Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater axiom vs polk vs athena vs other?

Congrats on your M22's you will indeed love them.

I loved my Axiom Ax1.5 and I will probably love the m22ti. I will still use a pair of ax1.5 as rear speakers. As soon as the budget allow, I will order a pair of QS4 for the rear surround and use the Ax1.5 behind my couch (to complete my 7.1 setup). It will probably blend nicely all together.

"I keep hearing about these Athena speakers and for the most part it's all good. I have never really spent any time with them. Can some one give me a quick thought on them? Do they sound like another brand? Are they mid heavy?"

I don't know exactly how to describe them, but when I was shopping for my home theatre system I listened to them at Best Buy and was unimpressed - so much so that I forgot that I had heard them there until someone mentioned it on this thread and jogged my memory. Best Buy carries the bottom-of-the-line Klipsch stuff and it sounded much better in my (and my wife's - a music major with a great ear) opinion.

Luc, as for your question about getting the most speaker you can for your price range, it would be hard to beat the M22s. That's why I bought mine - after owning the Polks and learning a lot more about what is available outside of the 4 main audio stores near my house, I decided they were the best option for the money. For $550 US I got a secondary system with M22s and a Velodyne CHT 8 subwoofer.

I cant wait to receive mine. I didnt order them from the FO since there is a potential 6 weeks delay. I'm trying to imagine how my system will sound with my new speakers. I listened to Pearl Harbour yesterday and even with my four AX1.5 the movie rocked (also thanks to my 12" PSB sub).

I just hope that my new m22ti wont be too high.
I already have shelves in place.

http://www.spidaware.com/condo/salon4.jpg

Nice pic. Just like it will say in the package when you get the speakers, place them at the front edge of the stands (maybe hanging over by 1 inch/2.5 centimeters) so they will project well and you have room for the rear port. Whether or not it would be worthwhile to move the shelves lower to get the speakers at ear level is entirely up to you, but it would likely improve things a little.

P.S. There seems to be something wrong with your TV. The letters are scrambled or something. I can't read any of it, although the resolution seems OK. :-)

Anything you demo at BB must be taken with a grain of salt. The setups there are so terrible it is not even funny. The Athena's were configured so that you needed a subwoofer to get any bass out of them which I thought was ironic because I've read that AThena's have excellent bass. My local hi-end audio shop (which carries NAD, PSB, Thiel, Naim, Rega, Harman Technology, etc) used to carry the Athena line until BB started carrying them and the owner told me that he took pride in having an inventory that you can't get at the "big 4" in his area (BB,CC, Tweeter, and Ultimate) but always liked the Athena's for the audio enthusiast on the tightest of budgets. I would venture to guess that Athena's are good speakers that are worth every penny, but don't produce that nth detail of clarity that you will get with M22's.

What the..

The Klipsch SF-1 is the worst of the higher end(not boombox/satelite) speakers I've ever heard. Tinny, no bass, and colored more than a Picasso painting. The Athena AS-F2 and Klipsch SF-3 sounded very similar, except the Athenas were half the price, without the horrible exaggeration of the highs. Compared to the rest in that store, the Athenas are nice. Compared to real speakers, well, there's some competetion..

Although it is very hard to tell what anything sounds like with the horrible setup there.

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.

>P.S. There seems to be something wrong with your TV. The >letters are scrambled or something. I can't read any of >it, although the resolution seems OK. :-)

I warned you guys, english is not my native language! :-)

On the switch thing, they had Athenas and Sonys.

I think I was mistaken. Sony's speaks were owned by the horrible Klipsch SF-1 anyday. Those things, next to the Athenas, sounded so horrible words cannot describe it.

I would go in front of the speaker I was using so it would be more of an equal comparison.

If I had to choose a mass market speaker, it'd be the Infinity Alpha 50. Compared to the rest in CC and BB, it compares very well. 'Real' companies should put their stuff in those stores IMO, so that the general public could audition them.