Player 8 and Thasp, I can't dispute any of your comments. The Athenas may have been set up to fail in every way. I have been biased in favor of Klipsh for many years after living with a roommate that had a pair - at a time in my life when I had never heard a good set of speakers. Add that to the poor conditions/hookups at Best Buy and they likely didn't stand a chance. All I can add is that my wife doesn't care for the Klipsch sound in general but she thought it was the best option at Best Buy - so much so that we almost went for a Yamaha Receiver/Klipsch combo that they had for a pretty good price...fortunately we decided to be patient and look around a little more.
