![]() And if you want artificial excitement, this may not be your bag at all. If, for some reason, you're downgrading from large, upmarket speakers you'll miss some bass extension, despite our admiration already noted - that's all in context. ![]() We used some meaty amplification of up to 250 high-quality watts courtesy of makes from NAD to EAR and heard some loud sounds as a result, but if you want to listen really, really loud in rooms upwards of 30 square metres you may have to look at a bigger speaker. All the same, there are limitations, the most obvious being ultimate loudness. Irrespective of size, if your budget covers it, be sure to try it. We believe strongly that the SCM11 should be considered quite apart from its 'small standmount' physicality. ![]() On the other hand, detail is detail in any music. Inevitably there's more room for argument here as the loudspeaker is more part of the creative equation, and if you're looking for high-octane excitement, especially in terms of 'fast' bass and bright treble, you could well find these a little lacking. But, what about rock, pop and other studio-created sounds? In short, the SCM11 has a lot to recommend it as a speaker for playing classical music or indeed a lot of jazz, where its open, neutral and extended character serves the music well by doing little to it. In recordings of voice and piano, both retained their individual character and avoided getting in each other's way. Piano possessed considerable weight, but also great clarity and definition, and even scale. Less surprising, though no less gratifying, was the excellent stereo imaging, one area where small speakers are typically at a bit of an advantage.įollowing full orchestra with a selection of piano recordings was no less admirable. Nor were we at all expecting the bass drum - a sufficiently tough test to fox many components - to have so much weight.Īt the outset, then, it looks as if ATC has achieved something impressive. Repeated hearings via various top-grade speakers and headphones have convinced us that there's a lot of detail there, but we weren't entirely prepared for the amount the SCM11s revealed. The recording was made with minimalist microphone techniques and it's all too easy to write off any confusion in the replayed sound as a function of the unusually generous acoustic that results. Having high hopes for this loudspeaker we started it off with a demanding track, the opening of Mahler's fifth symphony on Water Lily Acoustics. Distant orchestral bass drum, for instance. And we do mean deep bass: a common demonstration trick is to play bass with rapid impact and rely on that to impress, but what's much harder is gentle, almost background, stuff at near-seismic frequencies. Still, some models do deliver deep bass convincingly. There are some things one just doesn't expect loudspeakers to do, and producing deep bass from small boxes is one of them. Incidentally, apart from the requirement for plenty of Watts, this is not a tricky load to drive. ![]() Twin terminals at the back allow for bi-wiring/ bi-amping if required. ATC recommends this be removed for ultimate performance, though we found it negligible in sonic effect. In appearance, the SCM11 is smart rather than beautiful, with wood veneer-effect finish and a removable grille cloth. Meanwhile, at the other frequency extreme, treble dispersion is aided by the 'waveguide' profile of the tweeter. This is very much the expensive way of going about things (a long coil in a short gap is cheaper and much more common) but has distinct advantages in terms of keeping distortion low when the cone is moving a long way, as it must in order to produce high levels of bass. The main drive unit features a short voice coil in a long magnet gap. ![]()
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