The new on-wall speaker was reviewed as part of an all ATC 5.1 system that consisted of four HTS7 speakers, one HTS7C centre loudspeaker and the C1 Sub. Reviewer, Ed Selley found the speakers to offer outstanding performance in an easily mounted modern, discrete cabinet. Concluding he says, “An extremely happy marriage of capability and convenience, ATC’s HTS speakers might be just what your cinema room is crying out for.” Ed Selley, Home Cinema Choice, July 2017.
You can read the review in full here: Home Cinema Choice HTS7 Review
The new Home Theatre Series is based on ATC’s highly aclaimed Entry Series SCM7, SCM11 and SCM40 speakers and create the Company’s first range of high performance on-wall speakers for the custom install residential market. Available in three sizes and in vertical and horizontal configurations, the Home Theatre Series (HTS) systems can be creatively combined to generate ATC’s signature low-distortion, wideband audio dynamics in virtually any space from slender unobtrusive cabinets measuring less than 14cm (5.5”) deep.
In a development set to raise the performance quality of space-efficient home audio systems, the six new HTS models integrate class-leading drive unit and crossover technologies with a sealed-cabinet design for mounting on or into walls. Available in white or black satin, each model has been sympathetically engineered to blend with a range of room sizes and styles while providing exceptional TV/cinema sound and high resolution music reproduction.
Commenting on the launch of the HTS, ATC’s Marketing Manager Ben Lilly states, “in the HTS we’ve engineered a very discreet, easy-to-install speaker line, which delivers excellent custom design flexibility to residential custom installers, combined with the qualities of neutral fidelity and high dynamic range that our existing hi-fi/audiophile customers will instantly recognise.”
The HTS Line-Up
The Series comprises the vertically-configured HTS7, HTS11 and HTS40 speakers, and their companion HTS7C, HTS11C and HTS40C horizontally-configured versions. All HTS models benefit from the proprietary ATC drive unit technology deployed by their award-winning hi-fi counterparts, including revelatory SH25-76 dual-suspension tweeters (all models), CLD (Constrained Layer Damping) bass-mid drivers (HTS11), and ATC’s renowned 75mm/3” Soft Dome mid-range and 164mm short coil/long gap bass drivers (HTS40). ATC’s crossover designs have been completely revised to deliver a wide and accurate response from on-wall locations. Even so, wall proximity provides enhanced bass output and efficiency: the HTS11 has a -6dB point close to that of the SCM40 and the HTS40 approaching that of ATC’s larger SCM100 system!
HTS7 / HTS7C – 2-way Passive
Compact 2-way design suitable for small-to medium sized rooms, available in both vertical and horizontal versions. May also be used as a surround speaker for any installation.
HTS11 / HTS11C – 2-way Passive
Mid-size 2-way design suitable for main loudspeakers in medium sized rooms, available in both vertical and horizontal versions. May also be used as a surround speaker in medium – large rooms.
HTS40 / HTS40C – 3-way Passive
Large 3-way design features ATC’s 75mm soft dome for exceptional mid-range clarity and is suitable for main loudspeakers in larger rooms. The model employs a single cabinet design that can be configured for both vertical and horizontal mounting. The HTS40 may also be used as a surround speaker in large rooms.
Flexible System Design
Shared acoustic design enables a wide range of multi-channel system permutations to suit room size, shape and budgets. For instance, installers can use HTS7s or HTS7Cs to great effect as surround channel speakers supporting 11s in the front, or HTS11s to complement a front-firing HTS40 array. Both versions of each HTS model offer equal performance and are freely interchangeable, allowing maximum design flexibility in the choice of speaker orientation/configuration.
Simple Installation
On-wall installation is easy via key-hole plates on the rear, which mate with wall fixings. Each product ships with a card template to assist the quick and accurate marking of fixing positions.
ATC at Work
ATC Loudspeaker Technology’s systems are employed by many leading audio engineers, designers, composers and professional sound studios around the world, including Dolby, Fox, BBC, Abbey Road, and Skywalker Sound. Dolby Labs purchased ATC loudspeakers for the majority of its R&D listening labs and also its VIP listening suite at its new flagship San Francisco HQ, which opened in 2015. The opportunity to provide the speakers for Dolby came about after winning a lengthy selection process against many other manufacturers. As with every ATC product, each HTS model is individually hand-built to provide a lifetime of service and audio enjoyment, and carries a six year guarantee.
“The obvious test of any piece of equipment is its ability to make you keep listening. As I start the first draft of this review, we have most of the family arriving for Easter on what was tomorrow but is now today. It is three in the morning and I am being moaned at, not unreasonably, for carrying on pulling things off the shelves to listen to. That, in a nutshell, is the ATCs. They make you want to keep finding things to play. A number of tracks are probably the best I have ever heard them sound.”
Richard Bowles, Hi-Fi Wigwam, April 2017.
“the ATC SCM19AT speakers have all the potential for offering up this album with an extra-large serving of quality. The dynamics and transients are really excellent…with the ability to create a large scale sonic picture in my smallish room. The top end is so detailed with not a hint of any harshness as the tweeter is one of the finest sounding I have come across…Listening to the SCM19AT speakers has proved to be a very rewarding experience…” Giancarlo Massironi, The Speaker Shack, March 2017.
To read the review in full, please visit The Speaker Shack website.
Hi-Fi News reviewer, Adam Smith greatly enjoyed his time with the amplifier and here are just a few of his thoughts from the review:
“the P2 is one of those subtle components that quietly works its magic on you, until you suddenly realise that it is doing everything brilliantly but without any fuss or melodrama. Put simply, it just sounds ‘right’.”
“In terms of detail, the P2 struck gold once again. Instruments were lifelike and beautifully atmospheric, no matter whether a recording featured a soft solo acoustic ensemble or a grand orchestral bombardment.”
Adam Smith, Hi-Fi News, March 2017.
To read the review in full, click the link to the PDF.
For more details on the amplifier, visit the P2 product page.
To arrange a demo, please get in touch with your local ATC dealer or distributor. Details of retailers in your area can be found here.
Hi-Fi News, is the longest running Hi-Fi magazine, worldwide. It is widely respected for it’s detailed and thorough reviews, covering both the subjective quality and the measured technical performance of the products it covers. You can find out more on the Hi-Fi News & Record Review website.
SCM11 Best standmount speaker £1200-£1500
Awarded 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.
“It’s hard not to be totally enamoured by the ATC SCM11s. For the money, they seem to do everything right – and their solid curved cabinets look the part too. When it comes to speakers, or even hi-fi kit in general, there are few better ways to spend £1200.”
Learn more on the SCM11 webpage.
SCM19 Best standmount speaker £1500+
“These ATCs are analytical yet never sound clinical or passionless. They remain transparent to the original recording and system electronics. And when it comes to insight and honesty, we haven’t heard any better for the money.”
Learn more on the SCM19 webpage.
C1 system Best speaker package £2000+
“We suppose the highest praise we can offer ATC here is that it has provided a match for our considerably more expensive reference system. We can think of no better alternative for the money. A consummate triumph, to be sure.”
Learn more on the ATC multi-channel webpage.
To get the full details on these awards, please visit the What Hi-Fi Awards 2016 microsite. You can read about all the award winners in the offical awards issue of the magazine which, is available now.
Hand-built by ATC in the UK, the P2 class A/B stereo power amplifier is designed to complement the brand’s range of hi-fi preamplifiers, both aesthetically and operationally. Rated at 300W continuous power per channel and developed in tandem with the P2 Pro studio amplifier, the ATC P2 is a Dual Mono design, keeping the power supplies, signal and return paths discreet. This approach ensures that the amplifier will achieve the maximum signal separation with minimal crosstalk, and that intermodulation between channels via the power supplies is reduced to an absolute minimum across a frequency range of 400kHz. It also means that the power delivery from one channel cannot affect the specified power available from the other.
Within a new low-vibration chassis design featuring a precision machined 12.7mm brushed aluminium front panel, the P2’s layout includes a massive, custom-made 400 VA low-noise transformer for each channel and an output stage involving 3 pairs of MOSFET devices per channel to achieve peak current output of over 15 amps. ATC’s unique “grounded source” output stage ensures smooth power delivery and extremely low harmonic distortion. The gain of the P2 matches that of the lower power P1 (150W/ch) so that they can be used together in bi-amp or tri-amp systems, connected via the amplifier ‘Link’ phono inputs/outputs.
The ATC P2 offers balanced XLR and unbalanced phono inputs, ‘link’ phono outputs, proprietary 4mm speaker terminals, and IR remote control.
Features
• Latest ATC discrete MOSFET grounded source output stage.
• Class A/B topology.
• 300W into 8 ohm continuous power O/P capability
• Dual mono-design ensures minimal crosstalk and inter-channel modulation.
• Entirely separate power supplies for high voltage audio, low voltage audio and logic/control.
• 400kHz bandwidth to ensure best possible transient reproduction.
• Vanishingly low distortion.
• Custom low noise toroidal transformers.
• New chassis design for reduced vibration and a more striking visual appearance.
P2 Specifications
• Max Continuous Output Power : 300W (8Ω, 1% THD)
• Input Sensitivity : 2V rms (ref. 150W out)
• Input Impedance : 10kΩ/leg
• Frequency Response : <2Hz – >400kHz (-3dB)
• Signal to Noise Ratio : >110dB (DIN)
• Crosstalk : >100dB
• THD : >0.002%/-95dB
• Dimensions (HxWxD) : 141x448x337mm (5.6˝x17.6˝x13.3˝)
• Weight : 30kg / 66lbs
• 6 year warranty
The P2 will be available from Monday 7th November and carries a UK retail price of £3125 inc. VAT (20%).
The SCM19 is ATC’s most compact and affordable loudspeaker feauring ‘Super Linear’ (‘SL’) motor technology. ‘Super Linear’ motors use a proprietary iron powder for the area of the motor system closest to the voice coil, reducing the effect of current modulated inductance and, greatly reducing third harmonic distortion. Wether you like to immerse yourself in the technology or prefer to simply focus on the music, reviewer Wes Marshall thoroughly enjoyed the loudspeakers and here is just a taster of what he thought: 
“The ATCs did a better job of catching the naturally decaying sounds of instruments in a room than any other speakers I know of.”
“Ever since I bought my first pair of ATC speakers 20 years ago, it’s been my opinion that you can never go wrong with ATC. I nominate Billy Woodman for the Audio Hall of Fame.”
Wes Marshall, Soundstage! Experience, October 2016.
You can read the review in full here at the Soundstage! Experience website.
An unprecedented run of form has been extended with another 5 star accolade in November’s issue which, is available now. In a two page examination, which awards a maximum five stars in every review category: sound, compatibility and build, the What Hi-Fi team cites spacious, detailed and expressive sound quality with great integration as the major performance attributes, reserving particular praise for the subwoofer and centre elements.
Conclusion: “A consummate triumph, to be sure.”
What Hi-Fi November 2016.
The November issue of What Hi-fi is available in the shops now. You can read the review in full at the What Hi-Fi Website.
“…also takes a company with diverse engineering expertise to cover electronics, mechanics, electro-mechanics, and other disciplines and this is rare. ATC clearly has the engineering talent required as they have been in business over 40 years and producing active speakers for many of them. The SCM19ATs are a wonderful advancement in the state of the art of active loudspeakers. You could easily spend three times as much on comparable separate components and not do as well. I strongly encourage you to seek out the ATCs and give them a listen.”
Read the review in full at Positive Feedback.
Compatible Tweeters
Matching the monitors, the C1C and C3C driver systems feature ATC’s acclaimed SH25-76 dual-suspension tweeter, designed and built in-house according to the brand’s rigorous low-compromise regimen for exceptionally low distortion and an extended high frequency 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, a flat on-axis frequency response and resonance-free operation.
Compatible Mid-Bass Drivers
In each centre-channel system the tweeter sits between two mid-bass drivers identical in design to those employed by the corresponding L/R main loudspeaker. The CIC utilises the highly linear 125mm ATC mid/bass driver of the SCM7, featuring a 45mm soft dome – exceptional for its horizontal dispersion of mid-band frequencies – and a huge 3.5kg high-energy magnet system, which includes a 45mm ribbon wire voice coil, meticulously milled and formed by ATC. The new C3C design uses the SCM11’s CLD 150mm mid-bass driver incorporating a 45mm soft dome. Exclusive to ATC, Constrained Layer Damping offers reduced harmonic distortion between 300Hz and 3 kHz, an extended frequency response and improved off-axis performance.
Compatible Crossovers
The new C1C and C3C systems incorporate new crossovers developed from the SCM7 and SCM11 designs, involving metallised polypropylene capacitors, large air cored inductors and ceramic wire-round resistors to offer superior power handling and clarity. Consequently, and in common with the SCM7 and SCM11, the centre-channel systems exhibit an impedance curve free from low values and extreme phase angles, presenting an easy load for amplifiers of 75 to 300 watts.
ATC’s new 5.1 channel systems
Two new compact ATC 5.1 channel speaker systems combine the C1C and C3C with the SCM7, SCM11 and ATC ‘C1 sub’ active subwoofer to energise multichannel applications with the brand’s signature virtues of neutral fidelity, wide bandwidth and high dynamic range. Deploying identical high performance, low distortion acoustic design throughout, the C1 System comprises four SCM7s, the C1C, and the C1 Sub. The C3 system unites the C3C with matching SCM11s in the front, and for ‘family-friendly’ installation, the SCM7s in the surround positions.
C1 Subwoofer
ATC’s C1 Sub active subwoofer is a compact, substantially braced design, incorporating a hand-built 12” (314mm) ATC bass driver and a fully discrete ATC 200W MOSFET power amplifier. Supplied with full remote and fascia mounted control over crossover frequency, gain and phase, its response may be calibrated for customised music and home theatre modes. Line and speaker level inputs are supplied together with a 12V trigger jack.
Matching Aesthetic Design
Engineered to complement the SCM7 and SCM11 both visually and acoustically, the CIC and C3C employ a high quality cabinet construction, braced for high rigidity and damping. All system components are hand- finished in either real cherry-wood or black ash veneers.
Manufactured entirely in-house, ATC’s C1C and C3C centre-channel designs offer the ownership of hand-built, finely-engineered speaker systems, world renowned for audio accuracy. Like all ATC products, the new centre and 5.1 channel systems are backed by a six-year warranty.
Pricing: Please contact your local authorised dealer or distributor for pricing in your region.
Availability: 12th September 2016
Allen has reviewed the SCM40A for online magazine, Stereotimes and the review is live now. Here is a just a little insight into Allen’s thoughts on this compact ‘floorstander’ and why he thinks active design could be the way to go:
“Adding everything together and how easily the ATC SCM40A can be used to produce a simple, elegant, high performance system this is a heck of a speaker system. And if you want a speaker system that allows great live recordings to make you think the performance is real, this is a must audition.”
Allen Edelstein, Stereotimes, August 2016.
You can read the review in full here at Stereotimes.
