What's the best mid-range driver available?

I've heard that San Antonio is a beautiful town. I've always wanted to go there. BTW i've got word that the Seas W12CY midrange will outperform the legendary Skaaning's. This is from a reliable source. As well you may want to know that the super tech ribbon from Philips RSQ8P/11 will be avaliable at the end of May. $840/pr from Koch in Germany. Now i'm open to consider the Atc's in a passive setup. Can you get me a price. If you get a chance take a close look at the Seas Excel woofers. Another driver that you may want to research is the Raven 3 ( $1600/each) Now give me some description of your speakers. The ATC web page gives absolutely no info...strange?? BTW they are British, i tend not to like "british" sound.

the best way to describe them is 'accurate.' i don't know what you mean by sounding 'british.' i've heard lots of english speakers and i don't really think they sound very similar. (linn, rega, naim, tannoy, atc)

i'm not sure what kinda info you want, but here's a list of plaves that *only* use atc equiment. just to skim over (taken from their website)

"Sony Music Studios, New York; Kate Bush; Warner Bros, Burbank, CA; Dairy Studios; Polygram Wiseloord Studios, Holland; Sain Records; Lenny Kravitz; Whitfield Street Studios Skin; (Skunk Anansie)Mute Records (Depeche Mode, Erasure); K & A Productions (Naxos); Todd AO, USA; Pioneer Optical Disc (Barcelona); Nick Whitaker (Internationally Renowned Acoustician); Telarc; VTR TV Production Company;
Ground Control, LA; Paramount Pictures, Hollywood; Angell Sound, London (5 Studios); BBC - UK; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Lightning Seeds (Ian Broudie); Sydney Opera House; Pink Floyd's Studio & Dave Gilmour's Home; Royal College of Music; Jarvis Recording Studios, NY; Birmingham University; Dep International; Essex University; Nimbus Records; Bristol University; John Kurlander; University of Surrey (Francis Rumsey);Ian Anderson; Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club; Manor Mobiles; Lou Reed; Beacon Studio (Dublin); SBS Television, Australia; Hans Zimmer; Lansdowne Recording Studio; Karl Wallinger World Party; Greg Walsh (Producer Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Elkie Brookes); Albert's Music; Angel Studio, Islington; Peter Walsh (Producer Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, Pulp); Oorong Studio, N.Y.; London Post; James Guthrie (Pink Floyd, Toto, Chicago); Enya; The Tate Gallery; Thierry Allard, Bruxelles; Bob Ludwig Masterdisk; Boogie Park Hamburg; Bruce Leek; Bruce Dunlop Assoc., London; Vogler Audio Media; Prince Sufri, Brunei; Tony Wass; Monster Music, Madrid; John Richards; Crazy Sound, Guadeloupe; Beethoven Street; Fluke, London; Moles Studio; Spectral Harmony, Bombay; ARC Studio; Haman Studio, Tel Aviv; Kash Productions, Madrid; Zaza Studio, Tel Aviv; Polygram, Hong Kong (Mastering & Studio 1); Loco Studio, Wales; Matrix; London College of Music; Swedish Radio; Polish Broadcast;
Carlton Television (Nottingham & London); Lakeside, Switzerland; York Street Studios; Tape to Tape, London (Heathman's Mastering); Albert's Studio; Telegael, Eire (6 Studios); John G Deacon Founder Conifer Records; Allaire Studios, New York"

also check out:

http://www.audiomusings.com/atc.htm

three reviews of the speakers, just fyi. i tend to agree most with the last reviewer.

and as for pricing, the passive 50's run about 10k, the passive 20's about 5k.

the bad thing about passively amplifying them is that they're no longer active, so you don't have an amp per every driver, which is part of what makes them so dynamic. the good thing is that you are able to choose which amp you would like to use.

Why don't you use a Quad Esl or the like?

Laz I just got word from a DIYer in Denmark. I asked him what's his drivers. Says he started with the best mid , the ATC..so looks like your right. Says they are expensive. As well he had Skaaning build him a woofer to certain specs. For tweet i think he uses Scanspeak. Can you give me some info on this 3 inch mid soft dome. Where to buy? etc.

LAZ which ATC speakers do you have ..the SCM 50's 100's or the 150's. The ATC active speaker may..no IS the best commercial speaker in the world. No doubt in my mind. However you did mention like 15K. That leaves me out. However i'm trying to find out if my designer will work the ATC 3 inch soft dome into the SEas W22 + RT8P. Hope they are not more than say $500 each..i may go $700..thats tops. If they are more than that I'm going with the big philips ribbons $850/pr