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RE: ATC50A Active Speaker

I had a pair of ATC Actives in 2001, so not the latest version. They had the ATC mid-range driver but the Vifa tweeter. Before that the tweeter was from Seas, but now their own one is used.

After previously owning the big KEF 107 Reference, I was a bit disappointed with the ATC. It was a speaker that was far too "in-yer-face" for comfortable listening - I wanted to push them 20 ft further away. My room was 350 sq ft with 10 ft ceilings, so certainly not too small.

Remember that studio monitors, and that's what the bigger ATC speakers are, are designed for engineers to identify faults in original recordings so they can do their best to fix them, so are not primarily designed to make music sound great. Domestic speakers are designed solely to make music sound great - big difference. Some people like the "accuracy" of these speakers and accept the analytical nature of the sound. but most domestic listeners don't want the faults and short-fallings in music being shouted at them.

That's my take on the bigger ATCs - others will of course disagree, particularly owners! The smaller ATCs, particularly the 40 from my understanding, do sound great as most are not designed as studio monitors.

At the time I was subscribing to Stereophile who had recently published their "Best of the Year" list and I was intrigued to see that the somewhat odd Avantgarde Uno had been chosen as Speaker of the Year. I read the full review that was exceptionally thorough and it described EXACTLY the sort of sound I wanted and was so lacking in the ATC. After a very brief demo, I bought the Unos and the improvement in the listening experience was astonishing. I kept the Unos for 17 years, upgrading to used Duos after that and more recently to new Duo XDs. In the meantime, I've had several other great speakers i n my room (Martin Logans, big Quads, Quadral, etc but none has tempted me away from the excitement and goose-bump inducing Avantgardes.

As it happened I bought the ATCs well and made little loss, but I'd certainly suggest you insist on a 7-day minimum home demo before purchase. You may love them but you may find them disappointing and look elsewhere, probably for a good domestic speaker. Good luck anyway.

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