ATC SCM 12 Pro

ATC SCM 12 Pro

• So what do the ATC SCM 12 Pros sound like? Very, very good. They excel in dynamic stability – loud things go loud without treading all over quiet things, and if your percussionist likes sly effects and cheeky delicacies, you will hear them. If your drummer mixes rock thunder with jazz accents you will smile – and if she makes it swing you will hear it swing. The beat tightens and rhythmic intentions become clear. Layers in EDM will be laid bare, synth tones revealed, backing vocals resolve out of the soup of lesser systems.
• The bottom-end is a lesson in control – less is more when bass has actual notes, and the notes have actual character! But it is the mid-band clarity that stands out for me – vocals just sound more ... more like the singer, and everywhere a clarity that makes much of the competition sound veiled.
• “I have been massively impressed by the SCM 12 Pro – defying mere fashion it’s an evolutionary product from a firm that refuses to compromise engineering decisions for marketing acceptability. They are professional tools designed for a working studio environment. The finish is utilitarian but the sound extraordinary, and if you need compact monitors that tell the unvarnished truth about your audio, start here.” BBC engineer, Alistair McGhee for Audio Media International magazine

ATC SCM 12 Pro & P1 Pro

• Finding a path through all the conflicting constraints when designing a monitor is akin to making the pieces of a jigsaw fit together, and when you get it right, everything snaps into focus. The SCM12 Pro had that from the very start.
• The foundation of the SCM12 Pro is its low-frequency performance: typically closed-box with its lack of overhang and reassuring security of pitch, whatever the volume level, but with the added quality that comes from driver engineering that’s a level or two above run-of-the-mill and can play surprisingly loud.
• But it’s not just at the bass end where the SCM12 Pro excels. It has a natural, uncoloured, ‘hear-through’ mid-range quality and unforced detail in the way it presents high-frequency information, which means audio is reproduced with the minimum of speaker artifacts imprinted upon it.
• Stereo imaging was well focussed with good depth, and there were no embellishments or attention-drawing emphases anywhere, just accuracy and consistency. It’s exactly what’s needed from a mix tool.
• The P1 Pro passed the test very quickly. It is clearly an extremely high-performance power amplifier — perhaps slightly warmer in presentation than the Naim amp I’m used to, but certainly right up there in terms of bandwidth, detail, clarity, imaging and that sense one gets with a genuinely powerful amplifier that volume level is effectively unlimited. 
• The P1 Pro is ATC’s entry-level power amplifier and is specified at 150 Watts per channel into 8Ω. The amplifier is configured as a dual-mono unit with completely separate power supply and amplification modules for each channel.
• “As you can probably tell, I really like the SCM12 Pro. I think it’s a genuinely fine nearfield monitor, and given the relatively low price for the level of engineering involved, it is something of a bargain.” Phil Ward, Sound on Sound Magazine