Atohm GT-1 Stand Mount Speakers

(13h, 7.87w, 10.43d, 27 lbs, 89dB SPL, 6 ohms)

6” 2-way in Gloss Walnut, Gloss Piano Black, Gloss Piano White

Made in France: 7 year warranty!

Atohm speakers are indeed, actually MADE in France. Designer Thierry Comte has created a line of speakers that check some very special boxes. Let’s start here with GT-1, their best stand mount.

With all the “pleasant” Euro speakers available, why have I chosen Atohm vs the other guys? While most of the Euros are similar in their politeness and lack of harsh top end, they just don’t have much gusto. Atohm does!

For openers, I think well of many Amphions, B&Ws, KEFs, Sonus Fabers etc. But what separates Atohm from all of them is their spectacular imaging AND their ability to wield a big sledgehammer. Here, Atohm is different, better, and offers something I haven’t heard from ANY of these respectable companies.

GT-1 has the most precise imaging I’ve heard. It can place a center vocal that simply doesn’t drift. Even more impressive is its ability to cast an image beyond the bounds of the enclosures. You get a width and depth of soundstage that will have you looking around for more speakers. Their performance is only limited by the gear you put in front of them.

GT-1 sounds good on a myriad of affordable integrated amps, like those made by their French buddies, Atoll. The American importer of both these lines, Emilios, told me that GT-1 is capable of much more. He challenged me to hammer the GT-1s with the magnificent Atoll AM300 monoblock amps, 500w per block. OK brother, you asked for it.

So I did. And… wow!! He was right! The more you feed GT-1, the more voracious its appetite becomes. GT-1s produce dramatically better, stronger performance as you run world class power and quality into them. I would be fraidy scared to fire up AM300 monoblocks with any of the above mentioned alternatives. You’d be guaranteed to be buying new tweeters.

GT-1 has deeper, more gutty bass response than the other guys in this size range. Their ability to play at powerful volume levels takes them to a different class from every competitor I’ve encountered.

I’ve been in the audio biz since 1971- and heard nothing like these. At last, we have a smallish speaker for her, that plays BIG enough for us- when she’s not around!

We sold B&W 805Ds a decade ago. Today’s version runs over double the price of GT-1. They sound lovely- albeit brighter than neutral. But… if you break one of their diamond dust tweeters, be prepared to pull $2k out of your wallet. Let’s face it, we blow drivers because we play too loudly. Many companies just pony up replacements. Most tweeters are cheap. Who cares if you have to cough some up parts for the occasional abusive customer? It’s just the cost of doing biz. This is absolutely NOT the case when it comes to expensive diamond dust or beryllium tweeters. Manufacturers are NOT going to roll over for you. They will call you out on your abuse and it will cost you $2k per tweeter for your “fun.” We faced this as part of the business of selling B&W lab created diamond tweeters and had to be careful who we sold them to. Twas the same story with Paradigm beryllium tweeters. We had some VERY tough conversations during that time about… abuse- is not covered. It wasn’t uncommon for customers to become irate, because they were used to getting free replacement tweeters for their Polks.

Happily, Atohm’s construction is uniquely hearty. They have an extensive TECHNICAL BOOK you can read at our yellow tab. It explains the nuts and bolts in fervid detail.

To be clear, my first reason for recommending Atohm is its sound. Close behind great sound is the fact that Atohm wins the battle of being able to play music at SPLs that a lot of our customers want when enjoying their hi-fi systems.