a bit sterile, try Kudos C2 or C20. That will be enough I reckon.

 

[Anonymous]

atc scm40's and atc sia 150 intergrated is a great match together mate.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi indietronic

ATC's SIA2-150MK2/SCM40 or CA2/P1/SCM40 are all excellent combinations.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[indietronic]

for some reason i'd like to match plinius 9200 with either atc scm40 or ProAc Studio 140-2.. which one is a more successful match to your ears (ProAc Response D18 is close to the price..) anyway what you think ?

(bear in mind that what i'd love is ProAc D28 with Plinius 9200, but i cannot afford it...so looking for plinius9200+alternatives)

 

[MUSICRAFT]

indietronic:
for some reason i'd like to match plinius 9200 with either atc scm40 or ProAc Studio 140-2.. which one is a more successful match to your ears (ProAc Response D18 is close to the price..) anyway what you think ?

(bear in mind that what i'd love is ProAc D28 with Plinius 9200, but i cannot afford it...so looking for plinius9200+alternatives)

Hi indietronic

I think you'll find the SIA2-150MK2 to be a better match with the SCM40's then the 9200. One of the speakers the SIA2-150MK2 has been designed to work with are ATC's own massive SCM300 passive monitors so SCM40's and many other speakers are not really going to be a cause for concern for the SIA2-150MK2.

Btw, have you also considered Hegel's H200 amplifier?

As for speakers the SCM40's (with ATC's superb studio professional drive units) are the ones which i'll highly recommend as they can easily punch above their weight with their massive performance potential. Over the last year in particular when my clients have compared D18's (mostly) and D28's with SCM40's on every single occasion (regardless of associated components and even up unitil a few days ago) the SCM40's have been chosen usually within a few moments. Even after selling the SCM40's for over four years i am still amazed with their excellent capablities. I would even go as far as to say that imo i believe the SCM40's are overall probably the finest VFM passive speakers currently available on the market regardless of price.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[indietronic]

rick thank you for your detailed answers to my dillemma, technically.

1) are them ATC SCM-40 100% made in england?

2) compared to pracs how do youfind atc? my main concern in your comparison is lower frequencies....

 

[Frank Harvey]

indietronic: for some reason i'd like to match plinius 9200 with either atc scm40 or ProAc Studio 140-2.. which one is a more successful match to your ears (ProAc Response D18 is close to the price..) anyway what you think ?

I haven't heard the Plinius, so I can't say how ether of these speakers will match up, but we keep a very large range of speakers in the £1,500-6,000 price point (ATC, MA, KEF, Spendor, PMC, ProAc), and while customer's choices vary, a few favourites do stand out. The ProAc D18's are one of them. Many of our customers have chosen the D18's to partner Naim, Cyrus, and Arcam in particular. They don't seem too fussy a speaker, and seem one of the most listenable £2,000 speakers we have. Another favourite are the KEF Reference, but they're more in the price range of the D28's.

With B stock and ex-demo, there's always deals out there, and if there isn't, you don't normally need to wait too long to find them. So if you've heard the D28's and like them, wait for a short while and see if anything comes up. After all, they're going to build on the strengths of the D2's you love so much.

 

[Anonymous]

This may not be the answer to what you want ? How about trying an nad pre/power amp with a sub ? It may be a step back but I'm sure a lot of you know nad can play with the big boys. It will pack plenty of punch but possibly at a loss of detail. You will save some quid too.

 

[indietronic]

are them ATC SCM-40 100% made in england? i mean the whole procedure and every single element used .... 100% or not?

what other british-based hifi-speaker companies manufacture their products in uk ? i think spendor, harbeth and ProAc do maybe PMC too?

 

[MUSICRAFT]

indietronic:
rick thank you for your detailed answers to my dillemma, technically.

1) are them ATC SCM-40 100% made in england?

2) compared to pracs how do youfind atc? my main concern in your comparison is lower frequencies....

Hi indietronic

The cabinets for the Entry Series are sourced from abroad however the drive units, crossovers are hand made by ATC. Final assembly is also carried out at the factory.

The ATC's are flat and honest. The ATC's bass is accurate and has no boom, bloom of gloom. The precise bass gels superbly with the mid and HF units enabling the stunning qualities of the studio Soft Dome to simply breathe.

Studio Control Monitor

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[indietronic]

hm, what about using a benchmark dac pre (as a preamp) with a p10 or some other classy power amp? would (the use of benchamark dac pre as a preamp) that be a good idea? (driving the SCM40's can you suggest a couple of a class power amps?)

 

[indietronic]

i am also thinking (just thinking for the moment, opinions needed), of changing proac d two wirh harbeth super hl5....

in any case i consider harbeth sound to be somewhere in the middle of the line atc (monitor behaviour, amp hungry) -> proac (much more mellow, maybe plinius or some valves is best match)... i think that harbeth would match fine with a supernait (almost new offered to me by some friend of mine at a very good price) ..

unfortunately i do not have the chance, here where i live, to test -especially in my place- harbeth's loudspeakers...

anyway what do you think of the harbeth as a columbus egg solution to the dillemma proac vs atc ?