Description

Just starting to build the system around newly purchased ATC SCM35s. Previously i had Usher CP-6311 and KEF Q5 speakers. Any opinions welcome.

Replaced the Usher R-1,5 poweramp, with ATC SIA2-150 with great results. some decent DAC would be nice...

Room is 32 sq meters, 2,6m height.

regards

Peter
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Components Toggle details

    • ATC SCM35
    3way floorstanding ATC speaker,closed box
    • Sony CDP-X555es
    old Sony cd player with nice wooden sides
    • Kenwood KT-7500
    great vintage tuner in original wooden box
    • ATC SIA-150
    solid integrated with great natural sound

Comments 25

Pitdog75, If it were me, I'd replace the speakers and build around Magneplanar 1.6's, a terrific speaker with all the detail, clarity, and sound stage you could ask for. Also, money allowing, I'd get a Supratek Chardoney tube preamp, new at $2100. It is so good that you will rarely, if ever, see one for sale used. A world class preamp comparing most favorably to those costing $10,000 or more.

waltchristensen

waltcertain

If interestd Email me I will send Pics

Blotto,

Why not post a few pics in a virtual system? Maybe others would like to see 'em.

shadorne

Well Pitdog...

Here is a tip--get yourself two pieces of maple 20"x20",
2and 1/2 to 3" thick. Outfit your 35s with some HEAVY spikes.
Set another pair of spikes into the bottom of your new
20x20 maple seaker plinths.....set those 35s atop the maple plinths-----cheapest DRAMATIC improvement...............
If you would like pictures of this setup e-mail me.
tightens up the bottom end like mad adding clarity, speed and definition to the lower reisters....

ATC 35s
ATC SIA 150 integrated
Quad cdp2
denon DP-60L and tehnics 1200 TTs
Cardas Golden Reference inter connects

If interestd Email me I will send Pics

blotto

Owner
i meant to write there's NO active version of SCM35...

pitdog75

Owner
there's now active version of SCM35. i dido not go with the active for a couple of reasons:
1. cost, if i go for active, it'll be at least SCM50 or higher,
2. room acoustics - relatively new house, im still correcting the acoustics, its much better than it used to be, no point in getting top gear just for the heck of owning it, just to be held back by bad room acoustics,
3. passive ATC is a nice way to enter the world of this company, i think this stuff will remain in my posession as a secondary system, when i finally go for the active big boys.

pitdog75

Pitdog, why you bought passive ATC and not the active version of the same speaker?

ajahu

Owner
Well - a satisfied audiophile :) since obtaining ATC speaker-amp combination, i forgot about hardware - now im finally listening to the music and not worrying about the system.
if i remember correctly in the meantime the only thing that has changed were speaker cables - now scm35 are triwired, some relatively basic well made copper cables with good shielding.
also been playing around with the music server idea.
i realize i can have a better system with big active ATc speakers, but im in no hurry to go up yet. and knowing what the next step up hardware wise will be is quite comforting.

soon some updated pics - just the furniture has changed ;)

pitdog75

Hey Pitdog.....any updates to your system? Its been 5 months, what type of Audiophile are you!

jeff1225

Owner
its a lame temporary DIY rack, i didn't even bother with painting the hdf shelves... actually, im still thinking what to do with it: throw it away and get sth which would go with my coffee table, or change the shelves to some nice wooden ones (and shorten it a bit, its kinda too tall right now)

pitdog75

some pics at last ! hey, that is a very nice rack ! where did you that from ?

elberoth2

Owner
>Shadorne oh c'mon, not boxers... :) thanx anyway. i like the plain and simple look of ATC speakers (rugged and old fasioned some of my guests call them)

pitdog75

Peter,

Nice pics....now we know why you call yourself Pitdog. Love those Boxes (ATC's) and those Boxers too!

shadorne

Owner
System edited: some pics, poor quality - shot with a mobile. new speaker cable Krautwire triwire, added Waveterminal U24 and started building a PC-based music server (via USB to the U24), now looking for some nice way to control the system. soon hopefully i'll deal with the room acoustics as well.

pitdog75

Owner
right on Elberoth - as far as the whole Usher and Threshold deal goes. in this situation if i were looking for a solid budget poweramp, i'd go surely for the Threshold not the Usher.

"You did blow-up Usher yourself, didn't you ?" - not exactly, the failure was in one of the elements of a very basic protection circuit board. the amp after playing for say 1-2mins wen quiet. it was repaired without any hussle by the local distro (one cap changed or sth). but - earlier i had the poweramp checked out and the power stages were not working exactly the same. first off - one side delivered only 110W and 300% of the declared noise. it turned out to be caused by a sloppy manufacturing practice - a small metal ding was inside of the amp causing one of the channels to perform so poorly. when it was cleared the amp played evenly - 140W on both channels (not declared 150W).

with my ATC integrated its quite the opposite - in delivers close to 200W while the declared power is 150, and about 2/3 of the power output is in class A. nice little honest performer.

pitdog75

You did blow-up Usher yourself, didn't you ?

Reissued S/350e is a nice reply from Threshold against shameless company like Usher, that can only copy things.

Not only it is better made and (probably better sounding than Usher) but it also is 500$ cheper (2000$ for Threshold vs 2500$ for Usher).

I have had a great laugh when I saw one at CES.

elberoth2

Owner
Usher R-1,5 has nothing to do with pure class A operation, it runs in A/B. it's a knock off design of a classic 80's Threshold Stasis poweramp (designed then by N.Pass), but it runs at half the bias of the original (gets only a little warm too), other than that its identical to the old Threshold (btw Threshold just reissued its classic Stasis S/350e poweramp at a very competitive price, and it really is stasis, so right now i wouldn't see any point in going for the Usher, if we can have the original, a bit updated and most probably better sounding).
as far as ATC integrated vs Usher poweramp - gimmie a couple of days to evaluate, coz im kinda busy right now, but my first impressions are very positive, it seems i got what i wanted - smoother midrange, better stereo imaging, more detail, while retaining great controlled bass, punch and brute force, ATC plays anything with ease. to sum up - less of a digital sound, sounding more natural. and - 6year guarantee as opposed to 2years for the Usher, which broke once.

pitdog75

Peter,

I see you went for ATC's amp. Any noticable difference versus the Usher R-1.5? Both amps use mostly Class A, I believe, and have similar power... so what is the verdict? [Apart from the obvious benefit of volume control, which I can't figure how you did without!]

shadorne

Owner
System edited: ATC's amp of course. Great synergy with ATC speakers :)

pitdog75

Owner
System edited: replacing Usher R-1,5 with ATS's integrated SIA2-150

pitdog75

Owner
>Whitewind real pics coming soon :) those are just temporary

pitdog75

Owner
one more thing - cables.
tomorrow im gonna check out PAD Venustas, i did have them before, but with Usher CP-6311 is sounded waaaay too sweet.

pitdog75

Owner
yep, right now im using a minute passive controller, without any remote... degrades the sound considerably. i'll soon look for a good preamp (but not sure if ill go for tubes) or a nice cd with variable output, like some respected accuphase model.
there's also one more option - a good quality integrated, sth like MBL7008...(if ti is good for ATC)
but even more pressing matter than the lack of a pre is the room itself, i just ordered some stuff to fix the acoustics, then i'll be able to start really listening to my stuff :)

>Krzycho witam kolege :) coraz bardziej sie przekonuje, ze ATC to jes to

pitdog75

Krzycho I couldn't have said it better... WTH!

nrchy

Jednak nie zdecydowałeś się na Amphiony.

Przy okazji, coraz więcej znajomych na forum audiogon.

pozdrawiam,

krzycho

I think that you are in desperate need for a good, tube preamp :-) Or any preamp.

Real pics would be nice, too.

whitewind

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