Athena owners thread. - Page 73

I am trying to match up a new receiver to my Athena Technology Point 5 speaker setup. I know certain receiver brands tend to sound bright with Athena Tech speakers (Yamaha for example). Since Athena is no longer making or selling speakers it is difficult to sample new receivers with the Point 5s (at least where I live).

Just wondering if anyone has paired there Point 5s with any of the following receivers:

Onkyo TX-SR 507
Denon AVR-1610
Integra DTR 20.1

I'm not into an overly "bright" sound and want to find a receiver that would give a similar sound to my current Marantz SR-4200 which tends towards a neutral/warmer sound with my Point 5s. Another Marantz receiver would be the obvious choice but I will not be upgrading to a 7.1 setup and Marantz offers only 7.1 receivers (the receivers listed above are all 5.1 setups). I would rather not pay for the extra 2 channels and do not plan to use a multi-room setup either.

I posted this in the receiver forum and thought that I might have luck here since I am trying to match a receiver to my Athena Tech speakers

All those receivers you listed have Audyssey room calibration software so it should tame any brightness you are worried about. and you can always turn down the treble too!

I tried my Point 5's and Athena B2 bookshelfs with an Onkyo 573 receiver for well over a year and it worked well. It worked better with a Harman Kardon receiver though. Neither of those receivers had any room calibration software.

Hi,

I'm about to go check out a pair of WS-60s. They are the silver colored ones.

I want to spray paint them black like the more recent WS-60s. Any advice on what type of spray paint to use as well as prep, etc.

Thanks Afrogt, I've never owned a receiver with Audyssey room calibration. I did not know that you could use it to adjust for sound brightness.

I have done that myself.
What I did was to remove the speaker face (allen wrench) and mine were soldered connections so I could not disconnect it. So I wrapped it in packing paper and tapped it off. Taped over the connectors and labels on the back. The silver is brushed so I only did a light sanding to scuff it up. Grey auto primer followed by high gloss auto paint. I was patient and spend the day getting 6 thin coats on.....light steel wool between the first three coats. They were perfect and smooth.
I wanted to have them mirrored like the black WS speakers are when they come in black so the match was spot on.
Its straight forward...no suprises except for not being able to disconnect the speakers like normal ones.

I currently have an all Athena 6.1 setup. Fronts are AS-F2; C1 center, AS-P400 sub; and three AS-R1.2's for the surrounds. I want to convert to a 7.1 setup but it seems you can't find any AS-R1's for sale anywhere. So I am trying to figure out alternatives. One is buy a pair of Synergy S-1's and use them as either the side or the rears. Think that would work out?

That would work fine. AS-R1's have been out of production for 2-3 years or more. You're only going to find them used on ebay or craigslist.

I was thinking that since they are both made by divisions of Klipsch, and they look identical, they might be brothers or at least second cousins !

More like distant inlaws. Klipsch just acquired Athena (and the rest of API), they didn't do any designing. Especially the Auditions.

Fronts: AS-F2
Center: As-C1
Rear(x3): AS-R1.2
Sub: AS-P400
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V765 (arrives in 2 days)
Plasma: Pioneer PDP 5060
BRDVD LG 390

I desperately want another AS-R1 to transform my 6.1 to a 7.1 with all Athena speakers.

Boy, good luck, seriously. I gave up on trying to find R1s. Some of the Bs are still around on eBay.

I'll sell you one of the two that I have for $500.

Yeah it's hard I stocked up on two of them a looooooong time ago. I have a pair of .5 to use in the surround back when I move.

Good luck.

I came close to taking you up on it! I might try to score a couple of AS-B1's on Ebay to use as the rears. From what I read, the di-pole R 1.2's are better suited to be the side speakers in a 7.1 setup whereas bi-poles are supposedly ideal for the rears. Maybe I'll be the one selling an R1 for $500 soon!

Oh but how sweet it would be to have an all Athena 7.1 setup with 4 R1's! But my 6.1 setup still sounds great, even with the 7.1 decoders. I was tempted to get a pair of Klipsch di-poles, but nothing sounds better than 7 speakers and a sub all perfectly matched.

I bought 4 AS-B1's on Ebay. Looking for wall mounting suggestions, please.

Either build shelves for them, which wouldn't require any drilling into the speaker, or buy generic speaker wall mounts.

I am looking at these Pinpoint AM-40's.

http://www.jr.com/pinpoint/pe/PPT_AM40/

The R1 & the R1.2 are both bi-poles.

I have ASB1's all around and a HSU VTF-2 sub. I am looking at a deal for some AS-F1's to replace B1's as fronts. Question is that I have read with 8" woofer on speakers in general you lose quality in mids. So with good sub am I gaining or compromising sound quality to go to F1's from B1's? I listen 50/50 music and HT.

Also, I usually keep my B1's crossover at 70 hz (10 over capability) and plan if I get F1's to put it at 50. Is that too low?

Just switch the terms on my post and re-boot.

If it makes any difference, I have an Athena AS-P400 subwoofer that has a crossover dial that lists the various Athena speakers in the line. The setting on the dial for the F1's is between 45 and 50, a touch closer to 45. The setting for the B1 is right at 65.

I have F1s, B1s and a powered sub and you are definitely gaining by using the F1 towers over the B1's up front.

Thanks. I sent email to HSU asking about crossover and response was, "I would suggest setting the crossover to 80 Hz for all speakers. That would increase the dynamic range of the whole system. The Onkyo has limited power and by keeping bass out of the main speakers, more power is available for the rest of the frequencies." Now this sort of makes sense I guess but with the AS-F1's up front what benefit is there in having them if one sets crossover at 80, the same as the B1's? I thought one pro of having towers is to set crossover lower for them for fuller sound from front?

I'd try both full and 80 as your crossovers and see which you prefer for your HT setup. I'm running AS-F2's and found I like to cross them over at 80 for HT and run them without a sub when playing music.

Take it easy

F1's still sound better than B1's when both are crossed over at 80hz. F1's have a fuller overall sound to them.

I run my crossover at 60hz with my F2s. I was getting localization issues with my H-100 sub at 80hz.

Do you "Know" this for a fact or have you read this on boards etc???

Just asking cause I have an AS series 5.1 set and a Yammy 6160 and it sounds pretty damn good. I'm not quite sure what "Bright" means.... and I've been into this for quite a while. You can have a flat sound and a not flat sound.... with today's EQ systems (audessy, YPAO, MCCAC) you should be able to get pretty close to flat.. i.e. not "bright". Not meaning to chew your head off or anything (I just hate the terms "WARM" and "BRIGHT", they are too ambiguous). I would say throw a Yamaha in there to try... you never know, you may actually like what you hear.

With modern receiver technology, you can get as bright, warm, flat, brassy or mellow as you want. I have a Yamaha RX-V765, all Athena Audition speakers, and a hardwood floor room. If you believe the "experts", my system should give me a "bright headache" within minutes. On the contrary, my setup sounds fantastic!

Does anybody happen to have any of the mounting brackets that came with the point 5s?

I threw mine away when I moved, but now I want to mount my two satellites. They are very specific and I'm not sure any other bracket will work.

I'd love to take them off your hands for a reasonable price :-)