The Acoustic Transducer Company, or ATC as they are better known, has been a stalwart of the studio monitoring scene for five decades. Founded in 1974 by Billy Woodman to manufacture custom drive units for the professional audio industry, ATC quickly made its mark with a 12″ bass driver—a design capable of handling more power and producing less distortion at a higher sound pressure level than any other unit on the market at the time.

In 1976, ATC introduced a groundbreaking soft-dome midrange driver, which delivered a wider bandwidth, more uniform dispersion, and significantly lower distortion than was previously thought possible.

The following decade saw the launch of complete speaker systems, alongside further versions of high-power PA drive units supplied in OEM form to leading manufacturers and performers—early customers included Pink Floyd and Supertramp. Today, ATC speakers can be found in prestigious venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Festival Hall, and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.

Having established a market for reference-quality, precision-made monitors, ATC went on to develop a succession of smaller loudspeakers, ranging from the compact SCM7s through to the 10s and 20s. Available in both active and passive versions, these models brought ATC’s renowned performance and reliability into the music lover’s home.

In 1996, ATC launched its first stand-alone high-performance electronics. The SCA2 preamplifier and SPA2-150 power amplifier (later joined by the SIA2-150) were built in line with ATC’s philosophy, achieving performance figures that remain impressive to this day. The latest versions continue to deliver outstanding precision and musicality and come highly recommended.

ATC continues to design, engineer, and manufacture all of its drive units at its factory in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Whilst all that history is reassuring, it was our own overwhelmingly positive experience with ATC products that made us eager to become ATC stockists. The ever-helpful Dave S at ATC has been incredibly generous in lending us various models of active and passive speakers over the past 12 months—from the modest to the comedy-double-take priced—allowing us to get a real feel for the ATC family sound and the company’s design philosophy. His patience has paid off.

Whilst we’ve been happily evaluating the ATC range (keep it to yourself, but Audio T literally pays us to listen to music), our customers have also been introduced to the ATC family sound—and their response has been overwhelmingly positive. This may or may not have influenced our decision.

We’ve started with a pair of rockin’ black stand-mount models—the SCM11s at £1,650—alongside these handsome, cherry-veneered floorstanders, the SCM40s at £4,750, which are a firm favourite.

Standing just under a metre tall and 37cm wide, with elegantly curved cabinet sides, they’re far from imposing in the average British sitting room—one of the many reasons for their appeal.

If we’re being honest, while we like to tell ourselves that audio performance is all that matters, sneaking a pair of 2m-high aluminium horns past our ‘significant other’ and into the lounge is always going to be an uphill battle.

The grilles are particularly unusual in that they’re barely visible at all. Typically, grilles obscure the loudspeaker drivers—but I rather like this approach!

THOSE TRICK GRILLES - PROTECT BUT DON’T OBSCURE.

Manoeuvring their 31kg weight around the room to find the ideal position had us reaching for the teapot—giving our Chord Electronics amplifier time to push some electrons through them and begin the running-in process. It didn’t take long. By the time we’d finished our tea, it was already clear how open and revealing the SCM40s were going to be, even if they did sound rather forward at first!

LINN SELEKT STREAMER, REGA PLANAR 10 TURNTABLE, ARIA PHONO STAGE, CHORD ELECTRONICS ULTIMA 3 PRE AND ULTIMA 5 POWER AMPLIFIERS, BLACK RHODIUM CABLES AND A SOLIDSTEEL RACK.

Eighteen hours later, they’d settled in nicely—the initial boom and tizz had all but disappeared, the bass had become far more articulate, and the hard treble had softened to a far more listenable level. Another 24 hours and the SCM40s had truly shifted into top gear. The open character for which they’re so highly praised in the press was now unmistakable, as was the midrange clarity and bass purity. These are no overblown boom boxes—if it’s not on the recording, they won’t pretend that it is.

Drums are a particular highlight—clean, fast, and tight. You can hear every element of a piano—keyboard, hammers, strings, and body—while female vocals are rendered with exceptional naturalness. And as for funk bass guitar… let’s just say it’s so indecent, it’s almost NSFW.

But don’t just take my word for it—come down to Audio T Swansea and have a listen for yourself...

Thanks for reading

Nic, Adrian and Andy at Audio T Swansea

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