ATC stands.

tackleberry

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With 3-way ATC’s, your ears should be at the level of the midrange element or even slightly lower than that, not on the level of tweeter. If your ears are on tweeter level, either try to give more height to the speakers with 3rd party footers or some slabs under the speakers (I use granite slabs) or buy lower sofa/listening chair.

The image attached is from ATC classic range manual.
Is it not the other way around? Mid ‘at or slightly below your ear’

Not your ear below it….
 

Blzebub

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Is it not the other way around? Mid ‘at or slightly below your ear’

Not your ear below it….
You claimed you'd read the manual.

Bottom of P3. 3-way systems: acoustic axis 5 degrees below midrange driver.
 

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  • SCM25-50-100-110-150-USER-MANUAL..pdf
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Nopiano

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Is it not the other way around? Mid ‘at or slightly below your ear’

Not your ear below it….
It’s clear in the diagram attached in post #4. Your ear should be at or below the mid driver. That’s why I raised mine, so I wasn’t sitting too high
 

Nopiano

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So what about the wording I’ve highlighted
I think I get you now. You mean the words…”With this in mind, the loudspeakers should be positioned with the mid-range dome at, or slightly below ear level (See Fig.2).”

That seems to contradict the diagram in post #4 which shows the point being below the mid. The quote makes sense to me for three-ways where the tweeter is above the mid - making the axis between mid and tweeter. But ATC’s manual also show a monitor face-on and another in side section both suggesting we should listen on the mid axis or below. Ultimately I suppose it’s down to what you prefer, and I recall I was on axis between tweeter and mid with mine.
 

tackleberry

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Well, between the two is where mine works.

Strangely I’ve found that manual pdf on the web. The manual that came with my speakers have no recommendations for positioning or diagrams just this . image.jpg
 

Nopiano

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The current manual on ATC’s website is slightly different again.
https://atc.audio/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SCM25-45-50-100-110-150-Manual-29-06-15.pdf
But it keeps the contradictory info about whether your ear should be 5 degrees above or below the mid driver. I suspect it has been tweaked a few times, as Figure 3 is still mentioned, but is now on another page, and unlabelled! The manual still carries their old web address too. Maybe if you send them your edits they’ll send you some boxes as a thank you!
We can live in hope. :)
 

JANDL100

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I’m not familiar with stands you are using , if these have adjustable spikes you could try to tilt them down a bit , just a thought
This seems to be a sensible approach, have you tried tilting rather than raising / lowering?
A much simpler method if it works.
 

tackleberry

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Did think about it. One side of my room a a lean anyway, very old property. Took me ages to level! Might just let em go with the flow.
 

Patu

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Is it not the other way around? Mid ‘at or slightly below your ear’

Not your ear below it….
The written part is wrong in ATC manual. I actually noticed this also some time ago and confirmed this from Ben Lilly of ATC. This is how he replied to me:

"Sorry for the confusion. There is a mistake in the manual.

It should say:

"All ATC 3-way loudspeakers are designed with the mid-range dome as the reference acoustic axis. With this in mind, the loudspeakers should be positioned with the mid-range dome at, or slightly above ear level (See Fig.3)."

Kind Regards,

Ben"

So the picture I posted is correct.
 

DomT

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The written part is wrong in ATC manual. I actually noticed this also some time ago and confirmed this from Ben Lilly of ATC. This is how he replied to me:

"Sorry for the confusion. There is a mistake in the manual.

It should say:

"All ATC 3-way loudspeakers are designed with the mid-range dome as the reference acoustic axis. With this in mind, the loudspeakers should be positioned with the mid-range dome at, or slightly above ear level (See Fig.3)."

Kind Regards,

Ben"

So the picture I posted is correct.
As an ATC owner thats pretty concerning. If they are that sloppy with a public facing manual what else is going on? Boeing many years ago used the mantra "if there is a coffee ring on someone's desk then it means that our engines don't work". They used this example to drive excellence in everything that they did. I am not saying that Boeing are perfect, it's just an example of a total quality control mindset.

And that they also insist on certain of their packaging to be used to protect speakers whilst at their factory then that's starting to tell a story.
 

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