Define 'normal listening room.'
SCM40A's in a UK living room (25' x 12' or 'squarer) with 7' 6" ceilings 'sound' absolutely fine I feel. A friend has 35's (the ancestor model) bi-amped with two Quad 606's (very capable, cheap here used and easy to service long term if necessary) and is also happy, but then he's a music lover not a recording or mastering engineer.
I think (please) that 'we' need to accept that different rooms exist in size *and construction* around the world and where our brick and plaster boxes here can do all manner of things in the bass, the often larger timber constructed rooms in the US for example may well absorb bass more and make smaller ATC's sound bas slight or bass-overdamped - measurements be damned.
It's all very well getting the Klippel side of things right, but speakers need to be listened to as well and half a dB at the mid to tweeter crossover can be audible - maybe sorting dispersion there is also what we're hearing, but I firmly believe it's still a juggling act as regards tweeter power handling if crossed over too low and obviously dispersion of the driver handling upper mids.
So easy for armchair 'experts' to dive in and criticise and/or praise. I'm sure ALL the top makers/designers of monitors are fully aware of the above and tweak accordingly. ATC make a domestic CD/preamp which I think works well (bench performance unknown), so they must have someone there (hopefully) who's aware of digital tech in pro monitoring these days. Mind you, back in my Jurassic times with the brand, of most speakers out there, you 'plonked 'em down,' plugged 'em in and off they went, with mercifully little anal positioning worries compared to the fussy inferior domestic speaker-fare out there in the UK market.
1/4 wave length is ~7', and half wavelength boost is ~14', so the problem of SBIR of any speaker inside will have those modes affected, just will one percieve or prefer the uncorrected response or not is another story, having the tools in hand would always be beneficial than having none. and off axis uneveness will colour the sound, so despite all the previous debates, when the member ask if the SCM40 v2 passive at said price is the way to go, where I assume he won't be able to get all his options in his location to decide which is the best for him, a guss from the armchair data is better than just put it in and hope it sound fine, chances are everything not too dramatically harsh in reputable brands will sound absolutely fine in a real listening room also and owner can just be happy, see how many of real bad "hifi" brands out there where ppl keep "upgrading" and tuning by ear.
The existance of different rooms in sizes and construction is precisely why all these correction packages are out there, put it this way, it is to make bad stuffs less bad, which the bad stuff exist in >90% of consumer's room, so more likely than not is useful.
Dispersion from mids upward with waveguide as control would be a way better solution of tweeter to mid crossover causing power handling issue also, but then those are in the data and one would likely know what SPL they are targetting for more than the FR or dispersion.
and finally, I don't know about how different the V2 is compared to V1, but the V1 seems to have a up to 4db valley centered on 200 hz and another one dipping at 2khz to 5khz by like 3-5db, this sould well be audible, the larger active ATCs are a lot better and handle high SPL really well, though with questionable dispersion pattern will fare much better IMO, and SCM40 v2 don't seems like what a bigger SCM11 where the member asking said he likes
SCM40 v1:
http://www.avmentor.net/reviews/2014/atc_scm40_2.shtml
SCM11 v1:
Sidebar 3: Measurements
www.stereophile.com
ok or put it this way, if
@elvisizer have a chance to buy and return his short listss in his room, with the tools he likely would use (say, REW, roon, GLM, or nothing at all). just go get all those and see which one you enjoy most, including eye candy portion of enjoyment. or if you just want something sounding fine and have brand preference, go with your preferred brand. if you can't demo in your place and hope for the better potential performer for wider variety of music, do look at thte well measuring ones.
I said in a previous post that there used to be three levels of ATC reproduction, the passives, the 50A's and 100A's and the biggies, this before the 150A arrived. The twin bass driver models probably have dire dispersion pattern in free space for all I know, but the extra in dynamic contrasts was incredible I recall, appreciating the SL improvements in distortion and low-level 'hear-through' ability. And yes I repeat, I'm sure there are many other monitors out there for less money that'd do it now (I think this thread forgets some of the dire boxes out there domestically for sale - and not every country sells Revel and so on very well.
