At AXPONA 2026, ATC's Ben Lilly (shown above) and Brad Lundy of ATC importer/distributor Lone Mountain discuss ATC's EL50 Anniversary loudspeakers in an interview with Ken Micallef that's now posted on our YouTube channel.
Leland Leard, Chief Business Development Officer of ATC importer/distributor Lone Mountain, opened the company's demo of ATC's EL50 Anniversary loudspeakers at AXPONA 2026 with a smart selection of soul, funk, and pop. This wide swath of music quickly exposed the ATC EL50 speakers' microdynamic shading, natural scale, and impressively flat frequency response. Promising, if not yet revelatory.
Then The Beach Boys' seminal "God Only Knows" (from 1966’s Pet Sounds) soared out of the Innuos ZENith NG server, and my eyes (and ears!) went saucer-wide.
The stage was stadium-sized, and stunning. Imaging was so profound—and vocal, guitar, orchestral, bass, and drum layering so heraldic in its precision and separation—that The Beach Boys' famous choir vocals didn't merely surround me: they moved through me, as those holy choir boys released waves of vocal wonderment into the room.
This was Valhalla-scale music-making coupled to opera- or blues-worthy emotional devastation. From The Beach Boys' legendary use of plate echoes to Brian Wilson's genius orchestration and direction, every element existed in total service to the song. The pop masterwork that is "God Only Knows" was realized as a kind of ultimate proof: when everything works, nothing gets in the way.
In short, it was an ATC achievement.
Equipment list: Digital sources: Innuos ZENith NG server ($21,700) with Innu Phoenix USB output ($1650); Playback Designs MPD-8AI DAC (including analog Inputs; $29,500) with 2TB SSD storage ($1450). Preamplifier: ATC SCA2 ($12,999). Speakers: ATC EL50 Anniversary ($99,999/pair). Cables, interconnects, and accessories: FīF Octet power strips; AV Room Service Equipment Vibration Protection (EVPs); WireWorld cables.
