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?
Ag insider logo xs@2xdrubin
Audio Doctor, I understand your a Dealer and thus your comments on this forum is always biased towards products you guys carry. This is evident on the DAC threads as well. You do realise pushing your products on the forum does come across unethical.

I speak from personal experience by owning all 3 speakers in the past 20 years in this hobby. I an not a dealer of either of the companies.

My comments on the composer using these speaker is just an indication that they have stuck by the company for a long time. ATC is used by many studios and composers as well. It could mean something or nothing either way. I am not a Audio Distributor or a Dealer. So I am not biased to any given manufacture.
Quested Used Volt Midrange as I understand it and so does PMC.

The Model is available on the VOLT UK Website.
Quested to me sounds less fatiguing, again guys use your own ears. We share information on this thread and opinions.  Nothing negative in my comments about ATC or PMC. If you are planning to listen to music instead of using your room for Mixing or Tracking the Quested may prove to be more preferable for long term listening session.
BTW: check out the comments on gearslutz when producers, composers are comparing ATC to Quested and PMC. Similar opinions are being shared on their as well.
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