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Review NaN of
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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.
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