[Chris Q]

Hey guys,please give me some imput here,
I have a yamaha htr-5450 receiver and athena as-f1 mains,
at lower volumes it's not to bad,but start cranking it up a little bit and I swear my ears could start bleeding perfusly!!!it is bad enough to where my treble is set well below the half way mark.
I am in the process of upgrading to a denon 2805 or a harman kardon 440,seeing how the 5450 is getting quit out dated now.
My athena speakers now have about 50 hours of play on them.
So what is it guys? the receiver or speakers?

Thanks Chris Q

[Chuck_W]

Chris - are you talking just the F1s in a 2 channel set-up or do you have a whole Athena HT set-up? Are you talking movies or music?

[Chris Q]

I have the as-f1 left and right,and the as-c1 for my center
and polk surrounds.
I notice the brightness mostly on two channel music

[Chu Gai]

Its your speakers but this requires a bit more elaboration.

The Athenas are a very efficient, easy to drive speaker mating well even with receivers at the low end of a manufacturer's product line. They are designed such that they have a fairly flat power response over a wide axis. As a result, in a lively room, with little in the way to absorb sound (no carpeting, nothing on the walls like bookcases, heavy drapes, etc., maybe a glass coffee table) this results in a frequency response at the listener position that rises. If that's your room, that could be your problem.

The other distinct possibility is that these speakers just don't work for you. If that's the case then you're either going to get used to them (people call that speaker's breaking in) or not. If you can't do anything about the room then my best advice is to return the speakers if you can for a full refund and source out something different that's more your tastes.

[John Garcia]

I agree with Chu, the first thing you need to look at is your room.

You didn't mention the rest of your gear, and since it is most noticable in 2ch, are you using the same source for movies as music? If you have a separate player for 2ch music, it may be the source that is partially responsible as well. If it is the same source for movies/music, how do you have it connected?