You are one of the few who commented that have heard both ATC and the Genelec "One". I would expect the active Genelec to have more resolution over the passive ATC's that you own. The active ATC's offer a lot more resolution than their passive models, especially the 3-way passive vs 3-way active models. So I'm not surprised there... but how about the tonality of musical instruments. Which one reproduces violin or guitar with the most body, richness, and depth? I was actually confused a bit by your post, because it sounds like you appreciate the resolution of the Genelec but prefer the sound and tonalty of the ATC? Hoping you can further clarify your subjective opinion.
Sooo, the story goes on ...
Juts to be clear - i am a home audiophile searching for enjoyment from the music and not a studio engineer chasing ideal reproduction. Those two can be pretty far apart. the point is - I don't need 100% real live like reproduction to enjoy the music, or there are certain hi-fi gimmicks that are not exactly real, but are still very enjoyable
To the question -
body goes to genelc. ATCs (speaking only from SCM 40 ... 50s and upwords and studio versions are another thing i suppose) sound is more on the thin side.
The
depth, hmm ... here they play very different (but this is very depending on room and how the interact with it). With the ATCs the stage was in my case behind the speakers. Exactly the opposite with the genelcs ... the stage is in-front. A little bit a headphonelike feeling. Both can be enjoyable. The genelcs in my case just filling the room better.
richness - here is a little bit difficult and we are coming to the part with the hi-fi gimmicks. The 40s paired with the ATC P1 amp has a very rich highs. Unrealistic rich ... but nice. And with reproducing somekind of quite echoes they are giving a sense of nice depth and detail. I was using them also with a purifi eigentakt amp and this effect wasn't so pronounced. But after all this is a system of dac+amp+speaker and difficult too compare to all in one solution like the genelcs.
At the end comes another crucial aspect - the
calibration. In my case over dirac (dont have the GLM kit). The genelecs have before calibration far better response then the ATCs and after the calibration ... oh boy ... now they are really shining. Never got this before-after result and so clear enhancement with the ATCs. Actually they was very hard to calibrate adequate and often they sounded even thinner in the mids after calibration. The genelcs have now better and wider soundstage and the mids are even more rich and the hights more clear
In my room and for my taste I am definitely more satisfied with the genelec solution.
... and if i have to compare them price wise the genelcs also wins - replacing DAC, XLR cables, speaker cables, spdif cable, AMP and spekaers