When I was cleaning the waveguide of the mid-dome driver on my SCM40 using a dry cloth, I mistakenly touched the sticky surface of the mid-dome with the dusty cloth and got dirty in a way that could be seen from the listening position. I knew it was best to search the internet on how the dirt should be removed as it's such a sensitive surface, and it was fairly easy just using the sticky side of a normal transparent tape and gently removing the dust from the driver. But I must say, this is not something I have just done this one time, I don't care about the dust that can't be seen unless I look at it closely.
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ATC speakers / Monitors
- Thread starter Pearljam5000
- Start date
When I was cleaning the waveguide of the mid-dome driver on my SCM40 using a dry cloth, I mistakenly touched the sticky surface of the mid-dome with the dusty cloth and got dirty in a way that could be seen from the listening position. I knew it was best to search the internet on how the dirt should be removed as it's such a sensitive surface, and it was fairly easy just using the sticky side of a normal transparent tape and gently removing the dust from the driver. But I must say, this is not something I have just done this one time, I don't care about the dust that can't be seen unless I look at it closely.
I had a buzzing sound in one of my ATC SCM40s that was easily heard when playing bass-heavy tracks. I used a tone generator and could pinpoint it to a certain frequency and I was afraid the ex-demo speakers I bought had gone through some beating. When I took the bass driver out and checked it, I noticed that one of the cables had been jammed between the driver and the cabinet causing the cable to vibrate against the backside of the cone, I fixed that and the buzzing sound was gone. I suspect that the store I ordered the speakers from had looked at the drivers at some point, and when screwing it back had made the mistake of not checking the cables.
So my suggestion is that you just check if any of the cables are vibrating against the speaker cone, if you are lucky it can be an easy thing like that.
DSJR
Master Contributor
Only the 15" driver has a foam surround I think, which surprised me somewhat as the 12" and smaller drivers have a long lived rubbery one... Earlier 15" drivers do need re-foaming after what, fifteen years or so?
They're both doped paper, that's what it looks like. Genelec uses (IIRC) custom designed PHLs for their main woofers. I am not sure who makes their mids and tweeters but I'd bet they're both custom jobs too.
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Pearljam5000
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The ultimate ATC setup ? 
dagfinn
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Would you put these in your livingroom, @Pearljam5000? I think I'd rather go with one of those home hifi towers, like 150ASLT...
Or some I actually can afford, like these second hand SMC7 v3
.Anyone tried these? Do they have the ATC sound? Kind of curious, and I have a spot for some small speakers.
ATC SCM7 v.3 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
In 1974, in England, Australian Reverse-Pommy pianist and recording engineer Billy Woodman founded the Acoustic Transducer Co. (ATC) as a maker of loudspeaker drive-units. That makes ATC a few years younger than Spendor (1969) and a few years older than Harbeth (1977). When I mentioned all that...
All the ATC woofers/midwoofers use rubber surrounds? Pretty sure the voice coils are designed to handle a lot of power too. Their speakers certainly stand up well to the serious kind of abuse other manufacturers seem to suffer from in the studio. Neumann have higher failure rates than ATC for example.
Genelec are one of the few brands also making reliable speakers.
The 15" ATC woofer have foam surround, and is rated to 150/300W, which is still plenty for domestic use, but power compression can creep in earlier when driven hard, compared to a typical 15" pro audio woofer with average 500/1000W power handling and higher sensitivity/efficiency.
For example:
https://faitalpro.com/en/products/LF_Loudspeakers/product_details/index.php?id=151060150
I think ATC’s main goal is avoiding power compression. Also, wattage ratings should be taken with a pinch of salt, to say the least. Small changes in the testing conditions can give wildly varying results…
Would you put these in your livingroom, @Pearljam5000? I think I'd rather go with one of those home hifi towers, like 150ASLT...
Or some I actually can afford, like these second hand SMC7 v3
View attachment 381051
Anyone tried these? Do they have the ATC sound? Kind of curious, and I have a spot for some small speakers.
ATC SCM7 v.3 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
In 1974, in England, Australian Reverse-Pommy pianist and recording engineer Billy Woodman founded the Acoustic Transducer Co. (ATC) as a maker of loudspeaker drive-units. That makes ATC a few years younger than Spendor (1969) and a few years older than Harbeth (1977). When I mentioned all that...www.stereophile.com
I have not listened to SCM7 but I have the current version of SCM11 which is the next step up in size, I use them as surround speakers and they sound great as main speakers as well. The 11s sound very similar to my SCM40s, the only thing missing is that extra step in performance the mid-dome driver adds to the party, which gives the sound a life-like three-dimensional quality which I think is a truly exceptional thing. But other than that, the SCM11s also have the ATC sound and I guess that applies to the 7s as well.
Lower electrical power handling = power compression sets in earlier, all else equal. There is no magic involved about this.
Sure, but I'll note that all other things are not equal. Big motors and large diameter voice coils will reduce thermal compression given the same power rating.
The 9" driver in the SCM50 has a 75mm voice coil, which is very large for that class of driver - most of them are 64mm or thereabouts. And we all know about ATC using hilariously gigantic motor magnets.
This pro driver has an fs of 36 hz while the sc versions of ATC have an fs of 23 hz with lower sensitivity.
That's just the output power of the amplifier, the woofer's power handling is still 150/300W if it's the same SB75-375 SC.
Okay, but there is not much advantage of the lower Fs (which comes from the higher Cms, so higher Vas) if the enclosure is relative small (relative to Vas), like in the case of ATCs, even the SCM150.
But this starts to get off-topic I think.
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If you think those large underhung motors are the panacea of high power handling, then why only 150/300W is the power handling of the SB75-375 SC? The linked Faital Pro driver have a similar (but overhung) 3" voice coil and it's power handling is 600/1200W.
Underhung motors is almost non-existent amongst the highest power handling drivers, because underhung voice coils have a relative small surface area to distribute and dissipate heat.
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I didn't say anything about power rating? I said given the same maximum power rating a larger diameter (ie, larger area) VC and motor will result in less thermal compression. Underhung has its own limitations, not the least of which is limited xmax.
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Even with 50% efficiency that amp should output 500 watts peak. Besides that power handling of drivers increases with filtering. The lower fs shows it was designed to play lower since atc designed other drivers for PA.
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