Athena's my next upgrade? (1 Viewer)

Hello,
Well i stopped in at my local best buy. And I came across these new line of speakers by Athena. Now i havent heard of them but i was rather curious. I fired up the sound and they sound amazing! THe model i tried was their floor standing AS-F2. Bass response was nice etc etc. I didnt get to try the bookshelve speakers or center channel but i have a good feeling. But i have 2 small questions.

1. I am looking to upgrade NS-A100xt yamaha floorstanding plus i have entry level surrounds from Sony that must go. My receiver is 6.1 100wpc etc etc. Does anyone have any suggestions on wether or not these speakers are worth the upgrade or should i make a jump into something a little larger i.e. Boston Acoustics?

2. If they are worth the upgrade can anyone tell me how clear and clean the sound is. I love SACD and DVD-A and I want to make sure that I can get a very rich and full sound. And how are the center channel and bookshelve's?

Thanks so much for any responses.

Andy

Stereophile gave the as-f2 a nice write up a few months ago. I would search their archives.

Definately a good speaker, and a great value.

good luck

-rob

Athena comes from the people that manufactures Energy and Mirage speakers, so they definitely knows how to make a great and yet affordable speaker. Go to Soundstage or Good Sound and do a search on Athena speakers....you will see that they are highly-regarded. As for Boston Acoustics speakers, I have to admit I am a big fan of BA. But I think Athena has the upper-hand in this case.

IMO Boston's "VR" line and "VR-M" line are an entire class above the Athena's at Best Buy, particularly the VR-M's.

I think Boston's "CR" series are the Athena's near equal.....the Athenas maybe a little bit better.

LJ

I listened to them at Best Buy about two weeks ago. I listened to them on a crappy, old Yamaha they had hooked up to them. It would have been ideal if they had a better receiver running them.

They were in the middle of re-arranging their sound area when I was there....and the setup was far less than ideal so I didn't give them a critical listening...but I think I heard enough to offer my opinion.

I was impressed with what I heard. I thought they performed admirably at their price point and them some. In fact, to MY ear, I would pick the Athena's over either Boston series. I like Boston VR towers but the center channel is the weak link IMO. Secondly, I find the Boston VR series to be a little overpriced.

These are only MY opinions and many might disagree. You need to listen to them both with your own ears and decide what you prefer.

Holy cow, their VR920 is awesome! If it didn't so outclass my Boston CR9's I would buy it. And it's one of the few vertically-aligned & LARGE center channels good enough for dvd-audio hi-res surround use.

That vertical alignment is important for proper horizontal sound dispersion. That's why some of their other centers use only one active woofer/midbass to avoid dispersion problems (the typical active woofer-tweeter-active woofer configuration causes irritating "lobing" effects). The passive radiator Boston uses on the other side reinforces the low frequencies only, so it doesn't interfere with the directional mid frequencies. And the VR920's small midrange driver helps it disperse its frequencies over a broader area.

BTW: passive radiators aren't "fake" speakers. They are used in place of ports because they can be tuned a lot lower for a deeper bass response, compared to the much lighter air inside a port tube. And, radiators don't have noisy "chuffing" problems like many ports can have.

LJ