Athena S.5 Main/Stereo Speaker - Excellent Sound on the Budget
Written: Sep 21 '04 (Updated May 02 '05)
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Pros: Price, excellent sound, sturdy construction, magnetically shielded
Cons: Do not look impressive and lack deep bass
The Bottom Line: The Athena S.5 is well worth the money. I don’t regret buying 4 of them as a part of my home theatre system and highly recommend...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Athena S.5 Main / Stereo Speaker |
I am currently using Athena Point Five speaker system that consists of four Athena S.5 speakers (subject of this review), an Athena C.5 center speaker and a subwoofer. I have used the S.5 speakers as my front and rear surrounds for well over a year.
I have purchased these speakers after reading various reviews, which praised them and gave them (by themselves or as a part of Athena Point Five speaker system) various awards. I have paid $700 for the entire system, which brings the price of a pair of S.5 speakers to about $150.
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.
Speakers
The S.5 speakers are a 2-way 2-driver design with a 1" Teteron Dome tweeter and a 4" Injection Molded Polypropylene Cone woofer. They are TV-safe (magnetically shielded) and can be used with receivers/amplifiers that provide 20-100 Watts per channel. The rated frequency response is 80 Hz - 20 KHz (+/-3 db) with a 2 KHz crossover point. The speakers have impedance of 8 Ohms.
The speakers are quite compact and quite heavy for their size. They have shiny black cases with silver fronts (black fronts on some models) and removable cloth grilles (2 per speaker). Every speaker has ports in the back. They have sturdy 5-way gold-plated binding posts that accommodated my 16-gauge wire with ease.
You can see the pictures of S.5 speakers that I took recently at the following address:
http://www.review-shop.com/Athena_Point_5/Athena_Point_5.html
(you can copy and paste the address above into your browser's address area).
Installation
As I previously stated, the speakers are rated as 8-Ohm compatible (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. So make sure you set your receiver’s speaker settings to “Large”.
The unpacking and wire connection took less than 15 minutes for two speakers. I connected them to my Panasonic SA-HE70K receiver and set the speaker size for all speakers to “Large”. The rear speakers are located left and right from my normal listening position, the fronts are on each side of the TV.
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. I have followed this, although the speakers sounded quite good even before break-in.
Sound
Out of the box, the speakers 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 in general and the S.5 speakers in particular 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. This holds true weather I used the stereo playback mode or engaged surrounds as well.
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.
That is not to say that the S.5 speakers can be used without subwoofer. The rated frequency response starts at 80 Hz (-3db) and is probably measured on-axis. Depending on location, the “real” audible bass can start even slightly higher in the frequency range. Thus, use the subwoofer with these speakers, if you want lower bass and set the bass control on it to about 85 Hz (I use the Athena subwoofer).
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. This means that the speakers provide good spacial separation.
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.
To summarize: the sound that Athena S.5 speakers produce is amazing for its size and price. From low to high volume small details and all frequencies are heard (save for deep bass). 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. And they S.5 speakers (as other speakers in Athena lineup) sound amazingly good with string instruments from guitars to violins.
The 1” tweeter, used in this speaker, is used in other speakers in Athena Lineup (above common for them 2-KHz cross-over point) and is known for its great off-axis performance and frequency response).
Bottom Line
The Athena S.5 is well worth the money. I don’t regret buying 4 of them as a part of my home theatre system and highly recommend them if you are on the tight budget.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150/pair
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
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Location: California
Reviews written: 839
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About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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