Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Athena FS2

Hi! I just got a pair of m60's last week. I'm absolutely loving them with some stuff, but I'm having the brightness issue with others. Thinking of trying the resistors. I've got a Denon amp and receiver coming in the mail today, and I'm hoping for some major overall improvements over my 1986 vintage receiver.

Anyway, I'm auditioning gear right now. I've been extremely curious about the Athena FS2's that so many rave about. I was going to go ahead and order some from Audio Advisor, but the return shipping isn't free. Does anyone have any really good experience with these so as to provide an accurate comparison to the m60's? I've searched here but I really haven't found anything. Oh, and I'm mostly using them for older rnr. I have a huge vinyl collection, although right now I'm listening to the SACD of Between the Buttons (which sounds awesome, BTW). My major concern is high quality two-channel sound.

Thanks!

Hi sgtpeeper,

With the Axiom M60s, you have an extremely linear pair of loudspeakers which provide an essentially transparent and neutral window to the quality (or lack thereof) of the original source material. So, if you have a bright pop or rock CD that was ineptly mixed or EQ'd for playback on cheap boomboxes, car systems, and over FM/AM radio, the M60s will reproduce that excessive brightness. Overly bright rock/pop recordings are extremely common because of the crappy non-linear monitoring speakers used in many studios.

On the other hand, if you get a well-mixed and engineered CD, the M60s will sound wonderfully real and natural. They are NOT an inherently "bright" loudspeaker, and you do NOT need resistors to alter the tonal balance. If you do, you will lose the transparency and detail on good recordings. I have never recommended installing resistors on the M60s, M22s, M2s or the current M80s.

If you want to alter tonal balance, use the tone controls provided on your receiver for that purpose, or a builti-in
EQ facility. Sometiimes a treble tweak of 2 or 3 dB makes some otherwise aggressive recordings quite listenable.

As to Athena, this company (the same as Energy, Mirage) builds a good quality speaker that represents good value, but it is not in the same class as the M60 or M80. You would have to go to the Energy Veritas series of floorstanding towers to get neutrality comparable to the M60, and the Veritas are three of four times the cost of the M60.

Another speaker very like the M60 is the PSB Stratus Gold or the Paradigm Reference Studio 100. The Athena would be much like the regular line of Energy speakers.

Regards,

Hey, thanks a lot for the response Alan. I just discovered posts about installing resistors this morning, so it wasn't a well thought out idea. :-) I'm still experimenting with different source material on these speakers, and I am finding major variations, some of which are on the same disc! For instance, on that Between the Buttons SACD, Let's Spend the Night Together pierces my ears like a knife, yet all the other tracks are absolutely gorgeous. I don't have the greatest universal player at the moment, either. I bought a pioneer 578-A on closeout so I could at least listen to my SACDs and DVD-As. Hopefully a better player will fix some things. I will say, though, my vinyl collection is absolutely mind-blowing with these speakers. Granted, I didn't get my turntable from Best Buy. ;-)

Hi,

It's amazing how engineering practises vary, especially when you get compilations that contain recordings representing different studios and engineers over several decades. My Ray Charles box set has every type of recording--some are aggressive, others well engineered, others have amazing amounts of tape hiss from early analog days. I'm surprised they didn't use No-Noise or some of the noise removal pro stuff when they were remastered but maybe Ray didn't want to tinker with stuff.

With more recent artists you will still find these variations-- perhaps one selection on your SACD was engineered in a different studio or with a different engineer in a different location. In my view, a really accurate speaker lets you hear these differences.

As a former collector of vinyl for many years, such differences existed there as well, but because vinyl high frequencies typically roll off by 2 or 3 dB compared to digital recordings, they sound subjectively "softer" in the upper treble than many CDs. Still, I have lots of vinyl recordings that are poorly engineered and as irritating to listen to as some CDs.

Regards,

if you like rap - try the new eminem cd, "encore" it seems to be very well recorded

Alan,

Just wondering, but have you actually every heard the Athena F2?

I auditioned them pretty thoroughly before purchasing my M60's. Granted, I was not able to audition the two side-by-side. However, I did not find the Athenas to be nearly as neutral or transparent as the M60's. I'd basically agree with Alan's comments. Just my experience, fwiw.

Yeah, I am in the process of auditioning them myself (they're in my house now). I liked them the best of the speakers I was able to hear in my price range (< $500 mains), but they definitely have their weaknesses, esp in mid-range, but do produce full, forward sound. They're certainly a step up from the HTIB that I had before, but I'm not sure I'm completely happy with the sound. I really want to listen to the Axiom M22s, and have sent an e-mail request to Amie to try to locate someone in the Chicago area who might be willing to allow an audition. I have kind of a med-large sized room (16x25) and am concerned (without having heard them) whether the M22s can "move enough air" for a room this size. I'm also concerned about the price: I know that Axioms represent a good value in the high-priced world of speakers, but I got a pair of Athena F2's for < $250 (that's extreme value). With the M22's, the way I understand it, I'd probably have to add a sub to get full range sound. Is that accurate? (BTW, the speakers will be mated to an Onkyo TX-SR600 receiver, and eventually I want to be able have 5.1 or 6.1 surround).

If anyone has been able to do a side by side comparison of the M22 + sub with the F2's, I'd greatly appreciate your insight.

I listened to the Athena's, including the AS-F2, several times. Please keep in mind that the listening conditions were less than ideal.

After listening to both music and DVD's through the Athena's, I thought they did a better job on HT than they did on music. I thought they had good bass extension, but it wasn't as controlled as I would prefer. I wouldn't say they are 'boomy' either. Mid-bass did seem to be a little muddy at times when the source material was very busy in that area. Highs and mid's were decent...nothing about either was outstanding yet nothing was poor either.

Lastly, I believe better can be found for similar or less money. For example, I find the Wharfedale Diamond 8.3 and 8.4 floorstanders are readily more competent than the Athena's.

Mike, nicely expressed. I aspire to describe my experience with your eloquence.

kamran, I'd agree that is a pretty big room for M22's, and that you got a wicked good deal on the Athenas. I haven't followed the Athena line closely lately, but when I auditioned them, the only available matching surround speaker was a direct-radiating model of which I was not enamored. In contrast, the Axiom surround speakers (QS4 and QS8) are truly remarkable.

One thing that I don't think was specifically mentioned by Mike or I is that the soundstage of the M60's is really amazing. Again, I did not have the Athenas in my room. However, when listening to them, I always felt like I was "listening to speakers" instead of "experiencing music".