An Enchanting Evening with the ATC EL 50 Anniversary Speaker at Chicago’s Saturday Audio Exchange

In 1974, Billy Woodman had an idea to make a lower-distortion speaker driver.  He brought his ideas to his superiors at Tannoy Group, who quickly told him, “That’s not what we do here.”  Billy left Tannoy, and thus Acoustic Transducer Company was born.  Billy did indeed produce a lower-distortion driver; ATC’s 12″ PA75-314 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.  Billy and ATC quickly found success in the highly competitive studio monitor market, where accuracy is important above all.  To this day, the ATC SCM 25A is the most popular studio monitor in the world.  The list of artists who use ATC monitors reads almost exactly like your demo reference record collection: Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Mark Knopfler, and thousands of others.

Leland Leard of Lone Mountain Distribution in Las Vegas brought the world’s first (and, so far, only) pair of ATC EL 50 Anniversary Active Tower speakers to Saturday Audio Exchange in Chicago on a blue sky Thursday night in May.  Chicago in May is right after AXPONA, and yes, these are the same pair everyone was talking about at the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel.  This is not a normal evening at Saturday Audio.  The store has a reputation for reliable and affordable used Hi Fi.  The truth is, they sell much more new equipment than used.  In crowded upscale Lincoln Park, Saturday Audio sells a lot of bookshelf and small floor-standing speakers.  At over 55” tall, over 18” wide, and about 140 lbs. each, these are not Saturday Audio’s bread and butter.  Their retail price is US $99,000 per pair.

Leland took some time to enthusiastically tell us about ATC’s new limited edition flagship loudspeaker. The EL 50 Anniversary was designed and built to celebrate ATC’s 50^th anniversary — not that that information is anywhere on their website.  The 50^th anniversary edition is limited to 50 pairs.  Well, that’s 50 pairs in this color: a beautiful book matched European Crown Cut Walnut.  They were so pretty, I had to get up out of my listening chair and touch the only edge, which is at the top.  There are no side edges because it is a fully elliptical design, paying homage to some of Billy Woodman’s earlier ideas.  The top Ellipse is cut on an angle, and one’s fingers cannot detect if two pieces of wood come together here or if it is magically hewn from one solid piece. Beautiful soft leather surrounds the drivers in a dark vertical stripe, the entire height of the cabinet.   Leland explained that the cabinet is made from multiple layers of birch plywood vacuum-formed into this magnificent shape.  Perhaps in the future these speakers will be offered in different finishes, but never again in the premium book-matched European crown cut walnut.  That’s just for this anniversary edition.

ATC hand-makes its own drivers, and has always done so.  Leland spent the most time talking about their proprietary domed midrange driver, which makes sense because that’s where most of our music resides.  The 3” mid-dome provides wide dispersion.  Leland spoke of studio monitors where the entire band can sit on a long couch listening to a mix, and each musician, no matter where they’re seated, can follow their musical line in the recording.  As could I.  The mid-dome requires a unique double suspension to prevent rocking.  (Leland’s term, I thought they rocked out just fine!)

An analog signal enters each speaker cabinet through balanced XLR connectors.  The signal is then fed to an active electronic crossover.  Crossing over actively allows time and phase information to remain intact, eliminating the time/phase errors of passive crossovers. The bass signal goes to an ATC-designed 200-watt discrete class AB amplifier feeding a 9” woofer.  The all-important midrange goes to a 100-watt discrete class AB amplifier.  And the highs feed a 50-watt discrete class AB amplifier driving a 1” dome tweeter.  Discrete means individual, separate components—such as resistors, transistors, or capacitors—that perform a single, specific function, as opposed to integrated circuits (ICs), which can be of higher distortion.  Leland offered that there were 4 toroidal transformers in the tower, one for each amplifier, and one for the low voltage electronics of the crossover.  Additional advantages of active crossovers are that each amp is directly connected to its corresponding driver.  The amp isn’t losing power to a passive crossover circuit.  Have you ever noticed that your speakers sound their best at a certain volume level?  Leland explained that passive crossover components can be heat sensitive: their values can change with temperature.  More power going into a passive crossover heats up the capacitors and coils, changing their values, changing the crossover frequencies and slopes.  None of this is an issue with an active speaker.

Even the amplifier heat sink panel is curved to match the elliptical nature of the speaker cabinet.  Your guests will not see this level of detail.  Note the bespoke outrigger feet.

These speakers, their drivers, amplifiers, crossovers, and cabinets are all hand-built in England.  Any chance of all this technology trickling down to future, lower-priced speakers?  No, these are a one-off, best-ATC-can-do anniversary special.   Leland explained that it would be a waste of time and effort to put this much specialized work into a lesser transducer.

At Saturday Audio, the speakers were fed from ATC’s own SCA2 preamplifier ($12,999).  We only listened to streamed digital audio. The EL50 Anniversaries were just slightly toed-in.  Leland explained that the EL50 measures down to 32Hz -6dB, and in the room, the response is often lower. The front ports are tuned to 28Hz, but the ports are not loaded.  No subwoofers were necessary.

After learning about the design, components, and technologies of the EL 50 Anniversaries, we finally got around to listening to Leland’s playlist.

The Listening Session

With Avi Kaplan’s  “The Summit,” I was struck by the texture of his voice.  It was as if I could almost feel the back of his throat, like it hurt to sing those low notes.

Listening to Hiromi perform “The Seeker,” you’d swear you’ve heard a real piano in a real room.  In reality, what you’ve heard is a recording of a piano, even a truly great recording, and you can always tell which is live and which is Memorex.  The dynamics of her piano are extraordinary: the soft twinkling of the keys versus the pounding of chords, the difference between the quietest portions and the loudest parts. I understand that this is called dynamic range, but I have never heard or felt it like this before.  It was not exactly like hearing a piano playing in the room, but it was close, really close.  And regarding the depth of the drum kit, you could close your eyes and imagine where the drum kit was set up on stage without doing much mental gymnastics.  These speakers just don’t care how loudly or softly you play them.  The low-distortion drivers do not change tone at different volumes. (Not coincidentally, Hiromi will only record in studios with ATC monitors.)

Then, there’s Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason.” Holy Shit!  This is why we spend money on stereos.  They are not just sound systems; they can be time machines.  I closed my eyes, started grooving, and was transported back to that summer at Poplar Creek Music Theater when I saw her open for Neil Young after her first breakthrough album.  Tracy Chapman and Neil Young shared a manager, Elliot Roberts, who got her the opening slot on this tour.  She stood on that huge stage in front of that giant audience and hid behind her guitar, visibly nervous.  But once she started playing and singing, she took command of Young’s audience. 

Leland hit the wrong button on his phone, and the music stopped, and I realized I was dancing in my metal folding chair in a hi-fi shop.  Leland tried to start it again, but played some remaster by accident, and the soul was gone.  The second version had no emotion.  A great pair of speakers can effortlessly show us the differences between two versions of the same recording.

And, last, with Chris Stapleton’s “Death Row Again”, the dynamic range of these speakers showed through.  It is a soft song with Stapleton singing against percussion that’s just sticks touching the rim of the drum, not banging the drumhead.  And then that screaming guitar powers over everything, but one can still hear the sticks underneath.

Thoughts in the Afterglow

Joe Corona from Saturday Audio Exchange, a 46-year veteran of the hi-fi industry, shared that they sell nine times as many active ATC speakers as passive models.  At nine to one, I’m not surprised.  In the ATC EL 50 Anniversary, you have one of the world’s finest midrange drivers, active tri-amping, amplifiers designed specifically for each driver, elimination of phase and timing errors, zero loss of power from amps driving crossovers, and a beautiful elliptical walnut veneered and leather cabinet.  But the proof is in the listening.