Atlantic Technology Announces Its New Flagship 8600eC Speaker

(November 18, 2020) Several days ago, we covered Atlantic Technology's "huge" 8600eC Center Channel announcement, emphatically highlighting the new speaker's extremely unusual width. Today, we're backtracking a bit, dusting over our tracks, and heading down another path. Despite the excitement and intrigue, a slight communication hiccup has led us to re-release this information with a few changes.

Atlantic Technology's all-new 8600eC center channel (50Hz - 25kHz, 93dB sensitivity) plays host to a D'Appolito array consisting of four 6.5-inch fiberglass woofers, dual 5.25-inch mid-drivers, and a single silk diaphragm tweeter (see Post #9 in the comments for more information about the tweeter). Its design is certainly attractive while functionally benefiting from a stacked midrange – tweeter – midrange design that should deliver even sound and intelligible dialog across an entire seating area.

The 8600eC's cabinet features .75-inch thick non-resonant MDF, internal bracing, and airtight sub-enclosures for the driver array. Externally, the speaker is finished in high-gloss lacquered Makassar Ebony or Gloss Piano Black, matching finishes available on the speaker's vertical free-standing sibling, the 8600eLR tower speaker.

Much like the 8600eLR, the 8600eC utilizes a 4th order Butterworth asymmetrical time-aligned Linkwitz-Riley crossover with bi-wire inputs. It also carries three rear-mounted acoustic optimization controls to help it seamlessly match output from the towers. Those controls include:

• High-Frequency Energy: Changes the tilt of the tweeter response to correct for acoustics in live or dead rooms.
• Location Selector: Shelves the upper midrange and the high-frequency output to compensate for being behind a screen or theater curtains, providing improved detail at the listening position.
• Boundary Compensation: Adjusts the lower midrange minimizing sound colorations when placing speakers in custom cabinets or directly adjacent to a TV, for an open and natural sound.

Completing the package are 24K gold-plated speaker terminals and jumper links, along with Atlantic Technology's trademark pivoting base that tilts the speaker vertically, optimizing output toward the seating position.

Priced at $2,300, the 8600eC's 95-pounds of girth demands a decent amount of coin. The good news? If you'd like to have the 8600eC drive dialog in your system, you can bring it home today. For more information about the 8600 Series and other Atlantic Technology speakers, visit www.atlantictechnology.com.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

That is massive... I love a large center. I thought my ML Focus was fairly wide at 43"... but 68" is seriously wide. Nice!

 

[Todd Anderson]

You'd have to have generous home theater space to house this beast. I'm super curious to hear it!

 

[RyanDSM]

Strange that they used a silk dome tweeter on the 8600eC but used an aluminum magnesium tweeter on the 8600eLR...

 

[Todd Anderson]

Strange that they used a silk dome tweeter on the 8600eC but used an aluminum magnesium tweeter on the 8600eLR...

@RyanDSM Please see Post #9, below.

 

[JStewart]

Looking at the pic I'll guess 40" wide. Still a massive center. Nice that it comes with the angled stand. The controls on the speaker are meaningful. More speakers should have them, especially center channels

 

[Todd Anderson]

You're close. 38"... the press materials had 68"... it's all good, mistakes happen!

 

[Todd Anderson]

Alright folks, corrections made!

 

[Todd Anderson]

Strange that they used a silk dome tweeter on the 8600eC but used an aluminum magnesium tweeter on the 8600eLR...

Ok. So, I have some clarification as to why different tweeters are used on the L/R channels versus the center channel. This is from Atlantic Technology:

"As you know, the main purpose of the center channel is to carry different information provided by the center channel from the movie or concert mix. The center channel information its especially focused on dialogue in movies and vocals in concerts. The 8600eLR speakers do the heavy lifting with the full frequency reproduction of the soundtrack or the music and the center channel anchors that but typically does not have to handle full frequency information like the LR channels do. Therefore the center channel does not have to match exactly because it is handling different information, but it does have to excel at delivering excellent dialog and vocal clarity first and foremost.

The other two characteristics is the sensitivity (loudness) and timbre (character) need to be similar or match the LR speakers. The "timbre" is determined by several factors, the box design, the crossover and the drivers - of which the tweeter is only one of the components. The important thing is that the engineers did the work to balance the system out and timbre match the center channel with the LR. In fact this has been a long-time practice with Atlantic Technology which has allowed dealers and installers to mix-and-match speakers from different series because they go through the trouble of timbre matching the different speaker series.

We also have adjustments in the vertical aiming of the 8600 center channel that help aim the speaker to optimize the blending of the sound between the three front speakers which is something many people have pointed out is a great advantage in setting up our systems to work the best. It is an advantage that Atlantic makes all of their own drivers and can more precisely design and manufacture them to get the characteristics they want even with different materials. Other manufacturers may design their products using off the shelf drivers from a supplier and in that case they may need to use identical drivers to get timbre matching.

Many receivers and audio systems now include microphone based calibration to really dial in and match systems so they sound best. This is frequently done by installers even when using different brands of speakers for the center channel to successfully dial in a system."

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Well I'd say that is a superb explanation.

I did not know they manufactured their own drivers.