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A muppet's guide to ATC

R

redeye

pfm Member
Advice please. Ideally the next pair of speakers will not only blow my hair back but be keepers.
There seems to be so much dross around masquerading as quality these days but the guys who own ATC seem blissfully happy and probably wouldn't change even with a firearm pointed at them. Witness Bubs thread re the 150s he's just acquired.
I have never heard a pair. Recommendations appreciated especially the passive vs active thing. I currently have a supernait but things can change.
Ta
red
 
I don't even own a pair, but have heard the active 11s, 50s and 100s. Without fail, they were the best speakers I've heard if you exclude horn loaded, which just happens to be my own cup of tea. Let me put it another way, if horns as a design didn't exist, Id own a pair of ATC somethings...

Personally I'd avoid the passives, just seems pointless when active is an option, as whilst I'm sure they're fine, can't believe they'd be as good as the actives. No, they're not cheap, but then you will avoid paying for a power amp, so it kind of balances out.

Post that, just down to size of your room as the bigger ones are certainly not short of low end grunt.

If you haven't already realised, the numbers refer purely to the size of the box in ltrs. Even the 11s that I heard were capable of filling a reasonable sized room well.
 
I love my 100's and there are plenty of people on this forum who love ATC's. There are also plenty who find them unforgiving and don't like their presentation.

If you haven't heard a pair then the best advice is to seek out your local dealer and have a listen. Just because I and other forum members love them doesn't mean you will.

If your budget will stretch to it and you have enough room I would recommend the actives. You can usually pick up used pairs from £4k upwards.
 
Raindogs said:
I love my 100's and there are plenty of people on this forum who love ATC's. There are also plenty who find them unforgiving and don't like their presentation.

If you haven't heard a pair then the best advice is to seek out your local dealer and have a listen. Just because I and other forum members love them doesn't mean you will.

If your budget will stretch to it and you have enough room I would recommend the actives. You can usually pick up used pairs from £4k upwards.
Click to expand...

+1 to everything here especially listening first.

ATC design for their take on optimal transparency (loudspeakers with current technology being a compromise) and their speakers have no adjustability like other actives--except one small knob on the pros which ATC recommend not to use!

Therefore if you are looking for something to make as many recordings as possible sound good, or to compensate for your sucky room, then there are better choices out there.

If you have a good room, or a room you can tinker with, and you enjoy hearing recordings in contrast then they are great.

But listen first!
Darren
 
ATC 100's were my ambition from first hearing them about twenty years ago, had passive 100's for about 4years, then bought a pair of active amps (second hand) and rewired the internals, and run as actives for the past 10 years. Yes, actives (to me and my younger son) were more than an incremental change, transients, sound-stage and detail were significantly improved, also because of balanced input the preamp, etc, can be placed almost anywhere in the room, preferably to the side.

In passive mode I ran the 100's from AVI pre and a 100w/ch power, the AVI pre was very transparent, and suspect the power amps were lacking a bit of grunt, however the 100watts were RMS and the amps were well engineered . The ATC actives run a total of over 300 watts / channel which really does make them sing.

My background - 60 years, starting with wind up consul gramophone.
If you have pockets deep enough and a reasonable room size, (I have heard the ATC 100's in a small room 3.5 by 4.5 mtrs, and they are restrained, but 4-5 by 6-7mtrs is good enough) then go for it, not quite perfection but I have stopped looking for anything better - but then I am quite old!!
 
They are a traditional active design, perfectly competent loudspeakers ,there are many active monitors available, I would try and listen to as many as possible.
Keith.
 
Purite Audio said:
They are a traditional active design, perfectly competent loudspeakers ,there are many active monitors available, I would try and listen to as many as possible.
Keith.
Click to expand...

As you say, there are a large number of active monitors on the market. Many of the so called professional designs are more suited to the recording studio rather than a domestic living room.

ATC are unusual in the professional community in offering superb domestic versions of their professional speakers.

Coming at it from the studio angle makes them reasonably rare if not unique.
 
redeye said:
Advice please. Ideally the next pair of speakers will not only blow my hair back but be keepers.
There seems to be so much dross around masquerading as quality these days but the guys who own ATC seem blissfully happy and probably wouldn't change even with a firearm pointed at them. Witness Bubs thread re the 150s he's just acquired.
I have never heard a pair. Recommendations appreciated especially the passive vs active thing. I currently have a supernait but things can change.
Ta
red
Click to expand...

Hi Redeye,

You are better to seek out a dealer and simply go for a demonstration.

We have the CDA2, P1 and ATC SCM40's always-on demo, so you are more than welcome to hear this combination if you can reach Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

Regards,
Peter
 
Based on my recent experience, I'd say don't buy without a demonstration. It's certainly not guaranteed that the sound will appeal...
 
I second Keiths comment. ATC are good, especially their models with midrange dome but there are other very good active monitors around. Tony's MEGs for example. I'd love to hear the Genelec 8260A which is a 3-way active with a coaxial mid and tweeter. PMC also make superb active speakers, their smaller AML1 or AML2 are brilliant.
 
Their service is excellent , I had an older set of Non SL SCM50a's , I coulda upgraded them to the most modern spec ..but it wasn't financially viable. One of the midrange domes was buzzing , they sent me instructions for the repair/dome kit they offer..I balked at DIY when I read "gently hit with mallet to separate" ... Bought 2 new units.

When I flogged em (they were too bass shy for me in my room at the time) I had a flock of local studios scrambling for them. I found they came into their own when really wound up...
 
spacey said:
Differences are; slightly different cab dims, veneers, and the discrete amp packs invented for the Anniversary series.
Click to expand...

ATC say the domestic tower versions sound the same as the "classic" monitors. So I think the only real difference boils down to veneers, and the Anni amp packs, which are a special order item.

I like ATCs active monitors, and have used them at home for over ten years. I think a hi-fi should be a hi-fi, i.e. faithful to the original signal, and not some kind of domestic music remastering device. Whilst I accept that room acoustics can and often do have a big effect on the sound of any hi-fi, I think the best you can do is get the flattest-response setup you can, within the constraints of your room's acoustics.

OTOH, here's another opinion which doesn't agree with mine: I had an interesting conversation with the MD of a very well-known British hi-fi company recently, we were discussing ATC monitors, flat-response in general, and my impending purchase of the 150 ATs. He's heard my system many times, and I've heard his top-of-their-line Digital system with their top (£30,000-ish?) active loudspeakers enough times to know what it sounds like. His opinion is that domestic hi-fi speakers should have a slightly recessed midband, otherwise it can sound too "forward".

I would recommend a home demo to anyone contemplating ATC actives. They are very likely to be very different from anything you've heard before. They are far and away my favourite speakers, and I think they are the best money can buy. There's ample evidence to support this when you see their various client lists on their website.
 
Cripes... Have just heard back from NZ importer that Bub's towers are $30k local. Thats about 15k pounds.
Dat is lotta moolah for a poor wage slave like me.
Will have to look at cheaper options but think active is still the way to go. Cheers for all the advice re listen first.. just got to find someone within 500km who stocks them.
 
Yes the Tower 100s cost £11K-ish (cannot recall exactly) ATCs are actually pretty good value when you consider what you get: 6 dedicated amps and active crossovers and speakers. I will not use anything other than Classic 100s for main listening in my growing studio let alone the Veneered Tower 100s my living room.

You can easily spend this sort of money on a Naim passive system or a Linn lifestyle system or even just on some foo foo boutique speakers. You are buying a lot in one hit AND most likely the last HiFi you will buy. My 100s marked the end of a crazy period of dissatisfaction and upgrades, stand idiocy, gear changes and general not knowing that the hell I was doing. I got my ATCs a couple of years after Bub (so that's 8 years ago) and that was that, hoofed all the nonsense, have a few bits here and there (at present honing in on a DAC but again the FiiO looks like my kinda gal) but largely settled and done with HiFi.

If you want that, if you are ready to just end the dicking about I had, then its money well spent I'd say.
 
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