Athena Point5 Speaker System

May 2002

I hooked the speakers to a Harman Kardon AVR7000 receiver getting its audio signals from a Toshiba SD4700 DVD-V/A player. The sub was connected to the receiver via an RCA-style subwoofer jack. The sub also has spring clips for connecting with traditional speaker wire and high level inputs are optionally available. Although this is a sub/sat set, the Athena engineer insisted I run the speakers full range rather than selecting the small setting in the receiver.

I started off listening to music in stereo. Though small, the speakers were surprisingly sweet, even when played at high volumes. You won't blow your windows out with these speakers, but they do get loud and still sound good. Bass in stereo was nicely managed by the 75-watt sub. The system handled the heavy drums in Lester Young's Lester Leaps In without flinching but maintained the sweet highs of the horns.

I moved on to multichannel music first with some up-tempo tunes. Steve Stevens' DVD-A title Flamenco A Go-Go sent the sub plenty of dance-club style thumps, which it handled perfectly. However most impressive was the performance with the Teldec DVD-A recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 2. The speakers brought out more assertiveness and bravado from the music then you'd expect from speakers near this price range.

The final test was movie listening. I selected the impact-riddled attack sequence from Pearl Harbor. The rear speakers let planes and bullets dash by while the center kept the dialog clear and audible. The sub never let up with the deep roaring of torpedo explosions and sinking battleships. At no time did I think there was too much or too little of anything, aside from the overacting and needless violence, but the speakers can't be blamed for that.

Yes, these are inexpensive speakers, but there's nothing cheap or shrill about them. I can't imagine a better put together or better sounding set of speakers at this price.