The Experts team wondered what we thought people would want to find behind the windows of a dream studio advent calendar. Some of the things we own, some we wish we did. Owned or not, we think any of the things we name in the next 23 days would be a gift to a professional studio owner
Day 2 - ATC SCM25a
My first choice is a pair of monitors. I have a pair of Neumann KH310s, which I adore. The compact 3 way format is ideal for me. I have them on desktop stands which sit on my motorised sit-stand desk so they move with the desk. I’m not planning on changing them but if I did I’d want a pair of ATC SCM25a’s
There are plenty of great products in this compact 3 way category. In our compact 3 way monitor round up we show the range of the products out there but while I’d happily use several of these, given the choice of any of them or a pair of ATCs, I’d still choose the ATCs.
When I visited the ATC factory I found the engineering led approach a joy to behold. Building as good a driver as well as you can, pairing with the best crossover you can build, putting it in a well-built cabinet of the correct dimensions and then calculating how much it’s going to cost once its been done properly. Perfect!
Big ATCs sound wonderful. They aren’t cheap but they are old-school engineering and as such they will last a career rather than being orphaned by an EOL announcement or an operating system upgrade. In my ideal studio (which is still in my studio at my house, this is gear, not property we’re discussing) I’d choose the smaller SCM25a, probably for the same reason so many other people choose them. The sound. They are compact enough to replace my current monitors like for like (they are almost twice the weight though!) but having heard them I know I’d be moving my monitoring up a level rather than sideways.
ATC SCM25a
The SCM25a is a compact 3 way active monitor with a landscape format. The 6.5” paper coned bass driver is combined with a 25mm soft dome tweeter and the famous ATC 3” soft dome midrange driver. If you read the text of my factory visit article you’ll see the detail which has gone into these designs and how the transducers at ATC are all custom built, in-house in Stroud in the UK.
There is no DSP or class D amplification happening here, the amps are high quality class AB mosfets driven by big, heavy power supplies and the cabinets are heavily built side-ported affairs. To the uninitiated they probably look like an expensive version of the Neumanns I already have, which in themselves are quality monitors. However you’re not ‘paying for the name’, you’re paying for the quality. If you’ve checked out the factory tour you’ll see all the little things, which an accountant might put a line through at a different company. The flat wire in the voice coils, the double suspension in the midrange driver, the stuff you don’t see. You’re not paying for the badge, you’re paying for the philosophy.