BEAUTIFUL with a warm tonality to it. Highs are still quite extended with just enough smoothness. Midrange is full with the right amount of presence to made vocal "pop" out at you. Bass...well, i give it a decent 7.5/10, I know what the sub is capable of, but the room is causing alot of issues from 60hz and below. Still have a nice punch to it and quick. Just not "full" enough.
Now for the best part...soundstage. The image is great, with great width and depth. The speaker just disappears and nothing seems to be coming from the speaker, which is a good sign. Everything is either happening outside the speaker plane, behind it, in front of it, or in the middle, creating layers and layers of sound.
As you can tell, i have a 2nd CD player which is the rotel. Even with tubes, ATC is still quite a raw and powerful speaker. Bad recording will always sound like bad recordings on them. Modern CD players motive is to project the sound as accurately as possible to the preamplifier. However, old CD players like the early rotels round out the sound to compensate for bad recordings in the early 90s, creating a fuller midband and cuts off alot of details. This makes it great for crap pop recordings and older CDs of the 80s and 90s.
next upgrade: a new room...but i have to move first!!! a more reasonable upgrade is a turntable and a phono preamp.
Tube CD player using all JJ Tesla tubes. Same CD player as the Vincent Audio CD-S6
Kavent S-11 Preamplifier
Tube Preamp using all JJ Tesla tubes. This preamp is a rebadged Vincent Audio SA-T1. Only changes I believe is in the transformer. Kavent upgraded to torial, whereas Vincent uses E-core.
Kavent P-2200 Class A Monoblocks
100 watts in Class A, and 300 watts in class A/B. Each weights over 85 pds and eats 1000watts at idle, making a great heater! Same exact amp as the award winning Vincent Audio SP-991 which retailed for $6K a pair! Very famous over in european magazines.
ATC SCM20 Monitors
Possibly one of the best speakers i ever heard! Only downside is that it takes a load of power to get it to work its magic.
Motor City Audio's Small Block Onix UFW-12 Subwoofer
A great musical sub. Sealed design with a 12inch woofer. 135pds!!! Modded by Kevin Taylor of Motor City audio to go below 20hz in room.
Rotel RCD965BX-LE CD player
I have the Limited Edition of this CD player which i believe has added some sort of buffer to smooth out the sound. I use this CD player mainly for bad recordings as it seems to round out the sound...and leaves out alot of "unnessesary" details. Great to tame down the ATC's accuracy and rawness of details.
Audio Magic Xstream Speaker Cables
Great speaker cables for the money
Philips HXT Interconnects
great interconnects that..to me..sounds the same as my more expensive Audioquest Cobras
Bettercables Subwoofer Cable
30ft long subwoofer cable. Great cable as compared to my other longer cables. Why? other longer cables gets alot of interference, creating hums in my system. The bettercables is so shielded, that i dont get hums anymore to my preamp and my sub.
Monster Cable HTS3500 Power Conditioner
nothing to write home about, but its protecting my system!
Onkyo TX-NR906
Powers my NHT VT2 speakers
Swan D2.1se
Meaty sounding speakers, great for lower quality recordings!
N H T VT-2
Still one of the greatest HT speakers!
Definitive Technology Supercube One
Active 10" with dual passive 10"s, used for HT
N H T Super One
Rear channels for HT
N H T VS-2a
Center channel for HT
Project Audio Debut III
Starter turntable... sounds good so far...
Radial J33 Phono preamp
awesome phono preamp with both balanced and unbalanced output
Kavent S-22 dual mono preamp
Rebadge of Vincent SA-91 Plus with completely balanced circuits, separated in three separate chassis.
Shardone, that is very true. ATC is a special ingredient that is difficult to replace.
Jednite, I love the P-2200! I recently just picked up a S22 preamp for $320! Does sound a "bit" better then the S11. I thought the sound was more solid and flesh-like, where the S22 is more airy and delicate. So I guess its a taste preference more the anything. Do you own any Kavent gear?
System edited: added 5.1 system to the 2chnl room. Does not look as nice, but still quite functional. The ATC speakers were not moved from their original position to retain the depth and width of the soundstage. sorry for the iphone pic, new pics will arrive once I get new batteries for the camera.
finally moved the Subwoofer to the front left corner...and learn to use its PEQ (no SPL meter, done by ear)....much better sound now, still a bit lacking in linearity, but alot more focus and punchier, without the muddiness from being placed in the back.
For grills....I prefer the sound of it with the grills off as it provides a more "effortless" sound. The highs are a bit more open as well. With the grills on, i thought the speakers lost a few points on its incredible disappearing act that ATC are known for.
However, when i used to have the ATC in a huge open floor living room which had a 20ft ceiling, the grills was needed to provide a more natural sound and stabilize the soundstage a bit.
thanks for the comment shadorne! The room is a bit empty, but the highs and midrange still seem to sound full and warm. I used to have 5 HT seats in there with 2 HUGE bookshelves, a huge HT rack, then the TV, 9 speakers, and alot of over sized pillows for the floor dwellers...the bass was still incredibly bad.
I was thinking about the GIK bass traps, but they are a bit pricey for me as of now.
Here is a layout of my room.
The end of the room has a doorway that opens to a small area towards the stairs.
any suggestion would be great, thanks!!! _______________ [-------------------] [-------------------] [-------------------] [-------------------] [-----------------] [----------------] [---------------] [____-----__]
