Question: Does ATC have the best midrange driver?


Since music is like 90% mids then seems to me ATC is the best speaker. But if they are so good, how come there's no rave going on about them? Price factor?
tweekerman
I can tell you between ATC and B&W 803 there is no contest, the midrange on the ATC (I think active 50) is a big step up in clarity and palpablity. The B&Ws are more coherent but are better in no other way. There is a big price difference between these speakers but I would pick the ATCs.
Audiokinesis, what do you think of drivers made from Aurasound, Eton, Audax, Morel Acoustics and Scanspeak?

Thanks.
Hi,

I was just searching for some info on the manger speakers and stumbled upon this thread, I think you guys should at least give it a listen once I have heard them(I do not own them) and they were simply FANTASTIC, you got to hear some vocals on it and I'm sure you would be more than impressed.

I currently own dynaudio 1.3SE and would change them in a heartbeat to the manger zerobox 109, but still got to get the funds sorted :)

Satyam
That said, ATC speakers are still based on a professional monitor platform and thus will not appeal to those who prefer a more "audiophile" sound. This means that you are not going to get an incredibly expansive, deep, or layered soundstage, and ATCs are not going to pull off the disappearing act as well as many others.

The irony of this statement is that it is one of the most inaccurate statement about one of the most accurate speakers. ATCs are one of the very few speakers which can disappear with very little effort. The reason is extremely free from distortion and amazing integration among the drivers. I use a SCM40 which is a 3 way speaker and they disappear even within a listening distance of 5ft and you hear exactly a point source even at a 5ft distance. How many speakers can do that ? Contrary to what the above gentleman has written the soundstage is humongous yet precise. You can layers after layers deep into the stage. Images float in an airy envelope stunningly palpable if it is in the recording. As someone else has said it is extremely close to a good electrostat in the midrange.