Pro Active Monitors  Published in SOS October 1997 Bookmark and
Share  Reviews : Monitors  PAUL WHITE tests what must be the
ultimate small monitor, but finds that you pay for it in pounds
-- both fiscal and gravitational.   ATC have a unique approach
to building loudspeaker systems, which stems from the obsession
of designer Bill Woodman. While other manufacturers are
struggling to find cheaper and lighter components, the British-
made ATC monitors are still characterised by heavily engineered,
well-damped drivers designed to produce a wide dynamic range
with minimal power compression and distortion. This tends to
make their designs a little less efficient than some of their
competitors', but today's amplifiers are not short on power, so
this is not a significant limitation.  A recent ATC innovation
is the use of rings made from pressure-formed powdered iron to
form part of the driver pole-piece. Using these rings to form
the inner and outer surfaces of the magnetic gap greatly reduces
eddy currents in the po