Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I am approaching my fiftieth soon and did spent an awful lot of money over the last three decades for this hobby, and what a beautiful hobby this is, listening to music.
I owned so many different speakers that I am almost unable to recall all of them, but most being British and a couple of other European ones too, and often there was something missing. Some were really nice, and some clearly overrated.
With those little 1SC’s I found my Holy Grail.
No, this is not a perfect speaker. Those ProAcs are designed for small to medium sized rooms. There are limitations in their bass extension and in sheer volume. As many other thoroughbreds they have a very limited sweet spot. Sometimes, when my better half vacuums the carpets it can happen, that I measure whether the distance to my listening position is still the same. If one speaker is pushed only 50mm behind the other one in distance, the sweet spot is gone. The same applies for the toed in angle. No other speaker I ever owned made small alterations so clearly audible (with exception of Quad’s ESL 57). You only need to replace a chinch cable and you will hear a difference, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. As if those wooden boxes are somehow alive. They don’t need extremely strong amplification, but insure a good quality one. Ones the right electronics and setup is found the music will disappear from those speakers, there is no room as such anymore. Time becomes somehow irrelevant, and I am not talking about the speaker’s timing. All those phrases like imaginary, vocals, soundstage, midband, heights etc., used in describing the quality or lack of such of a pair of speakers, are only used once those parameters are somehow missing.
The 1SCs are able to reproducing music in a three dimensional space, timeless but most importantly in a very touching emotional way. They just sound so right. I don’t want to turn the stereo off anymore, and running through my record or CD collection becomes a habit the same way it was 30 years ago, when I dreamt dreams as a teenager. No, they are not perfect, but absolutely magic little things.
Just imagine the feeling when listening to a track you listened to countless times before and out of a sudden you hear a new tone, you have never realized earlier with other speakers. That is unreal.
Put on Georges Bizet’s “Je crois entendre encore”, performed by Salvatore Licitra or Keith Jarrett’s Koeln Concert, or Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”, and you will know what I mean.
I want to thank my beautiful wife for standing by me all those years, and enabling me to spend the money we did spend for this hobby especially as those little ProAcs are not cheap. Believe me, if you love music they are worth every single cent.
That is ProAc’s secret, really being able to reproducing music in a way, that music itself becomes alive. Those little beauties are real gems….……………………………………

P.S.: Just read on the ProAc webpage, that after 12 years of production, the 1SC has found its successor in the brand new D1 model. Can it really get any better?

Price Paid:  $2100.00 from fifofum audio

Summary:
I first heard these little speakers in a shop about 10 years ago, directly comparing them to my KEF 104s. I decided on the basis of clarity of sound, particularly in the reproduction of female voices and upper range solo instruments, that they were among the best speakers I have ever heard. Certainly better than the KEF 104s, although not equaling the low-end of the KEF bass, obviously.

10 years later I finally picked up a pair of the SC 1s to replace my existing Mackie HR 824 monitors, which are powered speakers. I was not as impressed with the SCs as I had been on that first listening experience 10 years ago. Voices still sounded phenomenal, but the SCs completely lacked the immediacy and clarity of the bass and lower mid range of the Mackie HRs, which are half the price and powered as well.

The fact is that in a living room that measures 19x13x10, large orchestral music lacks accurate bass. It seems to me that the low end of small ported speakers like the SCs does not quite measure up to the accuracy of the bass you get with good bass radiator systems, and that this MAY be the deficiency I'm hearing.

The problem nowadays is that speaker shops are not set up to allow a direct comparison of equipment, as was the case years ago; so it's really hard to make the kind of discriminations that were possible in the old days!

Price Paid:  $500.00 from 2nd hand

Summary:
These speakers have something special. Most models I have owned or heard can impresse but not for long. I have these for about two years and stil they do impress. It has something to do with the terriffic midrange en the space around the music.
Epos es 11 was my first love, then came the proac 2000 signatures. It was an improvement mostley in the bass regions and sligtly in the ambiance and space.
I liked the signatures but I became bored by the atmosphere of the produced sound . I tried :totem model 1, dynaudio contour 1.1, 1.3,vienna ac. and more.
Mostly good speakers but nothing special. The 1sc is something special.
Clean, cold and warm at the same time ??, great ambiance and space, tight bass.
I am in love with these.

Strengths:
see above

Weaknesses:
I have tried them in other combinations and the sound can collapse. Don't use them with to analytical components. The combination in my case is supurb ( copland csa 8, cda 277, nordost blue heaven.

Similar Products Used:
see above

Price Paid:  $640.00 from 2nd hand

Summary:
Outstanding speaker---I've listened to quite a few high end speakers, and I've choosen these little boxes. They just reveal everything clear and pure. I've never heard mids so nice and liquid. Percussive sounds are so real that it is sometimes scary! The bass is good for standmounters---defintely enough for me to enjoy rock and organ music. It's surprising how much bass such small speakers can produce, and very well-defined. More than adequate unless you have a huge room and want the floor shaking. Beautiful build quality too. Highly recommended

Strengths:
Mids and highs---mids are liquid, highs are airy and transparent

Weaknesses:
Needs a decent amount of current from the amp. Very fussy and revealing of source components: make sure you spend at least as much on amp and source as you do on the speakers. Also highs have benefitted massively from mains filtering.

Similar Products Used:
Castle, Ruark, PMC, ATC

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I purchased these little jams about 4 years ago and I heard them since about 3 years before that and completely fell in love with them. I still love them and keen to buy more of them if wife allows. Because of their size, you won't expect ultra deep extended and punchy bass from them although I still find the bass more than adequate and yummy. It is a top performer in all other areas. Of course, where you put them - stand, room acoustics, positioning would make a difference. Good luck to all who share my love of these 1sc's.

Strengths:
Sweet mids and highs, smooth bass, openness

Weaknesses:
None for this price

Similar Products Used:
Dynaudio 1.3MkII