ATC SCM12 and 50wpc Manley Stingray?


I'm interested in auditioning the SCM12s but I've seen the discussions of the ATC speakers here and they all talked about how much power it takes to run these speakers.

If I'm going to be using these speakers typically in moderately sized apartment living rooms, and listen with a volume level primarily around 75db, will my 50 wpc Stingray integrated be able to drive these speakers?

A dealer I spoke with assured me that although the speakers had low sensitivity, the phase/impedence angles were very flat & tube friendly.

Any thoughts?
imrer

Showing 3 responses by imrer

Thanks all for the comments received so far.

Misskuma -- to address the issue that you raised. I used to have a pretty serious tube preamp and solid state power amp, but I decided that I wanted to simplify things and travel a little lighter than the 85 pound hunk of metal that was my amplifier would allow. The Stingray gave me just about everything that I wanted in an integrated. No desire to change the amp just to accomodate a new speaker purchase. If the ATCs won't mate well with the Stingray, then I'll find something else that does.

But I am curious about why it takes so much power to run these speakers. The SCM12 is listed as having a sensitivity of 85db/1/1. Now I realize that some manufacturers fudge these numbers sometimes, but even if the number is more like 83db, if I am sitting perhaps 9 feet away and using a 50 wpc amp and listening at around 75db, why would the speaker need more power to play at these levels.

I realize that if I were trying to push peaks into the 90's then I could run out of juice, but at my usual levels? Is there something else about the design of the driver or implementation of the crossover that would cause this?

I could also understand if the impedence and phase angles were not tube friendly, that it would cause other problems that could result in the speakers not sounding too well with the Stingray. But as I said, the dealer I spoke with assured me that the speakers were a benign load for the amp. Has anyone seen a phase/impedence chart on these speakers?

Thanks again.
Thanks again, all.

I will certainly give the SCM12 a home audition (probably sometime next month) and give a report of how it goes. I expect to compare it against a Shamrock Eire, Proac D15, and if I can get one in, the Harbeth M30.

The Stingray does have some muscle behind it, and it apparantly is known to be able to drive some usually tougher loads, but I don't want to tax it unnecessarily.

I will be careful to listen to how well the Stingray seems to be able to control the bass of ATCs. I don't want it to take most everything that the Stingray has just to achieve moderate listening volume and dynamics. Gotta have a little headroom for those occassions when I do turn it up a bit.
Sc53 -- I like the floorstanding ProAc D15, but will try to hear the 1SC as well. Thanks for the suggestion.