ATL
Company profile[edit]
The company ATL Lautsprecher GmbH Vertriebsgesellschaft (Moosacher Str. 26, 8000 München 40, HRB 70164) was founded in December 1982 by Bernhard Mörtl. He had been sales manager of the Atlantic Lautsprecher GmbH Vertriebsgesellschaft, which since the late seventies had been the developments of the "acoustics researcher" Hans Deutsch' and brought them to the market.
ATL took over the goods and the stock of Atlantic and agreed with the developer Hans Deutsch on a cooperation on the basis of a turnover participation.
ATL's first catalogue was published for the 1983 vintage: http://wegavision.pytalhost.com/atl8x/.
The nomenclature of the names of the boxes was, compared to the 1982 vintage of Atlantic, only slightly changed. All units, except for the top-of-the-line model, were designated with three-digit numerical sequences from the 300 number range, preceded by a HD, for Hans Deutsch'. If the tens digit is a "0", this indicates a shelf speaker, if it is a "1", this is an indication of a floor-standing speaker.
The Hans Deutsch top model of the ATL generation was called "Dell'Arte", again with a three-digit number behind it. The last top model of the series introduced the "M" series, which was further developed from the "Dell'Arte", and was called "Antares", later "M6".
The characteristic feature of the Hans Deutsch speakers of this generation was the so-called "horn resonator". This is a special form of a bass reflex principle, where the air mass at the narrow outlet opening is supposed to act as a membrane, whose vibrations are amplified by a short horn where the reflex opening ends.
In the technical data, the horn resonator is sometimes referred to as a "woofer, which works in a different frequency range than the conventional bass-midrange driver.
Another characterizing feature of this generation is the so-called acoustically active crossover, which is, ultimately depending on the model differently, housing specifications and mechanical filters, which are to carry out separations of frequency ranges. For example, the acoustically active crossover in many models provides separation between the horn resonator and the mid-bass driver at 130 Hz.
Part of this concept is the rather simple construction of the electronic crossover, which the developer explains with the fact that he wanted to avoid distortions caused by the electronics. Also the extensive renouncement of a housing insulation explains itself from the conception of the housing structure as "crossover" and as sound guidance for the resonator.
On 29.3.1989 the district court of Munich published the foundation of ATL Elektro-Akustik Vertriebs GmbH (Benzstraße 20, 82178 Puchheim, HRB 86723), initially headed by Klaus Dotter. Later Bernhard Mörtl took over the management.
Bernhard Mörtl had engaged the hitherto Canton chief developer as designer and managing director of the second ATL, after the sales of the previous company had dropped and no new developments came from Hans Deutsch either.
The separation from Hans Deutsch was completed in the same year, who in turn founded the Hans Deutsch Lautsprecher GmbH (Schulstraße 1, Surheim), and the ATL Lautsprecher GmbH Vertriebsgesellschaft expired.
The developments of Klaus Dotter are characterised by the consequent use of the bass reflex principle, of metal, later fabric domes, made by Seitz, and by the use of Scandinavian bass drivers with PP cone.
All speakers were given a three-digit designation from the 700 number range. While the standard models show an average finish and a foiling of the surface, the so-called Pro-Line is distinguishable by an excellent finish and bevelled edges.
At the end of 1990 another series appeared from the pen of Klaus Dotter. The "Avantgarde" were excellently processed design boxes.
The Pro-Line was also to be supplemented by design-oriented boxes. The prototypes were designed by Klaus Dotter, who left ATL in 1993 and went to Sony.
The so-called Slim-Line, with the suffix S', was brought to serial maturity by his successor at ATL, Gerald Gessner. Characteristics of the Slim-Line is the extremely narrow baffle and the laterally arranged woofer, which was now equipped with a paper cone.
Shortly after the foundation of the second company ATL bought the Phonogen Lautsprechersysteme GmbH from Großbettingen and took over their current program.
In the summer of 1989, in addition to the well-known model Phonogen Transfer, an entire speaker family of the Trans-Line would appear, growing to a total of four models, all of which had been developed by Norbert Schäfer; Norbert Schäfer had also been the manufacturer of the tweeters and woofers in this speaker series. The midrange drivers were made by Nokia.
The last model designed by Norbert Schäfer for the Munich-based company was the 911, released in 1992. The also design-oriented box with side-mounted woofer, however, can not be assigned to any of the other series. Although it is equipped with the tweeters and woofers built by Norbert Schäfer, it does not use any of the typical design principles of the Trans-Line.
In 1994 ATL, in the best times the fourth largest loudspeaker manufacturer of the Federal Republic of Germany, ceased its business activities after a settlement. The trademark rights to "ATL" went to one of the company's previous cabinet suppliers.
The boxes of the TEC type series, which appeared under the name "ATL", have nothing to do with the ATL companies in Munich. Neither did the "ATL" boxes that an Akustik Ton Lemgo had offered in the seventies.
Products[edit]
Web links[edit]
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