ATC SCM 50A > Soundstage! Ultra review

There’s a huge number of loudspeaker brands competing to be among the very best in the world, but only a handful have the knowledge, engineering capability, and expertise to build everything in-house, from the ground up. Many elite brands source custom-specified drivers from firms like Scan-Speak. By contrast, ATC designs and builds every drive unit in-house, and hand-builds its own crossover circuits and active amplification packs. The company knows that every loudspeaker design decision impacts the sound—ATC even manufactures the voice coils used in its drivers. In an ATC speaker, everything—the wire used for coil winding, the magnets, the gap employed, the number of turns on the wire—is within the company’s control. Some of the factory machinery is actually custom-built by ATC for specific assembly processes. This extraordinarily deep engineering expertise is what makes the company’s loudspeakers so very special. It’s also why they are used by Air Studios, Abbey Road, Pink Floyd, Enya, Mark Knopfler, the Royal Festival Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Make no mistake, a visit to ATC’s UK headquarters in Aston Down, Gloucestershire, is to walk upon audio holy ground.

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Conclusion
In summary, the ATC SCM50 is a benchmark design and a world-class loudspeaker, whether driven actively or passively. In the active configuration, it represents an incredible bargain in the high-end audio field—and that would be my choice if I were laying my money down. In my experience, there’s no other loudspeaker that comes even close to its immense power, neutrality, bandwidth, speed, and sheer visceral impact at anywhere near the price. If you choose to go the passive route, expect to budget significantly more than the $8000 difference in cost between the active and passive SCM50 variants for your amplification. The big Naim combination powering the passive SCM50s offered stunning sound—at significant cost—and the transparency of the ATC loudspeakers allowed all the virtues cherished by Naim enthusiasts to really shine.
- Jonathan Gorse, SoundStage! Ultra


Link to product: ATC SCM 50
Link to review: SoundStage! Ultra