Question: Does ATC have the best midrange driver?

Hi,

I was just searching for some info on the manger speakers and stumbled upon this thread, I think you guys should at least give it a listen once I have heard them(I do not own them) and they were simply FANTASTIC, you got to hear some vocals on it and I'm sure you would be more than impressed.

I currently own dynaudio 1.3SE and would change them in a heartbeat to the manger zerobox 109, but still got to get the funds sorted :)

Satyam

That said, ATC speakers are still based on a professional monitor platform and thus will not appeal to those who prefer a more "audiophile" sound. This means that you are not going to get an incredibly expansive, deep, or layered soundstage, and ATCs are not going to pull off the disappearing act as well as many others.

The irony of this statement is that it is one of the most inaccurate statement about one of the most accurate speakers. ATCs are one of the very few speakers which can disappear with very little effort. The reason is extremely free from distortion and amazing integration among the drivers. I use a SCM40 which is a 3 way speaker and they disappear even within a listening distance of 5ft and you hear exactly a point source even at a 5ft distance. How many speakers can do that ? Contrary to what the above gentleman has written the soundstage is humongous yet precise. You can layers after layers deep into the stage. Images float in an airy envelope stunningly palpable if it is in the recording. As someone else has said it is extremely close to a good electrostat in the midrange.

So Pani, it sounds like you are saying they are not fussing about set up? They are coherent and room friendly?

So Pani, it sounds like you are saying they are not fussing about set up? They are coherent and room friendly?

Well, they are extremely speakers. They tell you exactly how the room is, how the electronics are, cables, isolation, everything. So if your room is really bad it will tell you but if there is any listenable music it will tell you that as well to the fullest. So in a way, it is an extremely neutral speaker. How easy or difficult it is to setup totally depends on the external factors. I have heard these speakers in many different configurations, in different rooms and electronics. It keeps surprising me with its chameleon like character and how different it can sound in different setups.

One thing I can attest to is they are extremely honest towards music and musicality.

The ATC mid is fantastic. no doubt about it.

what makes it sound so well is the fact that ATC crosses at 380/3500 Hz in all their models, meaning that the vast majority of musical information comes through a single, high quality driver.