Great speakers, great price... Love them

I was looking for a good pair of bookshelf speaker for my kitchen stereo system. I browsed a couple of electronics store looking for a good deal, I had a budget of 300 CN$. I founding some basic ones (sony)at 229 CN$, and some quality ones (klipsch) at 600 CN$. Them I saw a pair of Athena AS-F1 at 375 CN$ limited time rebate at Future Shop, they looked nice, but 375$ for floor standing speakers, they must be cheap (low quality). I said why not, im not looking for great sound, its only for the kitchen stereo, so I bought them. I was suprise at the wheight of the boxes, they where pretty heavy. Normaly that is a good sign, more weight, more wood... Oh, I forgot, I was looking for a 3-way speaker system, I thought that they generaly sounded better, I WAS WRONG....!

Back to the house, I unpacked the speakers and was pleased to see the quality of the terminals, big, gold plated high quality screw type. Before pluging them on my Pioneer amplifier in the kitchen, I wanted to test them on a better amplifier, to see (or hear) what they could do. So I installed them in my home theater on my Denon DTS/DD 5.1 amplifier in a room treated with acoustic panels (home made). Wow, I was amazed at the difference between these and my old JVC 12" 3-way 175watts speakers. The Athena are crisp, pricise, very clear with deep and tite bass. So those little 2-way 8" babies sounds like 1000 CN$ speakers, I was really happy. I spent an hour listening to all kinds of material, stereo rock track, stereo acoustic guitare, 5.1 movies.

I was not planing to upgrade my home theater, It allready sounded pretty nice (Denon 5.1 amplifier, acoustic panels, 4 JVC 12" 3-ways speakers front-rear and a Klipsch SC.5 center chanel) But when a saw that the whole Athena Audition Serie was on sale at Futureshop I called in to see if they had the rear channels (AS-B2) and the center (AS-C1)in stock they had a couple of B2 in stock but only one AS-C1 left. So, to be a little more bref, I bought the complete set (AS-F1, AS-B2, AS-C1) for less than 900 CN$ including taxes... Great value!

Bottom line, they sound great, the tweeter they use in every speaker of the Audition Serie is awesome, the whole set matches perfertcly. Now I hear details I didn't before in music tracks and movies. You can almost feel the musical instruments inside the rooms and like someone said in another review, when you close your eyes, the speakers disappear...!

A very satisfied customer.