Your thoughts about ATC loudspeakers

From experience in the pro world, a manufacturer/distributor like me has to play it absolutely straight on forums; never BS, no politics, zero opinion about anyone else's gear that competes with yours and actually try to share what you know that can help others.  Speaking about design values that are hidden, or product features that are misunderstood or clarifying facts is OK if its helpful or relevant to the thread.  But it is not welcome when its clothed in verbal advertising.  So responding to incorrect facts asserted by posters about ATC is OK, but saying its better than XYZ is not OK.  Responding to someone who expresses an opinion that they do not like ATC is not OK.  Any assertion as  manufacturer/distributor of my opinion about ATC or any other brand is not allowed.  Note my posts to dragon_vibe are focused completely on features/values that are not supported with facts, incorrect or misstated.  No response to his opinion, which is 100% OK- because we all have opinions about "what is the best" in all kinds of things.  Its completely OK for someone to like Quested or PMC more, heck the people that import that stuff are my friends!     

Well anyway, If your a Solid State guys than ATC is an excellent speaker as long as you have large amplifiers to sufficiently drive them. They are truly excellent speakers but require very good amplification. Iv never tried Class A Solid State amps on ATC.....Wish I did.

I was once a Solid State guy, moved to SET, Push & Pull than OTL. Once i went OTL I never looked back at other Tube Amplification simply because I found OTL just did everything right. Their are issues running OTL and one of the major aspect was they can not run low Impedance speakers very well. So your stuck with a limited type of speakers.

Their are always trade-offs in this hobby, we just have to understand which area we can easily compromise as acceptability.

I never consider any speaker as THE BEST.....this hobby all comes down to personal taste and listening preference.

Living with a easy to drive speaker just gives one more flexibility to move around amplifiers time to time. At the end of the day we all get that upgrade itch at sometime. Their is no such thing as Destination Audio. Its a constant evolving process. Something I learnt painfully.

It is not about Surgical transparency for me anymore. I want to  be emotionally connected to the music. The emotions that stir within us during the listening session is the magical experience I'm after.

ATC speakers in general are not easy to drive (unless you’re buying their active version ) buying their pasive speakers can get you to a serious problem because hungry wats speakers require powerfull amplification and this cost money, a lot of money.If cost is no object ATC can be excellent choice but most of us have a limited budget so we have no choice but to look for other brands with more efficient speakers.

@dragon_vibe

@itzhak1969

Agreed. Good points.

ATC tend to go well with big Bryston amps or amps around the 200+ watt range. Definitely not suitable for anything under about 150 watt tube amps like big Audio Research or Macintosh amps.

ATC active amps are solid state with MOSFET output stages and biased such that they are Class A to 2/3 power. So active ATC is really the best way to go with this particular brand. And this brand is best avoided by those folks who prefer to drive their speakers with tubes or those who want more personal control over the sound.

And there is No Best Speaker suited to everyone! Only the best speaker for each individual within the context of their preferences, requirements and experience. One can only say that ATC are a world class speaker chosen by many (but not all) golden eared professionals with rather specific musical requirements for a truthful presentation that allows for ease of important mix/mastering decisions of the source master tapes/files.

I'm the OP of this thread and I'm pleased that it's yielded an enduring, informed discussion. As for me, I remain interested in ATC but have not made a move. One concern that's emerged for me is whether ATC speakers do well at low volume listening. Some don't, as you know, and that could be a non-starter for me. I'm also interested in the comparison between the v19 and the v40. My local dealer prefers the 19; however, he uses a subwoofer with both models, which I am not likely to do. Anyone compared the two?