ATC - active speakers experience

[Janko]

Dear all,

I'm new here and would like to start with ATC active speakers, which should be well known in the UK. It is however very difficult to to audition these babies where I come from.

Anyway, I was quite impressed with what I heard from ATC's. I auditioned ATC 100s and ATC 10-2. Mids are really brilliant, defined, undistorted, sound really human and natural. Resolution of the speakers is in a class of its own. I was not very impressed with the depth of the soundstage. ATC 100s were quite bad in terms of soundstage. Box effect was much more obvious than when listening to smaller 10s and the speaker just could not disappear. I'm not sure if the positioning of ATC100s was quite the best @ Cornflake but I'm thinking of buying ATC20s towers or 50s towers. Has anybody heard them?
I would like to hear you opinion about them.

Janko

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

I've heard ATC12s and ATC50s, both active. Loved them both.
If I didn't have a real penchant for horns, active ATCs are where my dosh would go.

 

[RobHolt]

I heard Paul Ranson's ATC SCM100s at the recent Scalford show and thought they were excellent - one of the best sounds of the show. Very honest sound and not too phased by the room conditions.

 

[Tenson]

The effect of the small speaker disappearing more is most likely because of the narrow baffle. This allows more sound to reflect from the room and give spaciousness. There is somewhat a trade between spaciousness and direct intimacy with the sound, they are on a sliding scale.

If you want the best of both worlds I'd expect the Tower 50 to suit you since it seems to be the most narrow fronted speaker using the superb sm-150 dome midrange; this midrange is ATCs claim to fame among speaker designers as it is a rare gem of high performance. The Tower 40 and Tower 20 don't use the same mid driver so will have higher distortion.

 

[Janko]

Thank you for your replies. It seems I will have audition SCM50 towers as well.

There is quite a good review of these spekers here:
http://www.stereomojo.com/ATC SCM50ASLT SPEAKER REVIEW/ATCSCM50ASLTSPEAKERREVIEW.htm

However the author is also not very impresed by the soundstage:
"While the speakers completely disappear sonically, the soundstage is not as vast in all directions as I have heard."

On the other hand I like every other aspect of the speaker very much. I wonder why ATC does not add another tweeter on the back or something to improve the soundstage (build a better tweeter...).

I'm currently on german passive speakers which offer quite a transparent window onto the soundstage, but on the other hand everything else is not in the same league as ATC.

 

[Janko]

I've heard ATC12s and ATC50s, both active. Loved them both.
If I didn't have a real penchant for horns, active ATCs are where my dosh would go.

That is quite interesting. Horns are not very similar to active "coffins" are they
Well I also like Avantgarde horns, very impressive and dynamic, not the most neutral though.
Janko

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

That is quite interesting. Horns are not very similar to active "coffins" are they
Well I also like Avantgarde horns, very impressive and dynamic, not the most neutral though.
Janko

Quite. The presentation of horns are very different to active ATCs. For all that, I really like the ATCs I've heard, despite how different their presentation style is.

 

[RobHolt]

Mike, are you still running Impulse?

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Mike, are you still running Impulse?

I am, still running the Ta'us. Just haven't heard anything that would fit in my room, that I'd rather have, regardless of cost.
The valve power amp question is still there, no idea what to do about it. It's an itch that I'm finding hard to scratch.

If you're ever down in south London, feel free to drop in.

 

[RobHolt]

I will - thanks for the invitation.

If you want a really nice valve amp for the Ta'us look out for a Croft Series 5.

Neat little amp using parallel EL84s for a solid 25wpc. My H2s sounded excellent driven by the Croft.
£500-ish is the going rate.