ATC speakers / Monitors

[Ultrasonic]

Real world experience tells me it's just not at all a problem ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For context, how big is your room and how far do you sit from your speakers?

 

[Ktacos]

For context, how big is your room and how far do you sit from your speakers?

14x20x8' sitting like 6-7ft away. Room is open to other rooms.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Can ATC's be considered state of the art?

 

[Ktacos]

Can ATC's be considered state of the art?

They're not even close.

 

[DSJR]

Can ATC's be considered state of the art?

Oh come on PJ, we've been through this in countless pages here in this thread... I'd politely suggest that by the best of today's standards, the overall packages they make are not state of the art now, but they CAN sound bloody good for hours on end as you can 'fall' into a recording (even played via vinyl I discovered!) and simply forget the 'mechanics' of the reproducing chain You're a Genelec fan still aren't you? Best keep saving and do it right straight off

 

[dfuller]

Can ATC's be considered state of the art?

Can you ask actually useful questions?

 

[Pearljam5000]

Oh come on PJ, we've been through this in countless pages here in this thread... I'd politely suggest that by the best of today's standards, the overall packages they make are not state of the art now, but they CAN sound bloody good for hours on end as you can 'fall' into a recording (even played via vinyl I discovered!) and simply forget the 'mechanics' of the reproducing chain You're a Genelec fan still aren't you? Best keep saving and do it right straight off

Lol
Yeah
I just was trying to understand what is the alure or the ATCs as they are pretty popular
I think it has a lot to do with the old school looks (and also the excellent SQ obviously)

 

[Pearljam5000]

Can you ask actually useful questions?

I'll try harder next time
OK here's one
How are ATC so successful and popular when they are not state of the art(according to some people) and cost a bit more then the average?

 

[Avp1]

I'll try harder next time
OK here's one
How are ATC so successful and popular when they are not state of the art(according to some people) and cost a bit more then the average?

Find a place which has them and listen.

 

[Ultrasonic]

How are ATC so successful and popular when they are not state of the art(according to some people) and cost a bit more then the average?

Some people buy speakers because they like how they sound...

 

[goat76]

Yes, but this way if you change the listening distance, you need to change speaker tilting or listening height as well to get the same response.

I don’t see how that changes much from setting up other brands of speakers, and changing the listening distance is probably not something that is done regularly.

The thing is that most loudspeaker manufacturers have the acoustic center at the height of the tweeter driver, but at the same time, it's not that uncommon that the tweeter is placed at completely different heights for the same manufacturer's different-sized floorstanding models. So that means you still need to adjust the height of the feet so that the tweeter driver is at the same height as the listener's ears, but depending on how "off" the tweeter height is compared to the height of the listener's ears at the main listening position, that may be a no-go. So what does that leave you to? Yes, you have to tilt them so that the tweeter points to the height of the listener's ears anyway, and you are left with the same "problem" of needing to adjust the tilt differently if you happen to be a person who often changes the listening distance.

 

[a4eaudio]

I'll try harder next time
OK here's one
How are ATC so successful and popular when they are not state of the art(according to some people) and cost a bit more then the average?

They are purchased by people who don't give a crap about what people on forums decide to declare state of the art.

 

[goat76]

I needed a 4° tilt I think, and so actually ended up removing the rear spikes entirely and getting some slightly longer ones for the front.

You probably have a laser meter you can hold against the speaker cabinet at the height of the mid-dome driver, and then see if it hits the correct height at the listening position.

 

[Nopiano]

This review of the SCM100SE actives from Hifi News is a few years old now, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t available for a while online. My recollection is that Andrew Everard and Paul Miller disagreed over its merits, as they mentioned this in columns and editorials at the time. The review is a composite conclusion, with the green Highly Commended rating being lesser than the red Outstanding gong. TL: DR might be technically strong but not the most enjoyable…or not! (The high price of the luxury, but not very attractive cabinets, probably didn’t help)

ATC SCM100SE Loudspeaker

The Special Edition version of these big active ATCs is not exactly a great beauty, but its sound is highly revealing Well they're not exactly what you'd call pretty… The imposing ATC floorstanders you see here may be a 'Special Edition' model, selling for just over £36,000 in this active...

www.hifinews.com

A couple of years before this I was choosing some floorstanders in the (then) £3000 range. (3,000 GBP) I listened to various ProAc, Quad, Martin Logan ELS, Sonus faber, etc. I found the ATC SCM40 were an easy choice in the end despite being the most costly by a few hundreds. I nevertheless had a loan pair at home to be sure and mine took about six weeks to arrive. I subsequently heard the actives compared to passives in the same domestic room, and the actives were markedly superior in every way.

Those asking what the attraction is, beyond the sound, I’d say the transferable six year warranty, and made in England ranked pretty high with me, as well as the obvious focus on engineering over flashy styling. How they’d compare today to market equivalent KEF R11 meta and Acoustic Energy models is hard to say, but I still enjoy them.

 

[Ultrasonic]

You probably have a laser meter you can hold against the speaker cabinet at the height of the mid-dome driver, and then see if it hits the correct height at the listening position.

I actually just employed some very basic math(s) . I do have a laser pointer somewhere but am not convinced it would have helped.

I also confirmed that the measured acoustic response looked like what I got with the speakers level and the microphone at the mid-driver height.

 

[goat76]

This review of the SCM100SE actives from Hifi News is a few years old now, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t available for a while online. My recollection is that Andrew Everard and Paul Miller disagreed over its merits, as they mentioned this in columns and editorials at the time. The review is a composite conclusion, with the green Highly Commended rating being lesser than the red Outstanding gong. TL: DR might be technically strong but not the most enjoyable…or not! (The high price of the luxury, but not very attractive cabinets, probably didn’t help)

ATC SCM100SE Loudspeaker

The Special Edition version of these big active ATCs is not exactly a great beauty, but its sound is highly revealing Well they're not exactly what you'd call pretty… The imposing ATC floorstanders you see here may be a 'Special Edition' model, selling for just over £36,000 in this active...

www.hifinews.com

I'm starting to wonder if I was the author of that review, as it contains so many things I have written today.

"From the disposition of its drivers, the intended listening axis for the SCM100SE appears to be on the axis of the midrange cone, which is at typical seated ear height. Our initial frequency response measurements were made at this microphone height and above and below it, which confirmed that the midrange axis gave the flattest response. Measured at 1m on this axis, the responses of the two speakers [see Graph 1, below] show a decline in output below 300Hz, which should be ignored as this is an artefact of the measurement time window used."

 

[Leeken]

This review of the SCM100SE actives from Hifi News is a few years old now, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t available for a while online. My recollection is that Andrew Everard and Paul Miller disagreed over its merits, as they mentioned this in columns and editorials at the time. The review is a composite conclusion, with the green Highly Commended rating being lesser than the red Outstanding gong. TL: DR might be technically strong but not the most enjoyable…or not! (The high price of the luxury, but not very attractive cabinets, probably didn’t help)

ATC SCM100SE Loudspeaker

The Special Edition version of these big active ATCs is not exactly a great beauty, but its sound is highly revealing Well they're not exactly what you'd call pretty… The imposing ATC floorstanders you see here may be a 'Special Edition' model, selling for just over £36,000 in this active...

www.hifinews.com

A couple of years before this I was choosing some floorstanders in the (then) £3000 range. (3,000 GBP) I listened to various ProAc, Quad, Martin Logan ELS, Sonus faber, etc. I found the ATC SCM40 were an easy choice in the end despite being the most costly by a few hundreds. I nevertheless had a loan pair at home to be sure and mine took about six weeks to arrive. I subsequently heard the actives compared to passives in the same domestic room, and the actives were markedly superior in every way.

Those asking what the attraction is, beyond the sound, I’d say the transferable six year warranty, and made in England ranked pretty high with me, as well as the obvious focus on engineering over flashy styling. How they’d compare today to market equivalent KEF R11 meta and Acoustic Energy models is hard to say, but I still enjoy them.

Don’t forget the fact that they’ll repair and upgrade them for virtually forever as they have control of the driver manufacturing as well,I ended up with the passives as I can’t get a power lead to my LH speaker,they’re as much as I ever want in a domestic situation,a few too many on here seem to believe they’re the second coming of George Martin

 

[RexrothPigeon]

How are ATC so successful and popular when they are not state of the art(according to some people) and cost a bit more then the average?

Here's a better one:

How can you, a cognitively functional adult living in the world circa 2025, sincerely think that success and popularity require SOTA and good pricing?

 

[Pearljam5000]

Here's a better one:

How can you, a cognitively functional adult living in the world circa 2025, sincerely think that success and popularity require SOTA and good pricing?

Ad hominem questions are less my style

 

[YSDR]

Can ATC's be considered state of the art?

I suspect we don't know, because there are no meaningful/proper measurements to conclude from. Here I think about the 3-way models. Yeah, the radiation pattern uniformity is probably not SOTA but there can be other aspect that are SOTA. Personally I would like to see multitone/IMD and compression measurements from them.