High-end UK speaker manufacturers ATC have announced that their new SCM25A Pro active nearfield monitors, first displayed at the AES convention in New York last year, are now shipping.The SCM25As feature three of ATC’s proprietary soft-dome drivers, comprising a one-inch tweeter, a three-inch mid-range driver and a seven-inch woofer. The drive units are powered by three Class-AB MOSFET amplifiers (25W, 60W and 150W for the HF, MF and LF drivers, respectively), and the drivers are integrated with fourth-order crossovers set at 380Hz and 3.5kHz.
Interestingly, ATC say that the idea behind their implementation of a ported cabinet design differs from most other manufacturers’ in that, while the port does increase the speakers’ bass extension, this was not their primary aim. Rather, the port helps to correctly load the bass driver, which increases excursion linearity and reduces distortion.
If you prefer the improved time-domain response of a sealed cabinet, however, ATC provide foam port bungs with the speakers, which apparently attenuates the speakers’ response by 1.5dB around 80Hz, but increases the output below 45Hz by roughly 1dB, bringing the overall frequency response closer to what you'd expect from an infinite-baffle design.
ATC say that the SCM25As are well suited to broadcast applications and smaller control rooms, where some of the larger ATC monitors might not be appropriate. Accordingly, the dispersion is very tightly controlled, with a nominal 80 degrees horizontally and 10 degrees along the vertical axis, which ATC say makes for a wide sweet spot and an optimum balance of direct to reverberant sound.
Available now, the ATC SCM25A Pro comes with a six-year warranty, and will sell for £6609 including VAT.
