dkozin's Full Review: Athena Point 5 MK II Speaker System
Upon discovering that KLH L853B speakers produce good bass and look impressive, but don’t sound even as good as smaller speakers of my old Sharp CD-C3800 system, I decided to treat myself to good speakers.
Several publications praised Athena Point Five speaker system, giving it various awards and rave reviews. It sells for $800, but I consider it a long-term investment. Besides, the speakers are the main piece of the sound producing equipment - the sound is only as good as speakers allow it to be and normally you have to spend more on speakers than on other components to avoid them being bottlenecks of your system.
I ordered the system from OneCall.com for $700. Speakers arrived 3 days later in a hefty big box, which included 4 2-way surround speakers (Athena S.5), 2-way 3-driver center channel speaker (Athena C.5), down-firing ported subwoofer (Athena P.5), subwoofer legs with bolts to attach them, manuals and wall mounting hardware for surrounds.
Speakers
You can see the pictures of Athena Point Five speakers that I took recently at the following address:
(you can copy and paste the address above into your browser's address area).
The speakers are not large (several times smaller than KLH L853B they replaced) and quite heavy for their size. They have shiny black cases with silver fronts and removable light gray cloth grilles (2 per speaker). Every speaker has ports in the back. The surrounds and the center channel have sturdy binding posts that accommodated my 16-gauge wire with ease.
The speakers are rated as 8-Ohm compatible (whatever it means, my Panasonic SA-HE70K receiver drives them with ease). The receiver must be set to drive them as “Large” speakers, meaning it will not limit bass (lower frequencies) they way it does when driving “Small” speakers.
Subwoofer
The black subwoofer (Athena P.5) is rated at 75-watt and has a down-firing design and a port in front. The front panel has two knobs and 2 switches. The Sub-.5 switch allows you to engage the sub’s equalization to match the rest of the .5 system by flipping it into .5 position. If you use it with other speakers, you can flip the switch to SUB position and use the frequency cutoff adjustment knob.
Another switch allows you to raise certain frequencies while watching movies for added punch. It is labeled Audio-Video. The volume level knob allows you select sub volume and I noticed that even when moved away from walls, the subwoofer tends to get “boomy” at high volumes.
The rear panel has a power switch, line-level subwoofer input and speaker-level inputs and outs. I use the line-level input.
Installation
The unpacking and wire connection took less than 30 minutes. I connected the system to my Panasonic SA-HE70K receiver and set the speaker size for all speakers to “Large”. The center channel speaker is quite large, but it fits atop my 30” widescreen TV. The rear speakers are located left and right from my normal listening position.
The speaker system shipd with wall mounting brakets for satellites. I utilize two of these brackets to attach the rear speakers to the walls. The look nice and are sturdy.
Break-In
The speakers should be broken-in for 50-100 hours at moderate listening volume, the manual suggests. It advises not to try to audition the speakers during break-in period, as they may not sound as good as after it and because loud music/effects is not recommended during break-in period.
Sound
Even before the break-in period is over, the speakers sound wonderful. Out of the box, they were put to the test – I just had to make sure I made the right choice purchasing them.
First, I listened to Preludes by Richard Wagner, which is a very good test for speakers. My previous speakers, KLH L853B, could not reproduce some instruments and there was no separation between instruments in busy sections. The sound was muffled.
The Athena system faithfully reproduced not only the instrument location, but I could hear separate instruments even in busy sections. And I could hear instruments I have never heard previously on that CD! The violins sounded just right, just the way the sound when you go to the concert.
I tried both Stereo and Dolby Pro Logic II Music modes and found that, for classical music like Wagner, stereo sounded somewhat better in terms of producing the full sound spectrum. DPLII, on the other hand, produced better spaciousness and brought out more instruments and effects. For Wagner, I prefer Stereo.
Then I popped the CD of Pi Soundtrack, which is definitely better in Dolby Pro Logic II Music mode (DPL2). The sound was amazing. The Kapol Intro seemed even more 3-D than before, and all frequencies (from bass to treble) were faithfully reproduced.
To try Dolby Digital, I played The Matix. In the scene where they attack the federal building and the backup arrives, you can hear the soldier’s uniforms as they run before you can hear their steps and before they appear on the screen. It creates different cinematographic experience, because you anticipate something moments before it happens on the screen.
Same thing happened when I watched Gone In 60 Seconds, where in the chase scene, you can hear the car in the left rear surround before it appears.
But back to Matrix – in the scene with helicopter attack, the sounds were very life-like and one can appreciate the good job sound engineers did in this and other movies to create presence effect.
This is one of the reasons DVD should cost more than VHS. In addition to better picture quality and detail level, extras and several languages, you get amazing sound effects. By getting good surround sound, you realize the investment you already made by buying or renting DVD.
To summarize: the sound that Athena Point Five produces is amazing. From low to high volume small details and all frequencies are heard. You can hear all instruments and the sound, although easily localized, is 3-dimentional.
It is impressive how the relatively small 2-way speakers can sound so much better than 3-way speakers several times the size.
Bottom Line
The Athena Point Five is expensive, but it is well worth the money. I don’t regret buying it and hope it will serve me many years.
midweststereoebay Store Athena Technologies Point 5 Complete Home Theater System in a Box!1 X P.5 SUBWOOFER 4 X S.5 SATELLITE SPEAKERS 1 X C.5 CENTER ...More at eBay
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.