Moggi1964, How are your Athena LS speakers sound ?
I've been auditioning the smaller LS50s for the past two weeks head to head with Audio Advisor's
Gale system and with a pair of Polk R15s for a second system anchored by an Onkyo HT-S520.
First off, this wasn't really a true apples to apples comparison as the Gale Satellites are sub/sat set and the sats play down to 150hz, while the Athenas play down to 90hz (AA's specs say 60hz, which is a typo) and the Polks are a yet a larger bookshelf that are rated to play down to 60HZ.
The Polks sounded full, because they're a larger speaker (yes, I can be king of the obvious), but muddy in the mids. Bass response was pretty good for a speaker of this size. The soundstage was pretty good, but the highs were shrill at times, overall the speaker sounded a little forward, but not too much. The Polks were definitely worth the $25/pair that I paid when Circuit City put them on clearance.
The Gales sounded good and, to my ears, had a better soundstage than the Polks. They definitely did not sound as full as the Polks, but that was to be expected as these satellites only have a 3" woofer in a sealed enclosure, but the tweeters in these speakers was much smoother than the tweeter in the Polks. For the money, the detail that these exhibit is amazing, considering that 5 Satellites and an 8" sub was only $99! This is an ideal bedroom/office system and blows away your Typical HTIB system. I have a set of Boston Acoustics Avidea 770 subsats and I like the Gales much better in terms of sound, but no aesthetically.
Now, to the Athenas. Yes, these are the smallest of the LS series; ones that will be used as rear surround by most buyers. Compared to the Polks and Gales, they were laid-back; somewhere between the Gales and the Monitor Audio BR4s in my main system. While they didn't play quite as low, they were definitely more punchy; kick drums and bass notes were really defined, and were anchored firmly in the mix, where they should be. Crossing my sub over at 100 hz worked nicely. Another thing that I noticed was that vocals, especially male vocals sounded really natural and the overall soundstage had nice depth. The Polks sounded full, but lacked the finesse that the Athenas had. The Athenas let me hear everything in the mix, no matter how subtle; they were a true pleasure to listen to. For example, in the busy mix of "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney, I could pick instruments out of the busy mix, such as Piccolos and Xylophones, whereas the same instruments sounded smeared with the Polks. In "Let's Talk", by ColdPlay, the vocal sounded warm, and, well, vintage (I'm guessing the Chris Martin was mic'd with a vintage Neumann mic), while the vocal sounded so forward with the Polks that it bordered on harsh instead of warm. The Athenas win in terms of form factor; The curved cabinets fit onto shelves and mantles and almost disappear! Also, food for thought, the LS series shares components with the more expensive
Energy C Series.
The Polks were pretty good, but I found myself going back to the Athenas because they were just more pleasing to listen to. Also, The Gales were nice too (and even better feeling in my hands than the Athenas); not as nice as the Athenas aesthetically, but accurate. I'm an Audio Production professional an I'll be adding the Gales to my studio to audition my mixes after they're posted on my Genelecs and Mackies. The Athenas will serve as the speakers in my secondary system and the Polks will be sold.
For you guys that are considering the larger models in the Athena LS line: go for it, these speakers are some of the best bang for the buck models that I've seen since Onecall clearanced the Phase Technology Teatro speakers a few years ago.
Note: I also found that the Athenas sounded great when paired with the little powered sub from the Gale system.
Hope this helps!
-joe
