ATC 300s in your house?!? geez, i hope your neighbors are at least a mile away! seriously, who needs 'em *that* big?!? a pair of 100's can play louder than a rock show. the 200 and 300's would literally shatter windows if the room weren't the size of a movie theater. not only that, but they're mostly meant to be mounted into some kind of fixture, not freestanding in a living room. besides that they are pretty ugly and $40,000. the smaller ATC's (heh, i'm referring to the 50's as 'small') have the same legendary midrange driver, where most of the music is, anyway, so they sound every bit as magical as the big boys. i use atc 50's at home, with the big ATC preamp, and i cannot turn the dial to 11:00 position without the neighbor's cat freaking out or my cats hiding under the bed. ATC's are the finest speakers i've ever heard and any model of their actives are worth every penny, but i can't see the huge ones being practical. |
The larger ATCs are about increased volume capabilities. While this is definitely a factor in pro studios where the average listening levels routinely, if wrongly, exceeds 100dB, it is less of a factor for in home us. The SCM100s are more than capable of reaching any sane in home listening SPL. |
Personally I can't imagine ever needing more than the SCM50s in most any home environment, but I could see some bass freaks wanting the 100s. Anything more than that is like putting bigger tires on a Humvee--sure, you could, but why? |
I have a friend with the 200's in his house. He has a seperate amplifier on each driver and the sound is terrific. He used to have the 300's. :) |
he's not using the active models?!? why on earth not? |
The bigger ATC actives uses external amps, but still come as a package. |
The Active 200's and 300's were specifically designed for recording studios for the "rock and rollers". Turns out that they were blowing the tweeters out of the 150's and 100's and designed them to be "unbreakable" under any painful hearing level...
Furthermore, ATC speakers are designed to be purchased based on the room size that they are filling. If you provide your room size, they'll tell you the speaker size that you need. For most homes, the ATC 100's are the dream speaker. If you live in an warehouse loft with 5000 sf and 16' ceiling, go with the 150's or higher. If you want to most amazing imaging and speaker that disappears for an apartment room, go with the ATC active 20's.
I have 5 ATC active 100's, 2 01/15 ATC Subs and I have reached stereo/home theater nirvana. I never need to buy another speaker or sub again, unless they're stolen, burned or ravaged by war... |
thanks for the info. Would a pair of 200 or 300's be just too much for most rooms? What about for the people with the big bucks? Is it worth it? |
i can't imagine anything more than 100's. the 200/300's are ludicrous. soix nailed it by saying it's like putting bigger tires on a humvee.
if *really* deep bass is a priority, i'd get an ATC sub w/ a pair of active 50's or 100's.
the 50's roll off at about 40hz. i'm not sure about the 100's. |
If you talk w/ Billy Woodman, the prez and chief engineer for ATC, he'll tell you that in most cases he'll recommend that you DO NOT go with the 200's or 300's for most homes. Write a letter to ATC telling them the dimensions of your room and they'll give you the speaker size. ALL of their speakers, from top to bottom have the same drivers. You need to buy the pair that matches the volume that you're trying to fill.
Billy also mentioned to me that they are working on adding a "size chart" to match a range of room volumes with speaker sizes. For example, if you have <2000 cubic feet, You'll probably be told the 20's or 50's. 2000-5000 100's. 4000-10000 cubic feet Active150's. etc...
ALL of the speakers sound exactly alike, but putting 150's into a 2000 cubic foot room would make the bass sound so boomy and overenergize the room. Furthermore, the room isn't big enough to get them far enough apart to properly image. 100's for example need 9' of space between them. 20's into a 6000 cf room won't have the dynamic range that you want.
Hope this helps. The beauty of ATC is they won't sell you more to make more money. They only sell you what is right for you.... www.atc.gb.net |
I've been thinking and my brain froze... If you want the best of the best from ATC, you need to buy the SCM70 ASL's. It is the Ultimate and only reference for folks with obscene amounts of cash. They have to match some 40 pairs of MOSFETS exactly. This alone takes like 4 days of labor! The 70's are fully discreet ClassA amps. Same drivers, but the amps are where the more money is going. You will get the single best sound from the 70's. They're very contemporary looking, but you can choose from like 4000 different coverings.
The bass driver is a 9", same as the 50's, but the amazing fully discrete amps and silver wound voice coils raises the price from about $14,000 for a pair of Active50's to about $24,000 for a pair of Active70's. The sound of the 70's is the best sound that you can get. Even at around $27,000 for a pair of 150's, the Active70's are the best sound that you can buy. I'm also not exactly sure if they still make the 70's as they are so labor intensive and time consuming that it's a complete pain as I understand. |
I visited the link you provided but found most of the site under construction. Is there a place with good images of the various speaker systems? |
You're right. Their new site is still being built. The just switched over a couple weeks ago. Here's their old site, which is not as nicely done, but has a TON more info in it, but you have to dig for it.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010405063814/www.atc.gb.net/products.htm
Enjoy... |
