As it is boxing day I flew down the to local future shop only to discover that the speakers that I originally wanted were long gone seconds after they opened. After swearing furiously for a few minutes, I decided to see what was left for under 200$. God bless boxing day. Anyways, long story short, I picked up the Athenas for 150 CDN. They are rated at 125 watts rms(thought the website says 150...hmmm), and 91db @ 1watt. I liked the way they sounded in store and brought em home and hooked them up to my ghetto stereo. Its a cheapass sony receiver, which puts out about 50 watts x 2 rms. I imagine it is much less with surround. Moving right along, I threw in some music to test em out first.
I tossed in some Finger 11 (- One Thing) to get a sense of how it reproduces the acoustics of a guitar, and its actually very good, but then again its not a very complicated piece.
I played some Dire Straights (money for nothin) which actually sounded very crisp and clear, the speakers handled the riffs without complication. Eminem sounds pretty good too
Diana Krall shined through on these suckers, which was actually surprising, although I found these speakers a little too forward for my liking, it sort of felt like I was being slapped in the face by many 5 year olds. Sort of like an assault on the ears. I turned down the treble on the stereo(Heaven Forbid!) and it seemed to be a little better. Athena recommends letting the speakers break in for 50 - 100 hrs, but personally I dont believe in that sort of thing.
I tossed in spiderman 2 to see how they were in movies, and I will say, that they are probably better for movies than for music. The soundstage was acceptable and the sounds of glass breaking and whatnot was fairly crisp. The bass on these speakers arent bad I believe its rated to go down to 50 hz, though i wouldnt say they hit very hard down there, usuable bass is probably at around 60, but then again I cant complain
Pros: Cheap, High power handling, cheap.
Cons: Crappy grille, kinda forward, no spikes or rubber mounts included at all with the box, unless you want Salieri to sound like crap, do not play it on these speakers.
Compressed review:
All in all, Im pretty sure Ill keep them, tho I must say they didnt 'blow me away' ootb like everyone says they do.
The only thing that bothers me about them is that they sort of feel soulless - I have a pair of mordaunt-shorts, that really feel unique, almost any speaker sort of has its own real feel - my MS sounds warm, laid back and enveloping, the Athenas; well it sort of just sounds like the designers wanted it to sound like a stereotypical speaker.
Feel free to comment, especially if you disagree....or hate me.
