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dB HI-FI OPEN EVENT
On Saturday 2nd April, ATC will be participating in an open event with dB Hi-Fi in Suffolk.
On demonstration on the day we will have:
- SCM40 & SCM40A – demonstrating the differences between passive vs active loudspeaker designs.
- SCM10SE – One of only a few pairs in the UK.
- SCM50ASLT – The classic ATC 3-ways, now specified with the new ATC ‘S-Spec’ tweeter.
For further details:
DB Hi-Fi
James Dean
01379 873451
Info@dbhifi.co.uk
SIGNATURE EDITION SCM10SE CELEBRATES A LIFE IN SOUND
ATC marks the 70th Birthday of its founder with the luxury edition of a favourite speaker…
ATC Loudspeaker Technology is celebrating the 70th birthday of its founder and Managing Director Billy Woodman with a ‘Signature’ version of a landmark ATC design. Based on the highly original and acclaimed SCM10 mini monitor from 1990, the Signature Edition SCM10SE is an immaculate reworking of the breakthrough model.
Presented in a lustrous ATC blue piano finish, the SCM10SE is enhanced with an anodised silver aluminium tweeter wave guide, complementary silver mid/bass driver surround and a fine grain blue leather baffle, hand-finished by Eissmann, a leading supplier of pristine interior trims for many of the world’s most desirable car brands including Aston Martin, Bugatti, Lamborghini and McLaren.
Matching the flawless precision of its finish, the SCM10SE’s proprietary drivers and crossovers are wholly conceived and hand-built at ATC’s UK development and production facility in Stroud, Gloucestershire. The original SCM10’s soft dome tweeter has been replaced with a recently developed SH25-76S ‘S-Spec’ 25mm dual-suspension design, and its ground-breaking SB45-125SC 125mm mid/bass unit with a latest version, complete with integral soft dome. The system’s crossover is re-designed for the new drive units and uses ATC’s hand-wound air-cored inductors and high performance polypropylene capacitors throughout.
Appropriately the SCM10SE is limited to a production run of just seventy pairs, each supplied with an exclusive owner’s guide relating the story of Billy Woodman’s career from his formative engineering in Australia to the seminal, ethos-building work at Goodmans in the UK and culminating in the founding and flourishing of his Company as a world-renowned exponent of high performance audio reproduction systems for the studio, cinema, club and home.
Capturing the innovative spirit and uncompromising culture of ATC, the exclusive SCM10SE Signature speaker is a definitive 70th birthday tribute to the remarkable energy and influence of its founder, MD and Chief Engineer Billy Woodman.
Like all ATC products, the SCM10SE is backed by a six-year warranty.
Features
- New ATC designed and built ‘S’ specification 25mm Soft Dome HF unit with dual suspension, neodymium magnet assembly and a precision alloy wave guide.
- ATC 125mm short coil mid/bass unit with integral soft dome.
- In-house hand wound precision flat wire coil.
- Massive optimised motor assembly.
- Excellent impedance curve ensuring an easy load for any amplifier.
- Cabinet in exclusive ATC Blue high gloss piano finish.
- Baffle hand-bound in fine grain leather.
- 6 year warranty.
Specification
Drivers HF: ATC SH25-76S 25mm Soft Dome; Bass/Mid: ATC SB45-125SC 125mm drive unit
Matched Response: +/- 0.5dB
Frequency Response: (-6dB) 50Hz–25kHz
Dispersion: ±80° Coherent Horizontal, ±10° Coherent Vertical
Sensitivity: 82dB @ 1W @ 1metre
Max Continuous SPL: 103dB
Recommended Amplifier Power: 75 to 300 Watts
Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohm
Crossover Frequency: 2.5kHz
Connectors: Binding Posts/4mm Plugs, bi-wire
Cabinet Dimensions: (HxWxD) 380x185x267mm
Weight: 8kg/17.6lbs
SCM10SE Price: Please contact your local authorised dealer or distributor for pricing in your region.
Availability: 23rd March 2016
ATC LAUNCHES ‘SCM19AT’ ACTIVE TOWER SPEAKER SYSTEM
The SCM19AT system is an active version of the Company’s SCM19 award-winner, uniting proprietary, optimised driver/amp pairings in a slender floor standing design…
ATC Loudspeaker Technology’s new SCM19 Active Tower speaker system will deliver the company’s reference-quality audio from an elegantly curved floor-standing design, just 370mm wide and under a metre in height. Identical acoustically to ATC’s award-winning passive SCM19 2-way system but utilising the 19 litre volume in a slim tower format, the SCM19AT combines high aesthetic appeal with the widely acknowledged performance benefits of ATC active design to create a compelling speaker proposition for music lovers.
The SCM19AT’s braced, sealed and curved multi-layer laminated cabinet, which is precision-finished in cherry or black ash real-wood veneer, provides a rigid and optimally damped environment for the Company’s acclaimed SH25-76 soft dome tweeter and 150mm Super-Linear mid/bass driver. Drive units are individually powered by an upgraded bi-amp pack (also proprietary), comprising ATC’s discrete MOSFET Class A/B modules, providing 32W of continuous power to the HF section and 150W to the bass.
SH25-76 Tweeter
Sharing technology with the renowned ATC soft domed mid-range drive unit, the 19AT’s tweeter employs a unique dual suspension system, designed to suppress rocking modes even at high power output levels. The ATC configuration of a short edge-wound voice coil in a long, narrow magnetic gap ensures exceptionally low distortion throughout the tweeter’s operating band and removes the need for ferrofluids, which can dry out over time, compromising performance. A complex-shaped, soft-domed diaphragm extends high frequency range and offers a smooth off-axis response. The tweeter’s 15,000 gauss (1.5 tesla) neodymium magnet has a black heat-treated top plate, which dissipates heat away from the voice coil to maintain high power handling and low power compression. A precision-machined 5.5mm rigid alloy waveguide provides optimum dispersion with a flat on-axis frequency response and resonance-free operation.
Bass Driver
The SCM19AT’s 150mm ATC SL mid/bass driver utilises a carefully weighted doped fabric cone with a 75mm soft dome – exceptional for its broad and even dispersion of mid-band frequencies. The cone is driven by an ‘under-hung’ (short coil/long gap) motor using a huge 9kg ‘Super Linear’ magnet system, which is unique to ATC loudspeaker systems. The 75mm ribbon wire voice coil is meticulously milled and wound in-house by ATC. ATC’s familiar under-hung motor topology maintains linear coil force and inductance, even at high drive levels, keeping distortion low.
Electronics
The 19AT’s proprietary two-way on-board amp pack design has been revised to reduce noise and distortion (a further -10dB @ 10kHz), while achieving a lower operating temperature for improved reliability. The design includes protection circuits for both DC offset and thermal overload. Mid frequency THD is vanishingly low at 93dB/0.002%, and a very wide bandwidth of 200 kHz ensures the accurate reproduction of musical transients. ATC’s Grounded Source output stage modules are fed by a newly developed two-way active crossover section featuring 2nd order modified Butterworth circuitry with phase compensation for each crossover point. The advantage of active crossovers is that their response remains unaffected by variable voice coil impedance, while the use of phase compensation enables phase coherency at the crossover points, improving the SCM19AT’s tonal balance and enhancing imaging for a pin-point stereo field. As usual system input is via balanced XLR.
The ATC SCM19AT – the first active 19 in the Company’s history – is designed for optimum performance with the grille attached, although the difference in performance without the grill is minimal. Finished in anthracite grey, the metal grille fixes to the cabinet via hidden magnets. Designed and manufactured by ATC entirely in-house, the SCM19AT offers the ownership of a hand-built ruggedly engineered speaker system, world famous for musical accuracy and high power output. Like all ATC products, the SCM19AT is backed by a six-year warranty.
Features
- New ATC designed and built dual suspension 25mm soft dome HF unit with precision alloy wave guide
- “SL” spec bass driver with 75mm integral Soft Dome
- 9kg optimised short-coil/long gap motor assembly
- On-board grounded source 182 watt Class A/B Bi-amplifier
- Active filters and overload protection
- 6 year warranty
Specification
Drivers: HF ATC 25mm dual suspension Tweeter, Mid/LF ATC 150mm SL
Matched Response: +/- 0.5dB
Frequency Response (-6dB): 54Hz-22kHz
Dispersion: ±80° Coherent Horizontal, ±10° Coherent Vertical
Max SPL: 108dB
Crossover Frequency: 2.5kHz
Connectors: Male XLR
Input sensitivity: 1V
Filters: 2nd Order critically damped with phase compensation
Overload Protection: Active FET momentary gain reduction
Fault Protection: DC fault protection and thermal trip. Fault indication on rear panel mounted LED
Amplifier Output: 150W LF, 32W HF
Cabinet Dimensions (HxWxD): 980x370x344mm (spikes add 25mm to height, grill adds 34mm to depth)
Weight: 31kg/68.2lbs.
The advantages of active operation:
- Perfectly matched dedicated amplifiers for each frequency band
- Active crossover filters with phase correction ensure accurate timbre, excellent imaging and source location
- A flat magnitude response that is not changed with power input level
- A 20dB improvement in intermodulation distortion
- Better controlled low frequency
- A greater dynamic range for the same input power
Price: please contact the local authorised ATC dealer or distributor in your region for pricing.
Availability: 23rd March 2016
SCM19A Launches 21st March
SCM7 Review: Hi-Fi Pig
In conclusion, reviewer, Dan Worth found:
“I’ve not written a long review for a change. This one is short and sweet – just like the 7s. Combine the imaging of the old Proac Tablettes, the surprising bass of a Totem One and the enthusiasm of an old AE1. Each of these speakers is renowned for having a special and memorable characteristic. The diminutive ATC SCM7 seems to possess a good measure of each. It’s one of those speakers that is so addictive and so unassuming that I think I’m going to have to buy a pair. They are like the cutest animal in the litter – the one you simply have to take home. Over time their musical consistency, honesty and downright practicality are simply undeniable. The thought of being without them has me reaching for a tissue.”
Pros:
Emphatic, transparent, detailed presentation.
Solid imaging and strong dynamics.
Great build.
Cons:
At this price, nothing.
Dan Worth, Hi-Fi Pig, February 2016.
To read the review in full please visit Hi-Fi Pig SCM7 Review
WHAT HI-FI’s BEST STANDMOUNTER NOW DOESN’T NEED AN AMP.
ONE OF OUR MOST POPULAR TWO-WAYS IS GOING ACTIVE
SCM10 Signature Edition
ATC was founded in 1974 by our Head of Engineering and Managing Director, Billy Woodman. In March this year, Billy celebrates his 70th Birthday!
Celebrations deserve something special and to mark the occasion we are building a very limited run of one of our earlier models and, a favourite of Billy, the SCM10.
The visual design of this very limited Signature Edition was just as important as the louspeakers’s performance and the finest craftsmen and materials have been used to create a visually stunning loudspeaker.
The cabinet is finished in a deep-blue, hand polished high gloss lacquer and the front baffle has been upholstered in a complimentary shade of dark blue leather. Silver anodised metalwork finishes it off and every pair will be supplied with a 20 page hardbound book detailing ATC and Billy’s history.
SCM10 Signature Edition
ATC was founded in 1974 by our Head of Engineering and Managing Director, Billy Woodman. In March this year, Billy celebrates his 70th Birthday!
Celebrations deserve something special and to mark the occasion we are building a very limited run of one of our earlier models and, a favourite of Billy, the SCM10.
The SCM10 was first manufactured in 1990 and was ATC’s high performance take on the classic British ‘mini-monitor’ of the 70’s, employing state-of-the-art drive units and crossovers.
More product information coming soon…
SCM10 Signature Edition
ATC was founded in 1974 by our Head of Engineering and Managing Director, Billy Woodman. In March this year, Billy celebrates his 70thBirthday!
Celebrations deserve something special and to mark the occasion we are building a very limited run of one of our earlier models and, a favourite of Billy, the SCM10.
SCM40A Reviewed in Hi-Fi+ Magazine
JOEL HAMILTON EARNS THREE GRAMMY NOMINATIONS
JOEL HAMILTON EARNS THREE GRAMMY NOMINATIONS FOR ENGINEERING “THE RIGHT KIND OF WRONG”, USING ATC SCM25A PRO MONITORS
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – JANUARY 2016: Adding to the two Grammy nominations already to his credit for Bomba Estereo’s Elegancia Tropical (Best Alternative Music Album at the 2013 Latin Grammys) and Pretty Lights’ (Best Dance/Electronica Album at the 2014 Grammys), Brooklyn-based producer, engineer, and musician Joel Hamilton now has two more Grammy nominations. Both are related to Highly Suspect’s first full-length album, Mister Asylum, which Hamilton produced, recorded, and mixed at his three-room facility, Studio G Brooklyn. The album is up for Best Rock Album, and its single “Lydia” is up for Best Rock Song. Not coincidentally, all of Hamilton’s Grammy nominations are for works he produced and engineered after outfitting all three control rooms at Studio G with ATC SCM25A Pro nearfield reference monitors, which he relies on at every stage of every project in which he involves himself.
“I came up in the punk rock world, playing at CBGB and listening to really gritty records,” Hamilton said. “There was the right kind of wrong on every record I loved. It was the like the technology wasn’t up to capturing so huge an event, and the sound of the technology failing adds excitement to the recording. You can feel that same effect when you’re really rocking out in your friend’s car on a road trip: you crank the stereo up just below the point at which it’s going to completely fail and shout along with the music!”
He continued, “What’s amazing is that we now are pretty close to being able to capture sound with virtually zero noise or distortion. We thought that was the goal, but it turns out to be boring for most genres of music. And it also turns out that there’s a huge range of boring at the bottom, a tiny window of beautiful distortion near the top, and a huge range of distracting distortion above that. The goal – and it’s not easy – is to hit that small sweet spot so that a recording sounds exciting at any volume without being fatiguing. That’s what I’m shooting for.”
Hamilton finds that window recording the basic tracks to a 24-track Studer analog tape machine. “With my ATC monitors, I’m able to see that tiny perfect window, where the grit is just right, during recording,” he said. “That’s critical, because I’m committing to it. There’s no undo key. Now that I have ATC’s legendary midrange clarity, I realize that I used to be half-guessing on other monitors. These days, my intention reads more clearly in the end result.” Music fans, some of whom are on the Grammy nominating committee, would seem to agree with Hamilton’s assessment!
Hamilton cites the singles from Pretty Lights and Highly Suspect as great examples of “the right kind of wrong.” Although electronic, Pretty Lights’ “Around the Block” has a deep, growly, dirty sound that gives it an organic personality that aligns beautifully with the concept of the song. If Hamilton hadn’t hit the tape as hard, the song would have had a much less engaging presence. “When the chorus kicks in on Highly Suspect’s single, “Lydia,” the whole song surrounds you,” he said. “It’s like it pours out of the speakers and floods the room. You can’t get that kind of sound if everything’s clean and safe, but if you overdo it, it turns into a mess.”
All three of Studio G’s rooms have ATC SCM25As on the meter bridge that, in addition to being convenient for Hamilton, are a welcomed asset for all of the studio’s outside clients. “Strange to say, but I feel like I got a home when I discovered ATC monitors,” he said. “It’s the sound I want in every room, and I don’t have to explain anything away when I tell prospective clients that we have ATC monitors. They’re like, ‘oh, perfect’ and there’s no need for further discussion on that point. When I’m working with musicians or other producers, the ATCs provide an accurate reflection of what I’m trying to do. There’s no need to try to explain my intensions… they can just hear them.”
ABOUT TRANSAUDIO GROUP
TransAudio Group, founded by industry veteran Brad Lunde, has quickly become the premier U.S. importer/distributor and/or U.S. sales and marketing representative for high-end audio. Success hinges on TransAudio providing dealers and end users with a higher standard of product expertise and support far beyond the norm. TransAudio Group are the official U.S. importer for ATC’s professional product line.
EA STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT™ ORIGINAL SCORE MIXED AND MASTERED ON ATC LOUDSPEAKERS
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 2015: John Rodd snuck out of the house. The year was 1977, long before he would become a prominent music recording, mixing and mastering engineer in the film, gaming, and music industries, with credits including Breaking Bad, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Lincoln Lawyer, World of Warcraft, Elysium, Batman: Bad Blood, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed; and Eric Clapton among countless others.
He was eleven years old at the time, and the occasion was arguably worthy of so great an infraction: the original Star Wars film was playing in the theater and he wasn’t going to be the only kid in class to miss it! Now, decades later, Rodd is a part of the Star Wars universe by mixing and mastering Gordy Haab’s original score for EA Star Wars: Battlefront™. Like many of the scores he records, mixes and masters, Rodd relied on his ATC SCM150ASL Pro reference monitors to inform his decisions with transparency and truthfulness
Players of EA Star Wars: Battlefront™ hear Haab’s original score throughout most of the game, but the game also segues in and out of parts of John Williams’ legendary Star Wars film scores. Rodd had to make sure that Gordy’s original score would fit with the older film scores from both a technical standpoint and, more importantly, from an emotional standpoint. “To fit within the Star Wars universe, Gordy’s music had to sound lush and huge, exciting and dramatic,” Rodd said. “The recordings took place at Abbey Road’s largest studio, and part of my task was always striking the perfect balance between the room mics and the spot mics. If only the room mics were utilized then the music would sound too far away. The spot mics add presence and detail, but if they become too loud, the recording loses its grandeur and falls out of balance. It loses its depth.”
Rodd emphasized that his cinematic and gaming work takes a different mindset compared with that of a classical recording that is meant to stand on its own. It has to effectively coexist with dialog and sound effects, which require different considerations. “I had to think about the big picture for EA Star Wars: Battlefront™,” he said. “Clarity is paramount. A lot of my work involves tiny surgical adjustments to clear away frequencies that are masking or diminishing important elements. Getting the right balance of clarity and size is difficult, and it requires profoundly accurate monitoring.”
He continued, “I find that my ATC 150s are very revealing and honest. ATC is legendary for its midrange quality, and I rely on my ATC 150s to help make all the tiny sonic decisions that add up to a compelling mix. They’re brutally honest, which is a good thing! If something actually sounds glorious, then it will sound glorious on my 150s. If something is slightly amiss, it will sound wrong on my 150s. There’s no guessing; ATC gives me the whole picture. Moreover, that truthfulness guarantees that a great sound in my studio will translate well to any other system. As a result, I’m able to work with 100% confidence.”
ABOUT TRANSAUDIO GROUP
TransAudio Group, founded by industry veteran Brad Lunde, has quickly become the premier U.S. importer/distributor and/or U.S. sales and marketing representative for high-end audio. Success hinges on TransAudio providing dealers and end users with a higher standard of product expertise and support far beyond the norm.
New Sonicscoop Feature: Inside Adele’s “25”: How Tom Elmhirst Mixed a Masterpiece
“The ATC SCM 50’s and an ATC SCM 1-15 subwoofer have been my main monitoring for three years now. They’re the best I’ve had.” Tom Elmhirst, SonicScoop, December 2015.
Read the feature in full here at sonicscoop.
Omar Hakim selects SCM50ASL Pro for personal studio after ATC factory visit
“To finally be able to monitor music with this level of accuracy and detail is an incredible experience for me. The SCM50ASL Pros are definitely taking my work to the next level.”
– Omar Hakim, 2015 (musician/producer/arranger/composer).
NEW JERSEY, USA: specialist British loudspeaker drive unit and complete sound reproduction system manufacturer ATC is proud to announce that Omar Hakim has installed a pair of SCM50ASL Pro threeway active monitors in his personal studio — The OH-Zone — sited at his New Jersey home, having had a guided tour of the ATC factory facilities in Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK…
According to his official website, Omar Hakim is: “Widely acclaimed for his versatility, technical prowess, and groove [and] is one of the most successful session drummers of the past forty years.” Yet the acclaimed American jazz, jazz fusion, and pop music drummer, producer, arranger, and composer certainly needs not blow his own trumpet too loudly, so-to-speak, for his association with top-tier acts as varied as Miles Davis, Marcus Miller, Weather Report, Sting, Daft Punk, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Kate Bush, Dire Straits, and Journey surely speaks louder than words.
When ever-present US rock band Journey’s longtime drummer, Dean Castronovo, was arrested during their 2015 North American summer tour they turned to Omar Hakim to capably walk in his percussive shoes at arguably the shortest notice in high-flying touring history — less than 24 hours! However, when reclusive English singer-songwriter, musician, composer, dancer, and record producer Kate Bush ventured out on stage as a headliner late last year for the first time in 35 years for a sold-out string of no fewer than 22 ‘intimate’ theatrical shows at London’s Eventim Apollo theatre — the admired, albeit renamed venue where her only concert CD to date, Live At Hammersmith Odeon, was recorded way back in 1979, it was with Omar Hakim holding down the perfect beat throughout those career-spanning shows… shows that indirectly led the demonstrably in-demand drummer to ATC, as it happens.
“I didn’t become aware of ATC until I began working with Kate Bush,” begins Omar Hakim himself, before adding: “Her engineer was the great producer/engineer Greg Walsh, who set up a control room space at the rehearsal location during pre-production for the London shows. That’s where I heard ATCs for the first time — SCM100ASL Pros, I believe. I was immediately blown away with
what I was hearing. That was the first time that I had ever heard a speaker reproduce audio like that! Then I had the pleasure of doing some show prep at Kate’s personal studio, where I think she had SCM150ASL Pros — fantastic!”
So when it came to upgrading the main monitoring at The OH-Zone, his own personal studio back home across the pond in New Jersey, it was an ATC done deal as far as Omar Hakim was concerned: “I was thinking of getting SCM25A Pros — until I heard the SCM50ASL Pros at the ATC factory, having had the pleasure of getting a factory tour and sitting with Managing Director Billy
Woodman to audition several ATC models. I decided to go with the SCM50ASL Pros because I could hear the difference in the low-end response. I also knew that for my purpose of tracking live drums and small rhythm sections they were the right choice for me! To finally be able to monitor music with this level of accuracy and detail is an incredible experience for me. The SCM50ASL
Pros are definitely taking my work to the next level.”
Not that Omar Hakim has ever been short of session work, mind — most recently recording drums for the Grammy® award-winning Random Access Memories album by breakthrough French electronic duo Daft Punk, as well as recording, mixing, and producing his third critically-acclaimed solo album, We Are One, at The OH-Zone. The Trio of OZ, the band he formed with wife Rachel Z in 2010, are currently working on their second album, all set for release on his OZmosis Media Group label in 2016: “I’ve recorded and mixed three albums there, and I also do lots of sessions for clients around the world that send me tracks to put drums on.”
Omar Hakim has plans to build a new home and studio, so his beloved SCM50ASL Pros will definitely be making the move, too: “I’ve always had a deep appreciation for technology and the thought, ingenuity, and commitment needed to bring it to the world. Billy Woodman and the crew at ATC are craftsman of the highest order. From the beautiful wood cabinetry to the speaker components and electronics, ATC speakers are simply amazing!”
