ATC Active Speakers

ATC of England makes Active and passive speakers. The Active versions sound much better and are the way to fly if you’re spending $14k- ish, or more. Again, that price includes the speakers and 3 amps in each tower.

You will get a better grip on your speakers by going ACTIVE. The drivers start and stop faster with active vs passive.

In an ACTIVE design, each speaker has an electronic crossover on board and three amps (for a 3-way). The electronic crossovers can be set quite precisely for frequency points and phase accuracy. Then the amps directly drive the speakers.

In a passive system, no matter who makes it or how much it costs, even six figures, your expensive amp has to fight its way through a boatload of passive parts. All those parts can do is cut or diminish the “water pressure” going to your speakers.

I look at the magazines every month and shake my head. Article after article “pushes” ginormous amps and speakers for hundreds of thousands. Large speakers can have 20 pound crossovers with zillions of feet of wire for your music to fight through.

Active, is a much better way to go.

SCM40A runs $14k Per Pair

SCM50 ASLT runs $27k Per Pair

ATC’s 3-ways use their magnificent dome tweeter and midrange drivers. I want you to buy one of those- vs saving a few pennies and buying a cone system that doesn’t sound as good.

As you get deeper into the hobby- please head the active direction. No matter how much you spend, you can’t get as good sound running big amps through big speakers, with passive crossovers-that have hundreds, or even thousands of feet of wire in the path.