ATC owners present and former

I own and still use, at times, the ATC-20/2's. They are remarkable for their clarity and drive. The down side is these speakers are unfailingly neutral. Bad recordings sound... well bad. Great recording sound... amazingly great. Admittedly, I never found a great tube preamp to use with them to tune out a little of the neutrality. Previously I owned the SCM-12's which are not powered like the 20/2's. I liked these better, as I was able to select the amplification to use. Just my two cents.

Jim

ATC 20 is my first loudspeaker and I have been upgrading along the product line: ATC 20, ATC 50 and now Anniversary 100.

After Anniversary 100, I think I would go for EL150. 15" bass driver gives the ideal bass reproduction, I reckon.

After ATC, Westlake HR7 is the choice because the horn sound always impresses me.

I have written many posts here on ATC. I have been in the event marketing space of the music industry around touring for three decades. Been a owner for many years. Have had 11s, 16s, 19s, 50s and 150s. I have a known pro studio, advertising and television production house and the 150s are essential to the work we do. The speakers replaced old BBC style monitors that came from KEF and the pro line of Yamaha two decades ago.

For as much attention that the speakers get, they have made incredible advances in electronics as well. Their current integrated line is really amazing and is reasonably priced in the 5 to 8 thousand range for the performance it delivers. We recently swapped out a NAD M3 for this line for our playback bay powering the 50s. PS: their passive line of speakers are power hungry and need big, beefy amps like NAD, Chord and Bryston.

As Shadorne said, the speakers are bullet proof; the build quality second to none. The 150s we own are approaching 4 years and sound pristine.

I often compare ATCs to fine wine. They are like a chilled and bracing white wine that exposes every flavor profile within the wine, stone fruit to acid. You hear all, warts and all. There are times that you also what a warm red wine to quietly enjoy with a meal, a nice home stereo, that may color that listening experience but also allow extended listening. I like Verity, Harbeth, Spendor and DeVore for that, especially with Japanese tube amps.

I've recently upgraded from Quads 22L2 to the Entry series SCM40s for my mains on my primary system and 12L2s to SCM11s for my second system. While the Quads were enjoyable - smooth might be the best word for them, they certainly didn't have the preciseness or transparency that the ATCs have. The highs are cleaner (although they sounded a bit bright when I first hooked them up, they sound better with time) and the midrange is to die for. I was also surprised how tight the bass was with both speakers and they essentially blew away the Quads in my opinion. Words I'd use to describe them are clean, precise, transparent, uncolored, you get the picture. Both sets driven by Denon receivers, I've been ecstatic with the upgrade and am going back and listening to all of my music again. Listening to a Keith Jarrett piano concert on the SCM11s made me feel like I was in the audience.

I have owned ATC SCM35 in the past. Considering all the hassle you have to go through to find the right gears that can drive this beast and make it sing right, at the end, I felt Harbeth Super HL5 was a much better option from England with better sound quality overall (more clarity, better mid that is less darker sounding and more open, much easier to drive, bottom extension is about the same)Since then, I have moved on to Hyperion Sound, B&Ws, before finally settling down on Thiel 3.7

I suspect that people either love ATC or hate them although most people have probably not heard them (it is extremely rare to walk into a hi-end store and see a pair of SCM100's (lets face it - they are old school ugly box speakers). Also ATC do not advertise in audio magazines and their sweetspot is really in professional circles (not consumer audio) where audio engineers want the truth (no candy coating) and sales are by word of mouth (have you heard so-and-so's great setup).

I first heard ATC in 1996 and while there are many comparable speakers for sound quality at lower SPL levels there is very little (if anything) that can touch ATC's clean low distortion delivery at higher SPL's. Listening to these speakers is like having the drum set with you in the room (if you so desire and I understand not many people care for this kind of adrenaline rush and assault on the ears).

In a nutshell, I think ATC brings the commonly available great soundstage, imaging, natural, wide dispersion, clean, neutral, detailed and low distortion sound (that you find in very many good quality audiophile speakers) but with the added benefit of realistic concert live instrument SPL's and extreme dynamics. ATC build some of the largest voice coils and drive motors available in the world.

I started this hobby when i was in high school, and now, i am 24, and i think ATC may be my last stop for a while.

Here are the speakers i used to own in no particular order,

Monitor Audio Silver5i (still regret selling)
HTD Level 3
HTD Level 4
Wharfedale Diamond 9.6
Wharfedale Diamond 9.1
NHT 1A
NHT Evolution M6
Onix Rocket RS250
Onix Ref1
Onix XLS
Onix Strata Mini
Infinity Primus 140
Celestion AV303
Insignia speakers (still own)
Swan D2.1SE (still own)
JBL SVA 1500 (still own)
Atlantic Technology (small bookshelves, forgot the name, but still own)
Wharfedale MovieStar 70+ (still own)

Out of all those speakers, none of them even compares to the ATC. When I bought the NHT M6, which is a former Stereophile Class A, I thought they would be my last speakers for a while. Until one day i found a pair of ATC SCM20 for 1200 dollars. If the M6 were class A, then the ATC must be in a super class of its own.

I went to Hong kong shortly after i purchase the ATC. After going to about 30 hifi stores, i only came across a few that can compare to ATC territory, and most of them are 5000+. Avalon Ascendent and up (airier highs), Gamut L series (better soundstage), PMC OB1i and up (not better, but in the same category), JM Labs overpriced line (a bit more detail, but a bit thin sounding with crappy gear), and there maybe a few more that i may forgot the mention.

Then there were alot of WAY OVERPRICED, but yet pretty speakers that can't hold a candle to the ATC. They may be pretty, but they are more in the level with NHT M6.

If i were to upgrade now, I would get the Gamut L7 or the ATC SCM50 or SCM100.

Hope this helps!