Your thoughts about ATC loudspeakers

I have owned SCM-40 and have heard most others. There is nothing that the ATC cannot do. They are seriously among the absolute best speakers out there. They sound like whatever is there in the recording and what is being fed to it via the electronics in the chain. You need really good amplifiers and sky is the limit.

Look at Symphonic line amps if you are looking for the depth and width of soundstage along with a very finely nuanced and liquid sound. You can even consider an active SCM40 which in my opinion is the best thing to do.

I worked for an ATC dealer a while back, and we didn't carry the 40s but I got to hear the 20s and 50s quite a bit while I was there. To me, the midrange is about the best I've ever heard in terms of power, resolution, and an utter lack of any distortion or strain. Where I found them to fall a little short was with respect to holographic 3D imaging. It's not that they don't image well, it's just that compared to other what I'll call the more "audiophile" oriented brands they don't portray (or some would say exaggerate) things like depth or width of the soundstage, and I'd agree the venue info is a little less apparent as well. Again, this is just relative to speakers that excel in these particular areas. Perhaps the new 40s improve in these areas if they represent an evolution of the house sound, but I have no idea. Can't say I noticed anything regarding micro dynamics, but we usually demoed them with more dynamic music so that might be why. I really can't fault them in any other areas. Great overall speakers, and I wish they had more exposure here in the U.S.

I own a pair of the SCM 19's and am in love with the gorgeous sound. My system is posted here in the Virtual Systems, but since then I've hooked them up directly to a Luxman L-550ax integrated that is rated at only 20 watts/channel. Yeah, the Lux has plenty of headroom, but the supposedly power-hungry ATC's still sound magical. And, YES, they sure are accurate! Don't expect any artificial lushness with anything made by ATC; they tell it like it is.
I did hear the 40's at this years AXPONA. Powered by ATC electronics they were great and really held their own compared to some of the outrageous gear featured in many of the rooms!
Regards,
Oran.

ATC do not use the latest and greatest of the tweeters. These days we have berrylium/diamond/ribbon tweeters all doing 100khz extension. So speakers which employ those do tend to have more atmosphere but to make the whole package sound as natural is not easy and that is why most of those speakers get into the hi-fish category. ATC uses their own traditional dome tweeter which is well extended but not like 100 khz and all, hence they probably do not do those extra-terrestrial like sound. What ATC presents is a full range sound that is extremely coherent, uncolored and dynamic. When you hear it you know everything else is flawed.

Great responses, everybody. Thank you.

The new SCM40 apparently features a new, ATC-designed tweeter. Not sure how it compares to whatever they were using before.