Your thoughts about ATC loudspeakers


I’m interested in the ATC SCM-40 from their HiFi series and would like to hear from people who have owned or spent a lot of time with ATC speakers. This is a fairly new model and may be a bit of a departure from their classic sound.

At the show in Newport last weekend, I was quite taken by these speakers. I went back the next day and heard the same things that I liked about them, but a couple of red flags also went up:

Microdynamics – not sure these speakers do them well and microdynamics are critical to communicating inflection and nuance and to making music sound alive

Imaging, specifically wrt depth. Nothing much outside of the plane of the speakers, so recording venue info is not there and even instrument and vocal body may suffer a bit.

Were these shortcomings of setup or associated gear, or is this what ATC does?
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Showing 5 responses by audiotroy

Dragon Vibe, your points are interesting but don't make a lot of sense.

We have not heard of Quested loudspeakers until now, your comments about them being more musical in your opinion is interesting.

ATC loudspeakers are extremely musical and are very natural sounding. Their speakers are raved reviewed in almost every audio magazine that has ever tested them and they are often praised for how real and life like and unhyped sounding they are. 

The drivers that ATC builds are amoung the best drivers you can buy, and the fact that most of the world's largest and most prestigous mastering and mixing facilities all use ATC is proof postive of the pedegree of the speakers.

As per the commercial and residential being identical that is also not true, current residential models have a different voicing than the studio versions there are also a few tweeks done to the residential models, these make the consumer versions a tad more laid back sounding. 

Yes Trevor Horn is an excellent composer but the fact that he uses these speakers actually means very little, Herbie Hancok uses Terra speakers does that mean Terra is better or Quested is better because a musician or composer uses them? In this industry many people are often exposed to one brand and they like that product and rarely explore the entire gamut 

So did Trevor listen to ATC or PMC or Adam or whatever before using these speakers the only one who knows that is Mr. Horn. 

ATC is a gem of a speaker, we have been dealers for them for about 1 year,however, we always knew of the speakers, it was just impossible to hear them 

We heard an active set of SCM 40 at the last New York Audio show and boy were we hooked, the speakers are unbelievably good and the ATC SCM 19 are just so remarkable. 

The biggest issue with ATC is how little the Audiophile world really knows about them.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


Dragon Vibe, 

Our comments speak about the entire industry. If Quested made such a superior speaker more people would know about them in the audiophile world. 

We checked out the Gearslutz site and many people there commented favorably on the ATC being the superior speaker in terms of accuracy the Quested being ported and having a bit more bass slam as well as costing less were what people liked about them.

Your preference is your preference without knowing your setup, room acoustics and audio expectations it is not clear if others would agree with you or not.

Our posts are about just how realistic the ATC are especially if you drive them with the correct gear and how more people should check them out.

If you like rock I know of few speakers that are as satisfying. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


We are both displaying Kef and ATC dealers if you have any particular questions give us a call.

We also sell Elac, Paradigm, Kef Reference, and Quad. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
Keoliphant, we sell the ATC and just took in mint pair of Harbeth C7 in trade towards the ATC SCM 19V2.

Here is the take on both speakers, first you do not want an overly warm amp with Harbeths, Harbeths are polite speakers in the treble. 

As per the ATC they are more dynamic, with a more life like sound, the Harbeths are more laid back perspective in the treble with a richer midrange.

We do not agree with Keoliphant the ATC sound great at all volumes, the issue with ATC is that many people like to play them loud as they do not compress and just get louder without compression. 

Low volume playback is all about a system's total resolution. 

If you like a rich laid back sound then Harbeths are your poison, if you favor a sound which mirrors real life the ATC are the better speaker.

If you like find wooden cabinets Harbeths are much prettier.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ




Good point JB. Only speakers that have  non flat frequency responses sound good at low levels.

The ATC speakers are truthful and we have created amazing sound in our store on a 40w Naim Atom which played more than loud enough for most clients.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ