Has anyone listened yet to ATC speakers paired with Arcam SA30? They seem to be very current demanding and picky with the amp selection. Would you recommend this combination? How does SA30 perform with speakers with such a low sensitivity 85dB @ 1W @ 1m?
I have an SA30 with ATC SCM11. No problems at all. Runs quite warm, but nothing serious. The somewhat warm character of the SA30 combines nicely with the clean and clear character of the ATC’s. Dirac makes it even easier to follow every strand in complex pieces of music.
Oh thanks, great to hear that there is someone with that setup, the SCM11 are almost the same. Did you manage to have a chance to listen to ATC SCM11 with any other integrated amp and then you picked SA30 as a winning combo or was it more like a blind buy?
The same question would go for the speakers, have you done any comparison with other brands and found SCM11 to be the best?
How about the loudness level, do you find it to be on an adequate level for listening to the music on higher volumes? I am going to pair them with SVS SB-3000, so that should help, but I am still mainly listening to electronic music and it sometimes feels good to crank it up. In general, would you say that this combinations suits such music genres?
I have read on some other forums that users prefer to use Dirac only for movies since it abolishes some details out of music… do you find any drawbacks of Dirac? So in general it improved your sound and is worth to use it? Just to know if I should buy UMIK-1 mic…
dirac 9/10 why i bought the amp
That’s a lot of questions…
I like a neutral speaker that doesn’t rip lesser recordings to absolute shreds. SCM11 qualifies more than nicely.
SCM19 was not suitable for my (tech/death/classic rock/metal). Dirac cleans up the already excellent midrange just that little bit more. It is not a bass-pounding speaker though. My 2 REL S510s fill out the bottom end.
I have tried them on a Marantz AVR SR-5015. Not bad! Bigger bass, but not as clean or detailed.
I switched to a UMIK with great results. Definitely the best Dirac result so far.
Yeah I know that I asked a lot of questions, but you are the first person that I have seen who actually owns this combination and I have searched the whole Google in all possible languages for comments 
Well since I already own SA30 and I am looking for the speakers, would you then recommend SCM11 the most or do you also recommend any other speakers for it? Have you tried any other speakers with SA30?
Please also let me know how did you run Dirac - with or without subwoofers connected? Did you set crossover on some specific frequency before you ran Dirac? How about the loudness level of the subwoofers, did you match it based on Dirac measurements or did you set it beforehand?
I have tried it with Monitor Audio RX8, Millon Cobra 4, ASW Cantius 404, JBL Arena 120. All a nice match. The JBL Arena 120 are brilliantly neutral on a budget. They beat many a lot more expensive speakers I have auditioned in my lifetime.
So far I measured without the subs. But I plan to rerun with Subs.
I never set crossover because I use high level inputs (via the Neutrik connector).
BTW: there is another user with this combination. I have seen a post somewhere in this forum.
And: any advice from me is relatively useless, since you have different ears, different taste and different acoustics… but always nice to get some info 