Nice review. I own the active versions of these speakers and agree that they are extremely "clean-sounding". That was, in fact, the same adjective I used when I first heard them. (I run them with a Blue Circle 21.1 preamp with JAN 6922 tubes, and a Red Wine-modified Olive Symphony.)

In my room (12' x 25', opening into adjoining area), I've always found them rather bass-shy. The lack of low-end weight makes them sound lean and mid-rangey, and, in my opinion, detracts from their macro-dynamics, as much of the "slam" of a speaker comes from the bass. Still, augmented with a subwoofer and with the right music, these things can sound fantastic.

One other speaker that reminded me of the Active 10s was the Wilson Benesch ARC. These have the same cleaness and hang-in-the-air imaging as the ATCs, but with a bit more bottem end. These should be added to your monitor list!

BTW, "Funeral" is an incredible album. My favorite recording of 2004/5.

Glad you liked the review. I'd definitely like to hear the ARCs, but at $3500 or so, they're a bit out of the price range of the other monitors I've been hearing.

For their size/price, I found the bass pretty good, probably better than most. But yeah, I'd probably want a sub. I should be hearing the 20A-2s very soon -- I'll be interested to see what a 2x larger cabinet and somewhat bigger driver will produce bass-wise.

How do you like your Red Wine modded Olive? I have a RWA Squeezebox I'm pretty happy with. That Blue Circle is a nice preamp -- it's a bit different than the VTL I use.

How wonder we will have a direct comparison between all the monitors. Audio scrutiny is just so difficult. Looking forward to it.

I wrote the original comment.

I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on the Active 20s, particularly with respect to bass. The measurements listed on the ATC website seem conservative.

I like the RWA-modded Olive a lot. It sounds good and the convenience can't be beat. I'm currently using it as a transport into a TacT 2.0S (DAC only; no room correction).

So you find the Olive's digital output to yield better output via the TacT DAC now? Cool. Is the Olive jitter-prone w/o the mod?

Should have the 20s soon, and I'll let you know. And yeah, the ATC site does seem conservative -- the frequency response of the 20s is the same as that of the 10s, despite twice as much cabinet volume and a larger mid/bass driver. There's got to be more bottom end.

Ril:
Just to follow up on your comments on ATC's "conservative measurements." ATC doesn't measure bass response as most manufacturers do. They take their speakers, and put them in the middle of their quite large warehouse well up from the ground and away from side wall reflections and measure the bass output. This removes bass reinforcement from the floor as well as side walls which dramatically reduces their measured out put.

In a "real listening room" their speakers measure much deeper than ATC's measurements - I owned passive 20s and obtained 6dB down at 31 Hz. That's remarkable bass from a small speaker. ATC rates the speaker as having bass down to 60 Hz, that's way off the mark from a real living room.

I find Robert's characterizations very close to my experiences, at least as regards transparency and clarity. With the wrong preamp or cabling the sound could be unrelenting. With a slightly warmish sounding preamp and cabling and th speaker would sound warmish. The 10s are pretty dyanamic, though not as dynamic as the 20s, which again aren't as dynamic as the 50s.

FWIW, my experience is that there is an optimal match between the speaker and the room size; a room that's a match for the 20s probably won't match as well for the 10s. And a room that fits the 10s might just be overloaded by bass with the 20s.

ATC make excellent speakers. Instead of the tequila metaphor, I'd say ATCs are like black coffee, when the recording is good you wouldn't want any sweetener or cream; when it's bad, maybe you'd want a bit of sugar and cream when the coffee bean (the recording) is poor.

Cheers,
Larry Cox

Interesting info Larry. I'd suspected the ATCs were measured in a very large room w/o reinforcement. The 10s certainly went subjectively deeper than other speakers that are spec'd as going lower in my room.

I'll have to measure the 20s. As for unrelenting, supporting equipment aside, I'll be curious to see what impacted the upgraded tweeter brings the 20s over the 10s.

As I happy owner of ATC 20A I can only fully confirm Larry's findings.
ATC actives needs (desperately) low impedance preamps with as little gain as possible, a technically perfect match would be anything under 100 ohm and between 0 and 6dB gain. It is hard to find such a valved pre. I fail to make them sing with Cary SLP98L but some of really good synergies include Pass Labs X2.5 (despite a highish imp) and especially Electrocompaniet 4.7 Mk2 (with a bias switch on the back) currently playing in my system.
Recommended cables IMHO are Van den Hul The Second or Hybrid Integration, for overall more transparency and deep bass, or Linn Silver for extraordinary sweetness and musicality and little less focus, depending on your source and how sophisticated it is.
This are some of best and most natural speakers ever produced and that needs to be fully exploited but a careful owner will be fully rewarded!
Cheers Gordan

Interesting info Gordan. I'll have to check into this. The preamp I might hook up w/the 20s is a VTL 5.5 -- a preamp I really like, but at a 195 ohm output impedence and 20db of gain doesn't fit your recs.

Is your rec. experiential and/or are there technical reasons why such preamp would interface badly w/the amps and load the active 20 presents?

Best,

Bob

JB also has had excellent results with an old Electrocompaniet, beating out many, many other preamps. He finally settled on YBA.

Just got them back painted by a guy who does Steinway pianos. They look great, and I'll have them up in a couple of days w/my VTL. We'll see.

I'd love to be able to audtion some of the other preamps.

Sweet review! Glad to hear the ion is next. I tried the vr1... it was fine, not too imprssed and am considering the ion as an alternative for a samll system.

Hey Chris,

Glad you liked the review. Ion review should be up any time now. It's a good option for a small system.

Hello Robert,

I've been following ATC for years now, and I am looking for an upgrade from my Dynaudio Audience 42's, my amplification is a Cyrus Pre/Power combo of 60w potential, and the cd is a Meridian GO6. I wa settled on the Dynaudio Focus 110's until I got a call out of the blue suggestion I give ATC SCM11's serious consideration, but everyone I talk to has a different opinion, some say Cyrus would be too'lean' and not have enough 'drive' for them, others have had great results with �200 NAD amps. I don't believe in 'in-store' demos and home try-outs don't seem possible. Can you give me a 'real world' opinion on this? Thanks very much,

Kevin Thompson NW7.

Hi Kevin,

I don't know the Cyrus combo, so I can't comment specifically on that. NADs tend to have a warmish, full-blooded sound as well as decent power reserves -- I'd think this would be a good match for the 11s. In any case, err on the side of more power rather than less, the ATCs can take it. Hope this helps.

-- Bob

Hi Kevin,

I don't know the Cyrus combo, so I can't comment specifically on that. NADs tend to have a warmish, full-blooded sound as well as decent power reserves -- I'd think this would be a good match for the 11s. In any case, err on the side of more power rather than less, the ATCs can take it. Hope this helps.

-- Bob