A Brief History of ATC
Billy Woodman founded ATC in 1974 in order to develop fully custom drive units for the pro sound industry. The company quickly found success because its designs could handle greater power while introducing less distortion at high SPLs than others on the market. In 1976, the company produced its groundbreaking Soft Dome Midrange driver. This innovation allowed ATC monitors to deliver uniform dispersion and greater bandwidth with far less distortion than originally thought possible. Often copied but never equaled, the Soft Dome Midrange driver revolutionized studio monitoring and is recognized as the ultimate midrange transducer for professionals. Over the next decade, ATC introduced complete speaker systems for early customers, including Pink Floyd and Supertramp. ATC also developed the first active system elements, such as its Active Crossover with built-in phase correction. Billy Woodman and his research team also developed ATC’s Super Linear (SL) driver, which reduced third-harmonic distortion by 10–15dB between 100Hz and 3kHz. SL technology reinforces ATC’s commitment to lowering distortion and elevating sound quality.
Soft Dome Midrange
Few engineering developments have revolutionized an industry in the way that ATC’s Soft Dome Midrange has changed how we monitor music. First introduced in 1976, the Soft Dome Midrange is the pinnacle of midrange loudspeaker design. Its performance combines outrageously low coloration, high power handling, low power compression, and high output with a silky-smooth response from 380Hz to 3.5kHz. ATC achieves this impressive level of performance by leveraging a very linear, low-distortion drive system comprising a 2.95-inch (75mm) diameter short coil operating in a long magnet gap with two suspensions to control the coil movement and maintain concentricity. Meanwhile, tight gap-coil clearances ensure efficient heat dissipation and power handling. The driver’s dome diaphragm is a soft, woven fabric impregnated with a damping medium that attenuates unwanted resonances and provides a smooth, uncolored response. It’s also mounted in a phase-correction flange. Each of these elements helps the Soft Dome Midrange driver deliver world-class fidelity and neutrality. You can find ATC’s Soft Dome Midrange in all ATC 3-way monitoring systems for consistency between models.
Dual Suspension Tweeter
With their unique approach to tweeter design, ATC delivers drivers that perform better for longer. The company’s tweeters incorporate a secondary suspension component within the assembly to naturally constrain travel in the axial direction. This results in a design that suppresses rocking modes and lowers distortion. The secondary suspension supplies additional stability over convention tweeters and negates the need for ferrofluids for cooling and damping. As a result, the magnet can be reduced, which allows ATC to perform more optimally with improved power handling. ATC’s unique tweeter topology provides superior performance thanks to its careful and accurate manufacturing and assembly — something ATC excels at.
Super Linear Magnet Technology
ATC’s super linear magnet development adds rings of Super Linear Magnetic Material (SLMM) to the magnet assembly pole adjacent to and concentric with the loudspeaker voice coil. The rings reduce third-harmonic distortion up to 15dB between 100Hz and 3kHz. By adding SLMM, ATC significantly improves sound quality and dramatically reduces distortion to reveal yet another layer of information to the listener. Ambient sounds and low-level effects that were previously masked are suddenly clearly audible and feel more realistic than ever before. ATC has put more emphasis on this than other studio monitor manufacturers. Developing the Super Linear Magnetic System helps the company remove one of the longest-standing obstacles to amazing mixes. The detrimental effects of magnetic hysteresis have been known for many years, but it has been a combination of timing, the right material coming to market, and ATC’s engineering skills that negate those detrimental effects and brought the technology into loudspeakers.
The Benefits of Active Loudspeaker Systems
Active loudspeaker systems offer three great benefits. First, you get more accurate crossovers and independent phase control, which is not possible with a passive crossover. An active crossover gives you better balance and more stable stereo imaging. Second, ATC active studio monitors boast lower intermodulation distortion by 15–20dB because they place the amplifiers after the crossover. Finally, active ATC monitors feature individual gain trims for every amplifier. This gives you fine-tuning and stereo-matching capabilities that far outstrip those of passive monitors.
Installation Series
Whether active or passive, all ATC loudspeaker models are available as complete installation versions. ATC offers custom in-wall soffit, on-wall, and ceiling configurations with remote amplifiers and cable kits. For configuration details and pricing, please contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer.
Immersive Audio
ATC has been involved in the development of immersive audio formats since the very beginning. You can find their monitors in some of the top immersive multichannel Dolby Atmos and immersive audio installations around the world.
