Nostromo
01-30-2003, 09:41 AM
I had a chance to audition at length both of these speakers today and I thought I'd share my opinions First let me make a quick list of my auditioning material:
Sarah McLachlan - Possesion, Ice Cream
Weather Report - Birdland, A Remark You Made, The Juggler
Eric Serra - Little Light Of Love
George Benson - Breezin', Six to Four, Affirmation
Aimee Mann - Lost In Space, Invisible Ink, It's Not
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 18, movemnent 1
Morley - Slingshots, When I Love You, Slow Hot Wind
Basia - Yearning, An Olive Tree, Time And Tide
Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings
Ozric Tentacles - Coily, Xingu
Wynnona - Only Love
Harold Budd - And Then She Stepped Aside
Global Communication - Epsilon Phase
Gary Moore - Parisianne Walkways
I have 1:30 clips of these songs burned onto a single CD with each clip doubled up (repeating once back to back) so i can quicly and easlily listen to the same material on different sets of speakers. 1st the Infinitys. Stunningly great looking speaker. Amazing up front presence. In fact, I had to check twice to make sure the center channel speaker was off because the music sounded so ceneterd. Crystal clear highs and smooth mids characterize this speaker, and that's the good AND bad of it ...... this speaker has NO bottom end, none, nada, zip, zilch which I was amazed at seeing that it has 2 8" ported woofers. I was really disapointed in this aspect, I wasn't looking for 110db out of the woofers, but a more balanced speaker would have been a better approach by the folks at Harmon, especially for the 499 each list price. 2nd The Athena ASF2's. Not as sexy as the Infinitys, but don't let the "plain jane" appearance fool you. Slightly less soundstage than the Infinitys .. not quite as upfront, but not by much. Still excellent resoultion in the highs and mids and significantly more bass output than the Infinitys. I was pleased to find a much more rounded speaker in the Athenas without the material becoming muddy or fuzzy. Believe me ..... we aint talkin' no subwoofer type output here, but thats to be expected, if not insisted upon in a set of mains. But the option of killing your sub output if you so desire and still having excellent low end is a nice option. The 299 price tag on these pretty much seals the deal for me as the better value of the 2. The receiver was a mid-line Onkyo that I had set to "direct digital" and all equilization set to flat.
Well I hope this helps anyone interested in these speakers.
Sarah McLachlan - Possesion, Ice Cream
Weather Report - Birdland, A Remark You Made, The Juggler
Eric Serra - Little Light Of Love
George Benson - Breezin', Six to Four, Affirmation
Aimee Mann - Lost In Space, Invisible Ink, It's Not
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 18, movemnent 1
Morley - Slingshots, When I Love You, Slow Hot Wind
Basia - Yearning, An Olive Tree, Time And Tide
Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings
Ozric Tentacles - Coily, Xingu
Wynnona - Only Love
Harold Budd - And Then She Stepped Aside
Global Communication - Epsilon Phase
Gary Moore - Parisianne Walkways
I have 1:30 clips of these songs burned onto a single CD with each clip doubled up (repeating once back to back) so i can quicly and easlily listen to the same material on different sets of speakers. 1st the Infinitys. Stunningly great looking speaker. Amazing up front presence. In fact, I had to check twice to make sure the center channel speaker was off because the music sounded so ceneterd. Crystal clear highs and smooth mids characterize this speaker, and that's the good AND bad of it ...... this speaker has NO bottom end, none, nada, zip, zilch which I was amazed at seeing that it has 2 8" ported woofers. I was really disapointed in this aspect, I wasn't looking for 110db out of the woofers, but a more balanced speaker would have been a better approach by the folks at Harmon, especially for the 499 each list price. 2nd The Athena ASF2's. Not as sexy as the Infinitys, but don't let the "plain jane" appearance fool you. Slightly less soundstage than the Infinitys .. not quite as upfront, but not by much. Still excellent resoultion in the highs and mids and significantly more bass output than the Infinitys. I was pleased to find a much more rounded speaker in the Athenas without the material becoming muddy or fuzzy. Believe me ..... we aint talkin' no subwoofer type output here, but thats to be expected, if not insisted upon in a set of mains. But the option of killing your sub output if you so desire and still having excellent low end is a nice option. The 299 price tag on these pretty much seals the deal for me as the better value of the 2. The receiver was a mid-line Onkyo that I had set to "direct digital" and all equilization set to flat.
Well I hope this helps anyone interested in these speakers.