[johnwoitalla]

A new pair of ATC SCM150A's are going for $40k. Old School(Bully and Brute) kits range from about $1,200 for parts only, up to $6,000 for a completed pair of Bully's. If the DIY kits can perform very close to, or as good as, ATC for a fraction of the cost(and that's a big "if"), what makes ATC so so so much more expensive? I'd love to do a comparison of these models. I have a feeling it would be like Rocky vs Apollo Creed.

[Tyson]

Look at the parts cost of an ATC and you can see there's a lot of profit built into that price. 

I've heard many ATC speakers over the years and IME, Danny's speakers are a lot better.

[Early B.]

Yeah, $40K vs. $6K is about right. Think about it this way -- the cost to produce something is a fraction of the retail price. With DIY, you don't have enormous overhead, labor, marketing, distribution, and shipping costs. Plus, ATC is a British company, so factor in the difference between the euro and the USD. 

[jmimac351]

A new pair of ATC SCM150A's are going for $40k. Old School(Bully and Brute) kits range from about $1,200 for parts only, up to $6,000 for a completed pair of Bully's. If the DIY kits can perform very close to, or as good as, ATC for a fraction of the cost(and that's a big "if"), what makes ATC so so so much more expensive? I'd love to do a comparison of these models. I have a feeling it would be like Rocky vs Apollo Creed.

A late friend of mine owned an interest in a winery in California.  They were $50 bottles. 

One day I asked him: "How do you figure how much to charge for a bottle?"

His Answer: "Whatever the market will bear..."

[jmimac351]

By contrast, I don't think Danny would be very good at making wine.  I have no idea what his margins are, but how much is being made on an M165 woofer that's sold for $35?!?!  Even the M165NQ driver @ $139.  That thing SMOKED the Scan-Speak 8545 in my Merlin VSM when I swapped it out (the Dynaudio Esotar tweeter network worked with M165NQ NX-Studio network... got lucky!).

I'd like to hear the M165NQ against one of the Scan-Speak Illuminator or even Ellipticor; although, I think I recall Danny mentioning the Ellipticor woofer had some issues.

Dealing direct with a guy who charges a fair price... and happens to make incredible sounding speakers... it's a good thing for everyone in the hobby.

[Komoyuki]

An informed audiophile will understand that with the Bully, you probably get a very close sound quality if not better?. You can even, with the Bully, go with a crossover with copper inductors (Goertz, Mundurf) plus Miflex or Jupiter or dueland capacitors and Path Audio resistors. You can even pay for the services of a cabinetmaker to make you an exotic cabinet and for 10-11k you'll have just something better.

[Tyson]

Yes, after 25 years in this hobby (and about 10 years doing show coverage here in Denver at RMAF), I have learned to ignore price entirely and ONLY look at the actual build quality.  Applies to all audio gear, not just speakers. 

And I don't mean just fancy cases or fancy boxes.  You have to look inside to see the real build quality. 

[jakekluge]

I have spent the last decade or so listening to ATCs every day for my work (I'm an audio engineer).  I demo'd every speaker I could get my ears on before deciding.  Genelec, Focal, Barefoot, Adam, etc.  Keep in mind, these are all powered studio monitors.  None of them were as smooth and flat as the ATCs.  To my ears and in my studio at least.  They really let me hear every nuance in my mixes and translated well to other speakers. 

Having said that, several years ago the amps inside the ATCs starting making little hissing noises that eventually turned into intermittent failure.  The tweeter would drop out.  The woofers would buzz until I ran 100Hz tone through them at about 80dB. 
I had them repaired.  They had a few bad caps and resistors.  And then it started again.   Very frustrating.  Turns out the building my studio is in shuts off the AC at night, the ATCs were getting overheated in there. And their amps did NOT like being hot.  Especially this one little resistor.  Anyhoo...

In 2004 I built a pair of Danny's AV3s for my home use.  Then a pair of AV1s and a center whose name I cannot remember, but it's the AV3 with a tiny cabinet.  I've been keeping tabs on GR Research for quite a while.   When the ATCs started failing, I decided to rip out the amps and have Danny design a crossover for them.  I bought some reasonable outboard mono amps for each channel and turn them off every night when I leave, just to be safe.   I'm so glad I did this.  Danny's crossovers opened up the ATCs even more.  They're easily 20% better than they were.  And I really liked them before.

Having said all that... The ATC / Bully comp is kind of an apples to oranges comparison for me.  The ATCs being powered studio monitors that are meant to be played every day for years and years at near reference levels in a studio.  And the Bully's are more of a "fun" rocking speaker with a passive mid bass / tweeter section.   
But if someone held a gun to my head, it would really be a no brainer to go with the Bully's.  The cost difference alone.  But Danny's woofers and midbass drivers match or beat almost everybody out there.  They're so light and fast.   

I'm a little scared to bring my newly built NX Monitors to the studio for a shootout with the modded ATCs.   

I can tell you that I MUCH prefer my AV1s (with Sonicaps) to our ATC SCM11s, which are also passive.   And I use the AV1s for working at home.

My 2 pennies worth. 

[VinceT]

That's quite an endorsement for GRR from someone in the industry.

I always wanted to try the ATC P1/P2 amps with my GR speakers to see how the ATC/GR combo will play together.