8th January 2015. Las Vegas, Nevada.
The new ATC SCM40A loudspeaker has won one of ten, What Hi-Fi ‘Stars of CES’ awards.
What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision Magazine seemed particularly taken with the SCM40A’s active tri-amplified system design and picked the SCM40A’s as winners out of many possible contenders on show at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show.
The show marked the official launch of ATC’s most affordable and compact 3-way, active, Hi-Fi loudspeaker. The SCM40A will be available from the beginning of September.
January 2015 will see the introduction of our new SCM40A floor standing loudspeaker. As the name suggests, the SCM40A is an active version of our highly successful SCM40. The 3-way design, employing all hand built ATC drive units is complimented with a built-in 235Watt class AB tri-amplifier. The MOSFET based amplifier is a modified version of that found in our larger active loudspeakers, the SCM50ASL , SCM100ASL and SCM150ASL.
More details to follow soon.
UK RRP is set at £6280.
ATC are very pleased to announce that Audio Lounge have been appointed as a new Hi-Fi dealer for Central London. Audio Lounge’s luxurious store is located in Mayfair, just a few minutes’ walk from Selfridges and Bond St. tube station.
The store, featuring a showroom at street level and a basement demonstration room has been carefully designed to provide one of the finest listening experiences in the UK, whilst the shop itself is luxuriously equipped to create a space offering superb acoustics and a relaxing atmosphere in which to browse. Since opening its doors in 2013, the store has hosted many live music events for various recording artists to perform to small public groups, and also regularly holds vinyl listening sessions on Thursday evenings (with the odd celebrity dropping by to enjoy the music with us or to give talks about their career!)
Audio Lounge have a very wide range of ATC products on active demonstration. They are also the only company in the South East with ATC’s On-Wall loudspeakers on demonstration. Where space may be at a premium or a discrete solution is preferred, these newly designed slim-line speakers have been introduced to maximise sound quality both for music and home cinema.
Staff at Audio Lounge include Mark Withers, who has 10 years’ experience in Hi-Fi retail, as well as being a CEDIA Accredited Designer within the Custom Installation sector. Mark is extremely experienced with ATC products, including both loudspeakers and electronics and will be on-hand to help specify a system best suited to any customers requirements.
Running alongside Audio Lounge is Nebula Nine, Mark Withers and business partner, Chris Varnham’s Cinema and Smart Home Design Company. Mark’s lifelong passion for music and understanding of the high end audiophile world as well as his exceptional eye for detail has enabled them to create many of Britain’s finest music rooms, cinemas, multiroom audio systems and fully integrated future ready homes.
Together they have vast industry experience and an extensive knowledge in resolving the complexities of residential AV integration. Their team of specialists provide everything from the initial design and CAD work, with project management through to installation and programming. Their services, available through Audio Lounge include:
Audio Lounge, 138 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 3SG
T: +44 (0)20 7487 4080 E: mark@audiolounge.co.uk
Nebula Nine Ltd, Studio 8, 231 Stoke Newington Church Street, London, N16 9HP
T: +44 (0) 207 607 3587 E: mark@nebulanine.co.uk
“We’re delighted to announce that the ATC SCM11 has won the award for, ‘Best Standmounter £800 – £1200, in the 2014 What Hi-Fi? Awards.
You can read exactly what the What Hi-Fi staff had to say on their website but for starters, we think their summary says it all:
“The new SCM11s are a drastic improvement over an already talented performance, and they have the good looks to match. ATC has raised the bar it set itself. This isn’t just a step up – it’s a running leap.”
Hi-Fi Wigwam’s James Palmer absolutely loved our SCM40 floorstanders and reviews them in full for the Hi-Fi Wigwam website.
Here are couple highlights from the review:
It’s what I want from HiFi. I want an insight, I want to feel like the Guitar amp is in front of me, the kick drums are not far behind and to feel involved in the music at a very live and connected level. Nothing else I have heard in a small living room has managed this feat. These do it with ease, they don’t shout at you, and don’t need to be played loud to sound their best, they deliver whether you are listening to Steely Dan, or Metallica, JS Bach or Phillip Glass.
The bass is so taught, yet thunderously deep. My room is shockingly difficult for bass bloom, yet the ATC’s have everything under control. Deep and tuneful, in a way that is entirely new at WigWam towers. I know I’ve said similar before, about other speakers, mia culpa, these are better. Trust me, these are better.
The bottom line.. I’m sold. I can’t live without them. I need them in my life and will have to make the change. Putting my Living Voice OBX R2′s back in was pleasing and frustrating in equal measure. Yes, they are a lovely listen, but the lack of comparative clarity and speed is something that I can’t live with. Many will disagree, in some systems the SCM40′s will sound too revealing. If the electronics are forward, they will sound forward and with this much detail that will be too much. Audition carefully, but please, do audition. In the right system, you would have to spend £10k to get anywhere close to this sound quality. Genuinely, you could piano gloss them and change the labels, hawk them round the European shows and sell plenty at £10k a pair…. erm… anyone know a French Polisher? I’m off.
James Palmer, Hi-Fi Wigwam, September 2014.
ATC have appointed a new dealer for Cambridgeshire.
Criterion Audio is opening soon, bringing the ultimate audio retail experience to the Cambridge area. With its state of the art showroom and three purpose-built demonstration rooms, Criterion Audio marks the beginning of a new era for audiophiles.
On Saturday, 4 October Criterion will be having a Grand Opening event with live music, food and drinks. Criterion staff and manufacturer representatives will be in attendance, including ATC’s Managing Director, Billy Woodman, to provide advice and answer any questions you may have. VIP places include complimentary attendance and a guided tour of the showroom. Spaces are strictly limited, so please confirm attendance before Wednesday, 1 October by emailing events@criterionaudio.com and mentioning the VIP code <ATC>
Criterion hope you can join them for an amazing sound and music experience!
4th October 12pm – 6pm
Criterion House
Camboro Business Park,
Oakington Road,
Girton, Cambridge
CB3 0QH.
01223 233730
The HiFi Passive SCM19 has just received a superb review from HiFi Choice magazine. Click here to read the full review.
Another loudspeaker from our new Hi-Fi Passive Series has recieved a glowing review from the UK press. Hi-Fi Choice have reviewed the SCM40 in the October edition of the magazine and, in conclusion, found it to offer, “superlative clarity; excellent phase coherence; sublime bass”.
You can read or download the review in full here: ATC SCM40 HiFi Choice Review Oct 2014
To read the full details of the product, please visit the SCM40 web page.
This month, The Absolute Sound have reviewed our new SCM19. The review, undertaken by, Neil Gader was very positive and here is just a little of what he had to say:
“As I hear it, there’s a very short list of rivals that play in the league of the SCM19. And even fewer at this attainable price point. Although this review should speak for itself, let me reiterate: The ATC SCM19 is, without reservation, a superb monitor that should excite and please the most discriminating of listeners. My highest recommendation.” (Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound, August 2014).
You can read the review in full on The Absolute Sound website.
Ed Cherney needs no padding on his resume. A veteran producer and engineer with 35 years logged in the control room, Cherney has worked with the top talent in the industry, including Iggy Pop, Bob Seger, Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Jann Arden, Jackson Browne, Keb’ Mo, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones, to name just a few. His work has earned him six Grammy nominations and three wins, along with seven TEC nominations and five wins. He is a founding member of Producers and Engineers Wing of The Recording Academy and served as the Governor of the L.A. Chapter of The Recording Academy. Until last year, Cherney was also an avid, collector of studio reference monitors, learning to work around the faults of each model before relegating it to the closet when a newer model came through the door. That cycle ended with the arrival of a pair of ATC SCM25A 3-way nearfield monitors. Cherney now uses his ATC SCM25As for almost everything he does because they’re exciting to listen to and because the work he does on them translates flawlessly on any other pro or consumer system.
“I am always looking for speakers because they’re my eyes in the studio, my window to the world,” said Cherney. “I get a lot of inquiries from younger engineers, asking me if I can recommend a good pair of monitors for five-hundred bucks. I can’t. And it’s crazy that they’ll spend thousands on microphones and outboard gear without first giving themselves the one tool they need to actually hear what they’re doing. It’s like an artist buying expensive paints and then turning out the lights. That said I’ve had a hard time finding the ideal speaker at any price. I guess I’m something of a collector now.”
Cherney first heard a pair of ATC SCM25As at a studio in New York, and he liked what he heard. Shortly thereafter, he was working at a studio in his hometown of Chicago that had no good options for monitors. “I spoke to Brad [Lunde] at TransAudio Group [ATC’s U.S. distributor] and he sent out a pair of ATC SCM50ASLs for us to try. They were spectacular as well! We could turn them up loud, and the low end was defined, the midrange was smooth and silky, and the high end was sweet. The sound was thrilling; it could wash over me and punch me in the chest. These were the first mid-size speakers that could give me the experience of the soffit-mounted loudspeakers that the big studios have.”
He continued, “I’ve been dissatisfied with 2-way speakers in the past. The challenge is always to get the right vocal tone and volume, and it often depends on which side of the crossover the vocal is sitting. Sometimes the same singer can be below the crossover in the verse and above it in the chorus. In the past, I always took my mixes around to different systems – different speakers, my house, my car – to make sure the vocals were sitting in the mix correctly. Now that I have the ATC SCM25As, I rarely have to do that anymore. The vocals sit nicely in the midrange driver, and I’m always within a half dB. Every song. For the first time, I really trust the quality of the mixes in the studio. I don’t have to take them out and check them. I nail it and they translate to the rest of the world. That’s a huge improvement.”
Cherney has already used the ATC SCM25As on a number of projects. He produced, recorded, and mixed the main title for the Disney film Planes called “Nothing Can Stop Me Now,” as well as Robben Ford’s Bringing It Back Home and Eric Burdon’s Till Your River Runs Dry. He mixed Love for Levon on DVD, CD, and broadcast using the SCM25As, and he mixed Road to Forever by Don Felder of the Eagles. Currently, he’s working on a debut album from Athena Perez, a rising country artist from Chicago, and a new Bette Midler album.
In addition to how well his mixes translate on the ATC SCM25As, Cherney is also inspired by their clean, fatigue-free volume. “If I’m recording drums, I like to turn it up!” he said. “If the band’s in the control room, I have to turn it up! When I’m doing the final balances, I may be down around 75dB, but getting there, I want to feel it pop, physically! I want to move air in the room! With the 25s, I can. And I can do it all day long and still be as clear-headed and energized at the end of the day as I was at the beginning. My ATC’s make recording and mixing music much more fun.
This month, HomeTheaterReview.com has covered the new (Mk3) edition of the SCM7, featuring updated styling and the new, in-house designed and built, ATC 1″ soft dome tweeter.
The review was undertaken by Steven Stone and here’s just a little of what he had to say about the loudspeakers:
“If you are in the market for a small monitor speaker capable of wide dynamic contrasts, accurate imaging, and well-above-average power-handling capabilities, the ATC SCM7 mark III speaker should be on your short list of must-audition transducers. And if you already own the previous version of SCM7 speakers, I would strongly suggest that it might be time for an “update” to the latest version. If you liked the SCM7 mark II, you are going to love the SMC7 mark III.”
To read the review in full, please visit HomeTheaterReview.com
Thom Monahan has reviewed our SCM25A compact 3-way monitor in Tape Op edition #101.
Here are a few outakes from the review:
“Crafting sounds on the SCM25As was a joy; the clarity and openness of the midrange had me pulling back compression, as it was easier to identify artifacts and smeariness.”
“The SCM25As contributed to a better mix flow as I was able to set something and move on, instead of having to approximate and then see-saw back-and-forth between monitors in order to build solid mixes.”
“The biggest payoff was experiencing the best translation I’d ever gotten out of my studio when I took the finished CRB record to JJ Golden at Golden Mastering.”
You can read the review in full on the Tape Op website.
SCM25A product details can be found here.
Over the pond in the US the chaps at Stereophile have been casting their ears and eyes over more of our new models. The latest magazine (and now also featured online) reviews the new SCM19 which features the new ATC Dual Suspension tweeter, 6.5″ SLmid/bass and revised crossovers. Read John Marks’s review here on the Stereophile Website.
To celebrate ATC turning 40 years old, we have manufactured a limited run of 10 pairs of Special Edition S50 Loudspeakers. The S50 was the first ever ATC HiFi Loudspeaker. The 2014 edition uses a 9″ SL Bass driver, a Super Midrange Dome and the new ATC S Tweeter. It comes in either active (P6 powered) or passive form. All metalwork is finished in dull nickel and the baffle is covered in real leather.
The SCM7 comes out as group test winner in the £639-£810 category in the May 2014 edition of HiFi Choice magazine!
Read the group test verdict here.
