Everything Athena except the fronts?

[jpollone]

receiver
front x 2
rear
center
sub

I received the new system from Best Buy. BUT, instead of the Athena AS-F1 floor speakers, they delivered a pair of Klipsh Synergy III F1 speakers. I'm not sure if this was the award center's mistake or Best Buy's error. Notice how close the the model numbers are?

Anyway, they sound great in my room, even though I liked the Athenas just a bit better at the Best Buy demo floor. Am I doing myself a disservice by mixing the speaker brands? Rather, is it worth it to get these swapped with the Athena's?

 

[markw]

If you want to settle for the Klipsch, fine but...

...I gotta say, I've got the Athena F1's, the center and B2's in the back and it sounds wonderful and well balanced. I would think you would prefer to have at least the front three timbre matched.

 

[zumbo]

I would have them swap them out for sure. Glad you like it!

 

[jpollone]

Thanks for the reassurance guys. I'll call him and see what I need to do.

 

[Leprkon]

Did you try them for both music and Ht ? HT will show the weakness of not matching all 3 front speakers. There will seem to be some hesitation when the sound and action move across from left to right.

If you can't get them to swap them out, or if you decide you REALLY like the sound of the Klipscheseses, you can do some minor tricks like moving the center speaker forward or back a few inches to help smooth out the sound. It won't help much, but it's only a tweak.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I'll chime in with another vote for forcing BB to switch them. I'd rather have them match, and you say yourself you preferred the sound of the Athenas (I do too, btw). You paid or Athena's, don't wuss out and let them give you something you didn't want! Don't we have to put up with enough at the drive thru?

 

[rgriffin25]

Timbre matching is very important in all aspects of Home Audio. I would exchange them as well. Especially since they are the front speakers.

 

[jpollone]

Thanks all! I swapped them without a problem. I watched my first movie in my office/media/guest room last night and listened to music all day today. I didn't setup the surround sound just out of sheer laziness, but all sounds great.

I bought an Apple AirPort Express so I can stream my music--I love that. I'll test different encoding settings tomorrow to see what I like. The AirPort will allow me to play a "lossless" encoding if I rip from my CDs. I will see if I notice a difference.

 

[Cuteman]

Resell the klipsch's for ~220 then go buy the Athena F-1's again for 142 ...

78 bux profit for your trouble