Athena LS + Onkyo 805 a good match?

So I'm going to ditch my old HTIB system soon and buy fresh. I'm into HDM so I want something that will handle TrueHD and Master Audio. I've decided on the Onkyo TX-SR805 reciever. It has every feature I want and at a reasonable price.

Now I'm trying to find the biggest bang for my buck on speakers. I have a budget of $800 for a 5.1 set. I've been looking heavily at Polk speakers, but I can't quite commit to the RM series, even though they look nice. While doing some searching, I ran across a number of people praising Athena speakers. After surfing their site and a few review boards, I'm going to check these out at a local dealer and see if I like the sound.

Now assuming I am pleased with the sound, here is the setup I would be looking at:

Onkyo TX-SR805 reciever
4 x LS-100 for front and back, left and right
LS-C100 center channel
AS-p400 sub

Any reason this would not work, or can you think of something better for the money? Anything bad to say about Athena speakers?

Re: Athena LS + Onkyo 805 a good match?

Well the 605 only has two HDMI ports and I need 3 for XboX 360, PS3, and HD-A35. I don't want to have to use an add-on HDMI switch. I did this for years with composite cables when I had 5 devices and I hated it.

I also considered the new Yammaha 1800, but the price is just to much, and I don't want to wait for it to drop into my range. I have an older Onkyo system now that I've been very happy with, so their products are my first choice.

On the speaker side, I only use them for movies/TV/games. I only listen to music on my ipod or in the car. I'm not an audiophille so I'm really just looking for something that will serve as a "good step up" from a HTIB system. Also I should mention that my wife has put a blanket ban on all tower speakers. She despises the look of them and doesn't want them in our living room. So I'm having to look at bookshelf and compact options.

I was also looking at the ProCinema series from Definitive Technologies, but the only local retailer that carries them charges $1895 for the 1000 series - the only line they carry. That's just to far out of my budget, though I hear that system is awesome. I also looked at the Polk Audio RM6880 system, but when I listened to it in the demo room at Circuit City, it didn't sound much better than the system I have now. They were playing a DTS demo disk and the sub on the RM6880 bottomed out a couple of times and the center wasn't quite clear enough for my liking. I have since heard other people mention that Polks have a softer, warmer sound. I personally like speakers to be "bright", which is how I saw the Athenas described (along with Mirage).

So I keep comming back to the 805 and the Athena LS speakers. I'm going to give the Athena's a listen tomorrow and see how I like them. I'm easily pleased, and these look like the best set of 5.1 speakers I can get for under 800 without ordering from some shady website with few reviews and a NY, NY P.O. Box address. But if there are any other packages you can think of for around $800 please let me know.

Thanks.