ATC, the Stroud-based hi-fi and studio monitor manufacturer of some 31 years' standing, was given the opportunity to blaze this trail during refurbishments at both clubs - as R&D engineer Ben Lilly reveals. "Fred Moss had been a fan of ATC through our hi-fi range, and he firstly wanted something a little different for Aura," says Lilly. "He specifically wanted something that wouldn't spoil the look of the club, so we came up with a system that fitted in but which also provided proper club sound pressure levels and studio quality."
The Chinawhite installation is a more conventional, black-box solution but it nevertheless had to be as discreet as possible. The ceiling features original chandeliers from London's famous Claridge's hotel, so mounting was critical, while the subs have been incorporated into the club's opulent seating. The result satisfies aesthetics while adding a unique physical vibration to the art of lounging.
While Chinawhite reeks of Asian mystique and hedonism, suggesting the sarong as de rigeur draping for thirsty footballers' wives, Aura has a more business-like Art Deco feel to it. Both combine daytime grazing and sipping with a nightly rise in sound and blood pressure, most likely among people with very expensive home theatre systems and in-car entertainment solutions running into double figures.
The loudspeakers, then, have to be good. In Chinawhite's warren of cosy retreats they have also been standardized around ATC and increased in number to provide more coverage with less effort. Just to take the main room, eight ATC PA65s are flown here, these being full-range, active 3-way cabs adapted from ATC's SCM150ASL active studio monitors. Each combines a 15" SL bass driver, a 3" softdome mid and a 1" fabric dome tweeter. Their 3-channel Class A/B amplification provides 200W LF, 100W mid and 50W HF, all with active momentary gain reduction. Maximum SPL is 116dB. The subs within the seating, meanwhile, are passive.
For Aura, ATC has supplied a fully active system based on the largest studio monitor in the range - the SCM300 - and a 15" sub. The modifications create a relatively slim and unobtrusive cabinet tower, together with piano black lacquer and aluminium trim. There are four of these towers around the room, each speaker a 3-way with two 15" SL bass drivers, a 3" softdome mid and a 1.25" fabric dome tweeter. Eclipsing the Chinawhite system, 3-channel Class A/B amplification here is 2x275W LF, 200W mid and 100W HF with an SPL maximum of 120dB, again all with momentary gain reduction. There are eight subs too, each 15" passive.
But as these models work so well here, what, exactly, is the difference between a studio monitor and a PA speaker? "Low distortion, and very wide dispersion compared to traditional PA," says Lilly, "although not being horn-loaded they're not quite as 'efficient' in the take-your-head-off sense. You just have to use a couple more boxes, but the owners of these clubs have been prepared to make that small sacrifice in order to get so much sound quality.
"Distortion is the big issue. It's very tiring, more than any other performance aspect of a loudspeaker, so if you can keep distortion down while maintaining high SPLs the audience will have more energy, more engagement - more motivation to stay in the club, in fact. And that's all down to the transducer technology in the loudspeakers.
"All our transducers use short-coil, long-gap technology creating a large amount of
