Question: Does ATC have the best midrange driver?

"HERES AN IDEA. LETS ASK THESE PEOPLE WHY THEY USE ATC"

EMI Abbey Road Studios
CBS/Sony UK Disc Mastering and Quality Control
Nippon Columbia Tokyo Main monitors in three control rooms
Warner Bros Burbank CA Main monitors
Polygram - Wiseloord Studios
Holland Main monitors
Yamaha Research and Development Dept London Main Monitors
BBC Maida Vale, Broadcasting House, TV Centre Music Studios, Transcription Recording Unit, Pebble Mill Studio 2, Wood Norton, Radio 5 and several OB Trucks
Thames TV (The Bill and Poirot)
Danish Radio OB Trucks
Swedish Radio
SBS Television Australia
Video Tape Recording TV Production Company
M2 Video
Nimbus Records lots of ATC's
Sain Records
Sentinel Records
Mute Records Depeche Mode, Erasure
Birmingham University
City University London
Essex University Dr Malcom Harksforda
University College San Diego
Royal College of Music
Royal Opera House
Covent Garden
Sydney Opera House Recording Studio
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club Recording Studio
Pink Floyd's Studio and Dave Gilmore's Home.
Konk The Kinks Studio
The Real World Peter Gabriei's Studio
The Church The Eurythmics Studio
Sade
Neneh Cherry
Juni Morrison
Julio lgiesias's Producer Ramon Arcosa
10 cc
Lou Reed
Surrey University Francis Rumsey etc
Eliabu lnhal Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra
The The
The Waterboys
Tears for Fears
Rainbow Studios Norway ECM Records
Kenny Young songwriter "Under the Boardwalk" and "River Deep Mountain High"
David lord Producer Peter Gabriel, Jean Michel Jarre, Van Morrison, Ice House, Kissing the Pink
Greg Walsh Producer Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Eikie Brookes
Peter Walsh Producer - Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, Scott Walker
Rupert Hine/Steve Taylor
James Guthrie Producer Pink Floyd, Toto, Chicago, many films
Curtis Schwiartz Producer
Hans Zimmer Film Music Composer
Mike Oldfield
Carl Wallender World Party
Robert Plant
Mark Sayer Wade Sound Sculpture
The Tale Gallery
Krell
NAD
Bob Ludwig Masterdisk N.Y.
Ted Jensen Sterling Sound
Joe Gastwirt Ocean View Digital Mastering Greatful Dead etc.
Cold Sweat
Joseph Magee Freelance Classical Record Producer attached to the LA Philharmonic, Telarc
Bruce Leek Telarc, Wilson Audio, (Mastering, recording, editing)
Autograph Sound Recording Studio English Meyer Distributors
Airforce Music Radio Jingles
Shawn Murphy Top Hollywood Scoring Mixer, Hook, Cape Fear, Silence of the Lambs, Dancing with Wolves, Dick Tracey etc.
Dave Harris Freelance Classical Recording Engineer Noteworthy Music
Stuart Brown Freelance Classical Recording Engineer
Peter Bronda Welsh National Opera
Trygg Tryggvasson Freelance Classical Producer, Recording Engineer Virgin, Hyperion, Chandos, etc.
Anthony Howells Freelance Classical Engineer, Pickwick, Hyperion, Virgin, etc.
Paul Barmer BBC and Freelance Classical Recording Engineer
Steve Portnoi BBC and Freelance Classical Recording Engineer
Tony Wass BBC and Freelance Classical Recording Engineer
Budapest Radio Film Music Studio
John Richards Evergreen Studios L.A. (Film Music Studio)
Hammon Studios Tel Aviv Denon Tokyo
Windmill lane Dublin, Terrence Trent D'Arby, U2, etc.
Pioneer Japan
Eastcote Productions Transvision Vamp
E Spy Studios Melbourne
Broxmead Studios Film and TV Music Studio
Beethoven Street Seal, Sandy Shaw
Chapel Studios ELO, Motorhead, Saxon, etc.
Barbra Streisand
Moles Studio Gail Ann Dorsey, Andy Davis
DB Studios Ghostbusters etc.
Boogie Sound Hamburg
Chateau Du Pape Hamburg
Slippery LA Lethal Weapon 11 etc.
Lansdown Group CTS - Largest independent studio in Europe, Film Music for James Bond, Batman, Superman, Passage to India, Baron Munchhausen, Jazz Don Lusher, Stan Tracey, Charlie Watts, MOR Miss Saigon, Roger Whittaker, Des O'Connor and many more
Ground Control LA Madonna, Robbie Robertson, Julio lgiesias, Arif Mardin, Phil Ramone etc.
Exit Lisbon
El Alamo Madrid
Estuidos Eurosonic Madrid
Estudios Azul Cadiz
Estudios Alfaguara Seville
Kash Productions Madrid
The Mill Cookham
Gareth Jones Producer
Magmasters Soho Film, TV, Pop, you name it!
Nick Whitaker Internationally renowned acoustician
Voyageur 11 Mobile Europe's biggest Mobile
Rhinocerous Sydney INXS
Greene Street New York
Blackwiing Basle
National Recording Studios Canberra
Polygram Hong Kong
Chipping Norton
Edinburgh University Music Dept
Fred Vogier Koch lnti, Whoopie Goldberg,
Steve Martin
Australian Institute of Music
Yamaha Japan
Apocalypse Australia
Rich Studios Sydney
Mark Forester (Prince and Kate Cerbrano)
Dutch National Broadcast NOB Soho
Beijing Radio and TV
ABC Australia
Sony Australia
Institute of Sound Production Sydney
Cold Storage
Eden Studios Jackson Recording Co Ltd
University of East Anglia
The Mill Soho
Matrix
Fleetwood Mobile
Mark Angelo
The Paris Bastille Opera House
Disney World
AC/DC
The Pope
Dire Straits
Simple Minds
Suzanne Vega
The Apollo Harlem
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
A String Studios - Taipei
Level 42
Hugo Records Hong Kong
Wirra Wilia Studios Australia
Castiesound Studios Scotland
Euphonia Freelance Classical (Chop 'em Out)
Chandos
Todd A.0. The USA's largest film scoring Stage
CBS/Sony Sydney Australia
Paramount Pictures Hollywood
The Chippendales!
Expo '92 mobile studios and PA
John Williams- Classical Guitarist
Hugh Padgham producer Genesis and Phil Collins
SCI- Tokyo
M.0.D. Brass Band Recording centre
Cariton Television
Copymasters London
Divided Studios Chicago
Polish Radio
London College of Music
Roger Taylor - Queen
Gateway Mastering Bob Ludwig
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Freddy Star - Comedian
Crazy Sound Guadeloupe
Fluke
Evelyn Glennie - Percussionist
Toshiba-Tokyo Digital Mastering
University of York
Telarc
NRS Sydney
The Blue Nile (Linn)
York St Studios NY
Athens Concert Hall
DEP INT'L UB40
Status Quo
Hessinger Rundfunk
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Taipei Symphony Orchestra - Principal Violinist
Sting
London Weekend Television
Dinemec Sound - Dinemec Classic Label
Sony Music, New York
Albert's Music, London
Pearson Television
Angel Studios, London
Fast Floor Productions 2 pairs main monitors

"JUST A LITTLE FYI"

By the way this list was made up back in 1998. I wonder what the updated list looks like.

probably most of the people dropped off to pick up a better speaker and k-mart and Dollar General were added to the list because they wanted to use them for background music in their stores :) he he

cd

Well I see "Bbtuna" has never owend or heard these. Must be out of his price range. Its looks like from your post that you must shop the K-Mart and Dollar General's. Maybe thats why you have never heard them.. :)

My point in recent posts is that most commercial labs (big names) use XYZ budget drivers and charge a fortune. Yes the local "hi-fi" shop gets his big 100% mark-up. I have not heard a commercial speaker that i felt is worth even half the price asked. I'm going to pick my superior drivers and pay a DIYer or KIT company to do the job with superior xover parts. That's my point. Sure Quads and Sound Labs are nice. Audiogon is supposed to be a web to LEARN about audio products. If you check the threads i'm the only one mentioning superior drivers. And no it's not subjective. These names i mention are well known world over to be superior labs. If commercial speakers used the drivers i prefer , they would cost me one years salary. I save a bundle with a kit. No it's not for everyone, but is an option. Just for the heck of it order a Seas W22 or Skaaning woofer. You'll see what i mean by the word "superior". The point of the thread was to get feedback on ATC and other midrange considerations for a 3 way design. I've discovered both ATC and Accuton are fine units. ATC seems to be in a class by itself. The reference midrange so to speak. There is not a whole lot of superior midranges to choose from. Ribbons and dome tweets of superior quality, there are many to choose from.

Tweekerman, you are right in that there is a shortage of excellent quality dedicated midranges. Most high-end speakers these days use a woofer, a midwoofer, and a dome tweeter. One problem that these systems tend to have is a narrowing of the radiation pattern in the upper range of the midwoofer. But with the 3" diameter ATC dome crossing over to a dome or possibly ribbon tweeter, it is possible to maintain a more uniform radiation pattern through the crossover region.

Why in the world would this matter? Because a characteristic which generally distinguishes live music from reproduced music is how natural the reflected, or reverberant, energy sounds. What we call "off-axis" response determines the tonal balance of the reverberant field. And the tonal balance of the reverberant field is a significant factor in both timbre and listening fatigue. Basically, you want a fairly well energized, diffuse reverberant field that has the same tonal balance as the first-arrival (on-axis) sound.

And the ATC dome midrange has more uniform reverberant field response than a larger-diameter cone would, without having the dynamic non-linearities that plague other dome midranges which don't have that double suspension system.

The emphasis on flat on-axis response stems from research done back in the 60's and 70's. It was determined that the on-axis response played a greater role than the "power response" (summed omnidirectional response) in establishing the perceived timbre of a speaker system, and flat on-axis response has been the holy grail ever since. But another way to interpret the data is temporally: the first-arrival sound plays the dominant role in determining timbre, but the reverberant sound still plays a significant role. I believe that minimizing the discrepancy between the first-arrival and reverberant sound is a worthwhile pursuit, as this mimics the characteristics of live music.

Anyway, I'm not saying the ATC is necessarily the best midrange by all possible yardsticks, but I think it's probably among the better units of its type. I've heard the smaller ATC speakers and think well of them, though I did not choose to become a dealer (I could still hear a bit of boxiness, and for that much money I prefer speakers that don't let you know the music is emanating from boxes). I've actually never heard the ATC dome midrange, so my comments here are educated guesses at best and SWAG speculation at worst. As I write this I have a pair of ATC dome midranges on order to dink around with - perhaps when I've had a chance to get to know them well, I'll have something more useful to post.

Best of luck to you in your brave and bold projects, intrepid Tweekerman!