Athena Anyone???

[speakeroligist_38]

Hi once again people. Has anyone here ever heard the Athena S.5 MKII (5) speaker set say at like as in Best Buy???? This set comes with (4) identical speakers with a 1" tweeter and a 4" mid. The center houses the same 1" tweeter and (2) 4" mids all of which are timbre matched. I came across a deal on these that IMHO was hard to pass up. I like the way they sounded when my local Best Buy was keeping them in stock. For movies, from what I remember they performed quite well. Anyways, for what I paid for them $199 plus $32 S&H I dont feel I got hurt. The LFE will be handled via (2) 8" Acoustic Research powered subs. I believe this system will integrate well with my Yammie RX-V757 receiver--OR at least I hope it does. Any opinions here on how they think this system will perform? Keep in mind once again that my preference is on 2-channel music listening and for that I will use my Paradigm Studio 20 v.3's. If the subs blend well with my 20's I may on occasion use them when listening to music as in a 2.2 configuration. Any thoughts.....??????

[markw]

Four surrounds and a double woofer center? Great.

Unless you will be in a large room and expect tremendous volume levels I'd say you'll do fine. They are good but a 4" speaker (or two) can only move just so much air. And, while I love Athena for price/performance bang for the buck, I think their subs can be bettered.

[speakeroligist_38]

Mark I agree with you about the subs. That is why I ordered (2) AR 8" powered subs. I was gonna order a 10" Dayton sub but there seems to be some reliability issues with the newer 10" and 12" versions from partsexpress. I am NOT referring to the kits--just the basic 10" and 12" versions. The AR 8" sub is a decent sub and by all accounts would surprise many on how well it is. Abes of Maine has the 10" version but I opted to go with (2) subs for better over-all balance. Have a good one.

[speakeroligist_38]

Man was sure hoping to get a bit more Athena love around here. Surely some people here have to like the Athena S.5 MKII's????? Either way please share your thoughts.

[learner]

I have speakers from Athena but not the Point 5's. I have the B1.2'sfor fronts, C1 for center nad the Micra's doe my surrounds in my 7.1 system. I went with the Mirage S12 for my sub instead of one of the Athena subs just from the reviews online and the deal at Vanns. As far as my experience with the Athena lines that I have, it is excellent. I am no audiophile but I am very happy with the performance of the Athena's espescially for Movies. They are very detailed speakers IMO. They actually do tend to open up after a bit of a break-in period.(thought that was just BS) They are pretty efficient as well, my Pioneer 815 seems to be more than enough to drive them. Wish I could give you a bit of a review on the Point 5's but I hope perhaps I helped somewhat. From what I understand the Point 5's are a step above the Micra's and below the Audition series in the Athena line and I can tell you I was amazed at the performance of the Micra's.

[Eric Z]

I always thought Athena speakers in general sounded decent at the local BB- obviously, it's hard to judge how a speaker sounds in such a crappy set-up in such a big store, but they sounded pretty good for the $. How do you like them, Speakerologist? Also, for $199, you can't go wrong, so it looks like you got a good deal.

[calegrant]

It's pretty consitent wherever you go, Athena get's nothing but thumbs up for the prices. Like people have said before, the subs are not up to par but the speakers offer great performance. My first set of speakers were athena's and my fronts in my HT are still Athena AS-F1's. I've heard the surround sound kits, and they're the only HT in a box I'd go with for under 500bucks.

[speakeroligist_38]

Eric in my local Best Buy they sounded good. But like you said the set-up wasn't ideal. For some reason, my local Best Buy seems to care less about Athena altogether. Looks like to me Athena would switch vendors to say like Circuit City or something. I will know more tomorrow because they will be delivered. Already got my Acoustic Research subs and they are awesome.

[speakeroligist_38]

Couldn't agree more cal. Thanks for you time.