Audiophilepure

On the downside, at first, the bass drivers seemed a touch stiff and limited when playing bass-rich tracks like “Your Momma Don’t Dance” on Kenny Loggins’s Outside: From the Redwoods album. Also, the tweeter seemed a bit rolled-off at the top. These apparent weaknesses become more apparent when compared to my reference $16,000 Usher ML-802 loudspeakers. A foot taller, almost twice as heavy (at 128 pounds to the ATC’s 68.31 lbs.), and sporting two eight-inch bass drivers to the ATC’s single, 6 1/2″ woofer, the Ushers dug deeper in the lower frequencies, and using its magnesium alloy tweeter, it had more extended highs than the ATCs, with their handmade tweeters. 

Within a week, the SCM40’s tweeters began opening up, and the low-frequency drivers began loosening up as well. They still couldn’t compete with the Ushers (that are rated to go down to 26Hz, versus the conservatively rated 48Hz for the ATCs) in the lower octaves. But, in all fairness, I knew that going in and had planned on auditioning the ATCs SCM40s with a pair of subwoofers to better pressurize the roughly 960 square feet area like the Ushers had been doing all along (I originally chose the Usher ML-802s, with their pair of eight-inch bass drivers, over their single bass driver Usher ML-801 that I had previously reviewed because of this large space).  

After spending many months with the SV-500, here are some things that stand out for me. First, although rated at 2 x 50 watts (8ohm) this integrated had no problem driving either my Nola Contender or Triangle Antal loudspeakers. This unexpected torque was beneficial not only in providing volume on demand, but also in the way that music rose with power and impact in proportion to the increased level. Perhaps this extra oomph owes to the 110-watt toroidal transformer works in the power supply. Personally, blasting music is something that I don’t care to do all the time (anymore!), but there are moments when my external hard drive shuffles through the high-resolution files (remember them?) and kicks out gems like Jimmy Hendrix’s sublime recording of “Little Wing.” The beautiful chime-like tones in beginning of this song (so warmly presented by the SV-500MK) invariably provided the bait for giving the capacious volume knob a hefty turn to the right. And, if you’ve heard this rendition, you know what’s coming. When the solo kicked in, it was howling good fun at goosebump-inducing volume. “Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams and her fairy tales,” indeed! Who would have thought such an unassuming black box held such a groovy rendition inside? Similarly, when playing Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, the ominous double bass lines opening the piece hint at the terrifying struggle to come, and the Vincent proves surprisingly adept at conveying real weight and control to each note. As an aside, the violins circling upwards that reach their crescendo glide without shrillness or glare is also a credit to the Vincent Audio integrated amp’s tonal character.