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Bad sound from new ATC SCM19s

New SCM19s in the house, matched with Pass amplification, and an Auralic Vega straight in to amp with software volume control. Triode Wire Labs interconnect from DAC to amp. Audience AU24SE speaker cables. The sound is generally horrid. Grainy, ragged and rough with all but the best recordings. Yes these speakers are revealing but does that mean that only 25% of recordings sound good? At the dealer they were matched with Naim electronics and sounded super smooth. Pass is no slouch in this regard either. Thinking the cabling may be a factor and will try swapping in a few new ones. Dealer says more break-in needed, but another owner says break-in should not be much of a factor. Somebody else said it's a bad room interaction, but I somehow doubt this. This same set-up with my Revel speakers worked fine. Any thoughts? Thanks.
jaybe

Showing 1 response by almarg

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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Just a thought, but I noticed that you’ve started a thread relating to REL subs. Have you had a REL sub connected during these evaluations of the new speakers, and if you have connected its inputs at speaker-level have you observed proper practice when connecting to a balanced amp by connecting the black wire from the sub to the white binding post on the rear of the XA30.5, that provides a circuit ground point? If instead you have connected the black wire to one of the amp’s negative output terminals that could conceivably cause sonic issues with a balanced amp, even if the sub is turned off.

I realize that there were no issues with the previous speakers, but perhaps you weren’t using the sub with them, or perhaps the amp was behaving differently due to differences in speaker sensitivity and/or impedance.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

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