dkzzzz

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00 from PatKeogsound.com

Summary:
Superb active speaker with realistic sound. No frequency sticks out all drivers are very well integrated. Just listen to it if you can in your locale. These are the best affordable speakers I have ever heard. Boggles my mind why audio stores never carry this brand and instead offer plethora of garbage like B&W or Sonus Faber or some other wooden box.
If you have been on the market for conservative size floor standing speakers you owe it to your ears to listen to these ATCs.

Superb is all I can say.

Strengths:
Flat response ,nothing is out of phase. Evererything is there all music.

Weaknesses:
Not really eye candy,but ok. Extremly heavy. Not cheap.

Similar Products Used:
Snus FAber, Tannoy, Vandersteen 2C, B&W 803, Vienna Acoustics, JMLabs full range fo that garbage. and many many other night stands with drivers in them

alexfan63

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $5000.00 from eBay

Summary:
I have the 100ASL pro. Black finish. Al most everyone comes to my house and wondering why I would buy 2 giant black speaker. It doe snot match with anything in my Family room. Well, I got them cheap off eBay. None the less, everyne loves the sound.

Many of my friends spent money and time trying to match Amplifier and speaker. I have no worry about that and save a pair of expensive speaker cable. I have tried many pre-AMP. I am still struggling between Conrad Johnson Premier 17 and 16-2. Yes, I can hear the difference between them and both are good. ATC is so nutural that it helps bring out the character of you pre-amp or source.

If you know any good carpenter can help me apply wood veneer, email me at alexfan63@gmail.com. Thanks.

Strengths:
Neutural.

Weaknesses:
looks.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Compared to B&W what is amazing about ATC? Stunning, crystal clarity. I do not think it is possible to get this level of clarity unless you go with an active speaker like the ATC. Also ATC voice coils are wired to eliminate or cancel out 1st and 3rd order (bad) harmonics. So it is easier to hear into the music better than B&W. ATC has more crystal clarity than Thiel and none of the harshness. Even hot recorded disco came through without ear pain. With the lack of distortion, I was playing music louder than I am used to and absolutely no ear fatigue. The ATC had bigger dynamics than the Nautilus 802 and I was told it can play 117 dB continuously. Bass is powerful but very tight. Frequency response sounded very neutral and well integrated. I could not find fault anywhere that caused me problems. Highs were clear but not bright- a common trick used by some speaker manufacturers to simulate clarity and openess. So what is bad about theATC? The biggest problem was that from about 10 feet away there was a very small sweet spot and moving 2 feet to one side, the sound would flip from one speaker to the other. Maybe toe-in, etc. would help. Second, piano did not sound as good as B&W. Strange, since I think of piano as being a dynamic, percussive instrument which the ATC can do. Maybe it’s a harmonics problem. Third, B&W has a real ace-in-the-hole with their tweeter. Maybe only electrostatics or ProAc Future ribbon tweeters can came close to B&W in this respect. Also B&W slimmer towers and rounded cabinets help. But ATC vocals did not have the open, expansiveness of B&W. Forth I seemed to need to play the ATC at higher levels (85 dB) to get the impact which comes on at lower volume levels with a smaller speaker. ATC is used in 60% of the world’s recording studios (so I am told). Obviously their focus is not the same as home-use. So things like vocal openess and wider horizontal driver dispersion (soundstaging) are not as relevant.I would guess that Nautilus 801’s would be better than ATC IF they are tri-amped and no crossovers. Better driver sound dispersion left to right gives a bigger sweet spot. Piano sounds better. Vocals sound more open. But I can only guess that Nautilus 801 could match the ATC’s level of crystal clarity, no distortion, punch, and sustained higher dB playback if it could be set up totally active.

Strengths:
Crystal clear with NO harshness. Huge dynamics. No distortion. Can hear a multitude of timber changes as guitar strings plucked or triangle struck. The best rock and roll speaker I have ever heard. Extremely tight bass and goes much deeper than spec’d when actually listening – ie Silverline Sonatina’s are spec’d to 25 Hz! Yea right!!!

Weaknesses:
Weaknesses: bad dispersion between left and right speakers. Piano did not sound right esp compared to B&W. Not the sounstage depth of Audio Pysic. Vocals not as open and airy as B&W. Needs to play over maybe 85 dB to start to come on song. Needs a big room. Needs 500+ watts. Active model is 350 watts/speaker

Similar Products Used:
B&W Nautilus 802, Wilson (stunk). Thiel.

Summary:
My 100's are ATC SCM100A vintage 1995. They are active, and I have no doubt the current model has some improvements, but I doubt I would notice them. These speakers are amazing. I use them in my home theater along with SCM 50As and I have heard nothing in the past six years that comes close to the involvement you get when watching films. - Fantastic dynamic range, indeed this speaker was built as a monitor and is used in studios all over the world. It makes you proud to be British!

Strengths:
Dynamic range, lack of coloration

Weaknesses:
Large and expensive, some (not me) find the up front sound tiring

Similar Products Used:
ATC SCM 10
ATC SCM 20
ATC SCM 50a

Summary:
This is the best music speaker I have ever heard. This speaker easily runs with the Dynaudio Consequence, B&W 801, Wilson Watt/Puppy etc. It is used by many pro recording studios and will reproduce anything you throw at it. I bought my pair used and am amazed at how accurate these speakers sound without adding anything to the music. They are built like tanks (just check out the drivers!). They are very plain looking and that is how they sound, not overly bright or muddy, just dead nuts accurate at volumes from casual listening to peal the paint off the walls loud. No distortion...ever. I find it hard to discribe their sound because they sound just like what you are listening to, the only thing these speakers "add" to the music is detail. They are very expensive but are a great value. Five stars does not do these speakers justice.

Strengths:
Perfect sound with NO coloration

Weaknesses:
Very expensive

Similar Products Used:
Mirage M1si