THE BEST IN THE WORLD

ATC Speakers

(Click Here for a more detailed article)

British high fidelity loudspeakers were the best in the business in the 1950s through the 1970s. By 1980, the industry swung away from the esoteric, employing cost-cutting engineering compromises in order to bring high fidelity speakers to the masses. ATC is a modern British company that didn’t go with the flow. Their design innovations, research into new materials, and engineering decisions have but one goal – to make a better sounding loudspeaker regardless of cost. This is more important than ever to the recording and mastering engineer since contemporary music production has grown in complexity. Being able to hear the tiniest details, good and bad, is the only way to assure that your listeners will hear your final product as you intend for it to be heard.

Over years, ATC has quietly moved ahead of its competitors by actively developing and implementing solutions that substantially improve performance. Here’s a quick look at some of the important issues in loudspeaker design and how ATC addresses them.

• Linearity, Frequency, and Phase Response

The goal of a good driver is highly linear excursion of the diaphragm throughout the full frequency range over which it’s intended to be used. In order to build a long-excursion driver capable of handling high power and producing high sound levels, ATC designs and builds their drivers from the ground up. ATC’s magnet and voice coil assembly employs a short coil in a long, linear magnetic field. A side benefit of this design is excellent heat dissipation.

ATC’s speaker cones are made of a heavily damped space age fabric sandwich designed to eliminate broad resonances that cause coloration. Accurate drivers deliver smooth and even frequency response without the need for equalization and its associated phase anomalies.

• Dispersion, Directivity, and Sweet Spot

The relationship between direct and reflected sound is important in our perception of spaciousness and depth. To produce a good reverberant field, you must start with good sound hitting the reflective surfaces. ATC’s soft dome drivers provide wide horizontal dispersion over which the frequency response is smooth, resulting in a broad listening area as well as uniform relationship between direct and reflected sound. The soft dome driver technology is used across the full ATC product line so you’ll get the same smooth response and even dispersion regardless of the size of loudspeaker that best fits your listening space.

• Dynamic Range

The dynamic range of a speaker is largely a function of the driver construction. ATC’s vented motor assembly minimizes power compression by keeping the voice coil’s electrical resistance from changing as a result of heating. In conventional drivers, this resistance change causes a type of dynamic compression which often leads to dull sound after a long session. The amplifiers used in ATC powered speakers are sized appropriately for the drivers and deliver all the power required without clipping. Super fast, non-intrusive FET limiters are included to protect the drivers, not to modify the speaker’s dynamic characteristics.

"You were right... it's a year and a half later, and i cant imagine living without these speakers. one of the best choices of my career. my work has never been so consistent, my clients never so happy. Thanks," Mike Roskelly, The Pod

"The traditional way of doing things was to mix, then take a reference home or listen in the car. I don't really need to do that anymore, because I find I'm not second-guessing the process as much, which helps me move faster.” Kevin McNoldy, Crystalphonic Studios

"I produced Sky Farm, mixed three films and a number of commercials all on the ATCs and everything has translated beautifully. So my confidence level is extremely high! With the 100s I find the imaging is breathtaking. The soundfield is so defined and exactly the way it is on the sound stage. I also find the 'sweet spot' is wide both vertically and horizontally making it great for my clients and artists to also enjoy the sound equally over a fairly wide area. These speakers somehow maintain the same relationship between low, mid and high frequencies at all volumes better than any speaker I've worked on. If I was mixing a record, the vocal sound, characteristic and position in the mix stays exactly the same - dead on from quiet to earthshaking room volumes." Steve Kempster

If you have not heard ATC speakers before, it is time to call us. We can introduce you to a wide range of ATC speakers that can address most budgets and needs.

Read this white paper for very technical information and ATC’s philosophy of loudspeaker manufacturing.

The prices shown below are estimated US Retail. Please call for a discounted quote and delivery information!