2. speakers
  3. 1433716136

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
lindisfarne
507 posts
 
The least distortion I've ever heard in a speaker but they need a lot of juice so SET need not apply.
celtic66
990 posts
 
Lindisfarne is absolutely correct. Lots of really good power otherwise you are wasting your time and lots of money. I've not listened to this exact model, but have listened to much of the line and it is quite consistent with needing very exacting preamp/power. Very revealing of any flaws in the system to include cabling. Most I listened to loved British class A such as Sugden and LFD.
pani
1,049 posts
 
I have owned SCM-40 and have heard most others. There is nothing that the ATC cannot do. They are seriously among the absolute best speakers out there. They sound like whatever is there in the recording and what is being fed to it via the electronics in the chain. You need really good amplifiers and sky is the limit.

Look at Symphonic line amps if you are looking for the depth and width of soundstage along with a very finely nuanced and liquid sound. You can even consider an active SCM40 which in my opinion is the best thing to do.
soix
2,133 posts
 
I worked for an ATC dealer a while back, and we didn't carry the 40s but I got to hear the 20s and 50s quite a bit while I was there. To me, the midrange is about the best I've ever heard in terms of power, resolution, and an utter lack of any distortion or strain. Where I found them to fall a little short was with respect to holographic 3D imaging. It's not that they don't image well, it's just that compared to other what I'll call the more "audiophile" oriented brands they don't portray (or some would say exaggerate) things like depth or width of the soundstage, and I'd agree the venue info is a little less apparent as well. Again, this is just relative to speakers that excel in these particular areas. Perhaps the new 40s improve in these areas if they represent an evolution of the house sound, but I have no idea. Can't say I noticed anything regarding micro dynamics, but we usually demoed them with more dynamic music so that might be why. I really can't fault them in any other areas. Great overall speakers, and I wish they had more exposure here in the U.S.
More to discover