ATC SCM 20 SL

• Tarun Sharma reviewed the SCM 20 SL for his YouTube channel, A British Audiophile. Click the link below to view the video in which he covers the features, design and technology plus his thoughts on the performance of this classic ATC 2-way stand-mount loudspeaker: ATC SCM 20 SL Review by A British Audiophile
• The protruding front baffle and visible Allen key screws assert a lack of frivolity about the industrial design in keeping with ATC's engineering lead ethos. bass and mid-range duties are handled by an ATC 150 mm 6-in soft doome driver: it's the same SL driver found in the more affordable SCM 19s
• To summarize what you get stepping from the SCM 19s to the 20s: well, you get a more substantial cabinet, the front baffle is double layered, better quality speaker binding posts, better quality crossover components and a higher spec Tweeter
• The SL midwoofer has a massive motor structure weighing 9 kg. it's made from their proprietary superlinear magnetic material with a high magnetic permeability, a high magnetic saturation point and low electrical conductivity to reduce Edie currents. what that means is lower nonlinear distortions compared to drivers that use traditional Ferris magnets, in particular third harmonic. Distortion is lowered by as much as 15 dB according to ATC
• ATC drivers use underhung voice coils with a short coil in a long Gap as opposed to most drivers that have overhung voice coils with the coil sticking out of the gap an underhung coil requires a much larger motor structure to achieve the same Excursion but always operates within the linear part of the magnetic field
• Instead of a dust cap the SL driver has a 3-in dome mid-range mounted in the center of the woofer. it mechanically decouples itself from the woofer at higher frequencies acting like a dual concentric driver but without the need for electrical crossover components that alter phase and waste energy. it's clever stuff, complex to manufacture and expensive
• Tweeter isn't entirely conventional either. it's a dual suspension design, the second suspension components in the system reduce rocking modes to give a more pistonic like motion. because there's less rocking there's less Distortion and less wasted energy
• The mid-range on the ATC SC 20s is something special: superbly articulate and natural with vocals and acoustic instruments, you get the sense of the performers being there in the room with you, in a much more realistic way than I've encountered before
• On the other side of the spectrum, you're more likely to damage your hearing before the SCM 20s show any sign of dynamic compression
• ATC SCM 20s look and feel like they've been built to withstand shell bombardment: they play loud and clean imparting very little character on the music. the drivers are the stars of the show, in particular the 150 mm 6-in SL midwoofer
• What we have here is a speaker that has the best mid-range that I've heard in its class. the top end that isn't that far behind

ATC SCM 20 ASL Pro

• There are wide-ranging dynamic swings, crashing crescendos and a sense of authority that would be hard to get from a passive set-up at this price. It sounds immensely stable, with the speakers keeping hold of the multitude of instrumental strands with impressive composure.
• Everything has a place, yet the final result never feels overly controlled. There’s plenty of enthusiasm on show together with the kind of agility that’s rare to hear at this level.
• Like your music loud? The SCM20ASL Pros are happy to do that. They remain clear and refined to very high levels, showing little sign of strain even when pushed hard. Their neutral tonality barely strays, even as we approach their limits.
• The SCM20ASLs remain seriously impressive at the low-end, delivering bass with weight and power.
• We put on some Nina Simone and like the way these ATCs handle the older recording. They render the lovely, distinctive vocals with power, subtlety and real finesse, the ATCs’ innate transparency revealing every nuance.
• Verdict: By high-end standards, these ATCs are terrific value. Getting standmounters and four power amplifier channels of such a high standard is likely to cost a lot more than this. Get past the functional appearance and you have speakers with a performance of rare quality.
• For: Excellent resolution, Strong dynamic expression, Secure rhythmic drive, Comfortable at high volume levels, Flexible in use, Fine build

ATC SCM 20 SL

• Thoroughly tuned, the sound that does not lose the coolness is attractive, so it presents accurate point of sound based on delicate sound and solid middle / low range without prejudice to specific genre. You can also expect a grandeur and a deep bass that is as big as a big one.
• The new SCM20 PSL has been recognized for its value in the market for the book-shelf speaker and has a long-standing basis as a standard model, as the new tweeter has been improved to better respond to high-quality playback environments. It is indeed ATC's core bookhelf speaker.

ATC SCM 20 SLT

• First of all, ATC 's SCM20 PSLT is recommended for speakers. This product is a tortoise version of ATC's representative book-shelf speaker SCM20.
• As a reference, ATC SCM20 is always selected as a standard speaker of the bookshelf speaker. It is recognized as one of the most outstanding standard speaker which is recommended without any hesitation.
• The ATC SCM20 PSLT is full of masculine images based on a traditional enclosed, rugged enclosure, and has a bargain base that can not be easily tamed by ordinary amplifiers. Basically a two-way system. The most noticeable thing is the 6-inch type super linear magnet driver, which is a key component of ATC and a source of strong bass. As the weight of this unit is more than half of the speaker weight, it plays a central role in reproducing deep bass and dynamic midrange.
• There is a sound that does not lose the coolness that is thoroughly monitored and tuned, and there is no prejudice to a specific genre, but there is a long term which expresses the sound of the sound source without coloring.

ATC SCM 20 SL

• This long-established loudspeaker has been subject to numeorus refinements over the years, most notably ATC's 'Super Linear' magnet technology, which inhibits the generation of eddy currents within the motor.
• It has bass to die for. It was clearly on a diffrent plane from the rest, in the explicit way it gripped the bottom end and drove through the musical message.
• It would be very easy to fall in love with this main driver. It's extraordinarily clean, with a tight dynamic grip that seems to enhance voice articulation substantially.

ATC SCM 20 SL

• I've written about this speaker on and off over the year and I ultimately awarded it a Golden Ear Award.
• The two-way, sealed-enclosure compact continues to impress me with a combination of midrange dynamics, natural musical timbres, and surprisingly realistic mid-bass structure.
• It has an unapologetically forward and clinical presentation that might be off-putting to audiophiles of the laid-back presentation. But I don't find "laid back" very persuasive nor do I believe music is typically recorded that way.

ATC SCM 20 SL

• The ATCs excel in the midband and treble, delivering clean, detailed, undistorted sound at high levels, enough to appease the most critical sound engineer while at the same time avoiding any fatigue-inducing 'edges'. This means that either the professional or the civilian can listen to the ATCs for hours on end without inviting earache.
• Vocals, particulary those with lots of character like Leon Redbone's or Willy de Ville's, are reproduced in such a lifelike manner that the net result is an above-average number of goose bumps.
• What ATC has done is endowed the SCM20 with dynamic capabilities which are found only in massive or expensive systems. That exceptional cone travel of 40mm, the ferro-fluid cooling, the watch-like build tolerances and the bomb-proof enclosure combine to provide the dynamic capabilities which allow the SCM20 to play loud without compression and without blurring any low level information.

ATC 20 SLT Active

• I had immersed myself thoroughly in active operation for several days and this was no hardship as I revelled once again in the clean response of ATC's remarkable midrange dome, which retains its unusually constant dispersion pattern although here it is part of the main driver.
• Piano, as usual with ATC designs, appeared solidly at the end of my room and the wizard Alfred Brendel gave me one of his rare excursions into Bach.
• The result was exactly the same: a clear victory for the active version... On the present evidence if you are equipping or re-equipping your music room with a system of some class ATC can make a good case for investigating the active approach.