Athena C.5 Center Speaker - Excellent Sound on the Budget
Written: May 02 '05 (Updated May 02 '05)
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Pros: Excellent sound, inexpensive, looks nice, relatively compact, well built
Cons: Not the smallest one, not exactly cheap
The Bottom Line: The Athena C.5 is well worth the money. I don't regret buying it and keeping it as a center speaker of my home theatre system and...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Athena C.5 Center Speaker |
I have used the Athena Point Five speaker system that consists of four Athena S.5 speakers (subject of this review), an Athena C.5 center speaker and a subwoofer for well over a year. Although I have upgraded the front left and right speakers to Athena AS-F1 floorstanding speakers and the subwoofer to Athena P400, I am still using the C.5 for center speaker.
I have purchased this speaker after reading various reviews, which praised it and gave it (as a part of Athena Point Five speaker system) various awards. I have paid $700 for the entire system, which brings the price of the c.5 speakers to about $150.
The speakers are the main piece of the sound producing equipment - the sound is only as good as speakers allow it to be and normally you have to spend more on speakers than on other components to avoid them being bottlenecks of your system.
The Speaker
The C.5 is a 2-way 3-driver design with a 1" Teteron Dome tweeter and two 4" Injection Molded Polypropylene Cone woofers. It is TV-safe (magnetically shielded) and can be used with receivers/amplifiers that provide 20-100 Watts per channel. The rated frequency response is 60 Hz - 20 KHz (+/-3 db) with a 2 KHz crossover point. The speakers have impedance of 8 Ohms and are rated at 91dB sensitivity.
The C.5 is quite compact and quite heavy for its size. I keep it on top of my 30-inch TV. They have shiny black cases with silver fronts (black fronts on some models) and removable cloth grilles (3 per speaker). The speaker is bacl-ported and has sturdy 5-way gold-plated binding posts that accommodated my 16-gauge wire with ease.
You can see the pictures of C.5 and S.5 that I took recently at the following address:
http://www.review-shop.com/Athena_Point_5/Athena_Point_5.html
(you can copy and paste the address above into your browser's address area).
Installation
As I previously stated, the speaker is rated as 8-Ohm compatible (my Panasonic SA-HE70K receiver drives it with ease). The receiver must be set to drive the C.5 as "Large" speaker, meaning it will not limit bass (lower frequencies) they way it does when driving "Small", less capable, speakers. So make sure you set your receiver's speaker settings to "Large".
The unpacking and wire connection took less than 5 minutes for the C.5. I connected it to my Panasonic SA-HE70K receiver and set the speaker size for it to "Large". Other speakers are located rear left and right from my normal listening position, the fronts are on each side of the TV.
Break-In
The C.5 should be broken-in for 50-100 hours at moderate listening volume, the manual suggests. It advises not to try to audition the speaker during break-in period, as it may not sound as good as after it and because loud music/effects is not recommended during break-in period. I have followed this, although the C.5 sounded quite good even before break-in.
Sound
Out of the box, the speakers were put to the test - I just had to make sure I made the right choice purchasing them. I used both Dolby Pro-Logic II and 5.1-channel sound (DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1).
First, I listened to Preludes by Richard Wagner, which is a very good test for speakers. My previous speakers, KLH L853B, could not reproduce some instruments and there was no separation between instruments in busy sections. The sound was muffled.
The Athena system in general and the C.5 speaker in particular faithfully reproduced not only the instrument location, but I could hear separate instruments even in busy sections. And I could hear instruments I have never heard previously on that CD. The violins sounded just right, just the way the sound when you go to the concert.
Then I popped the CD of Pi Soundtrack, which is definitely better in Dolby Pro Logic II Music mode (DPL2). The sound was amazing. The Kapol Intro seemed even more 3-D than before, and all frequencies (from bass to treble) were faithfully reproduced. The C.5 clearly produced excellent sound.
That is not to say that the C.5 can be used without a subwoofer. The rated frequency response starts at 60 Hz (-3db) and is probably measured on-axis. Depending on location, the "real" audible bass can start even slightly higher in the frequency range. Thus, use the subwoofer with these speaker, if you want lower bass and set the bass control on it to about 70 Hz, if using other comparable speakers. You can even use C.5 Speakers all around (for center, front left and right and rear left and right) to get good sound as they have slightly better frequency response than the smaller S.5 satellites.
Of course, the C.5 excels as the center speaker. In movies (Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS), where the dialogue normally comes from the center speaker, the dialogue is clear and easily understandable with no harshness in people's voices.
The sound source separation is excellent and you can clearly hear where the sound's source is.
To summarize: the sound that Athena C.5 speaker produces is amazing for its size and price. From low to high volume small details and all frequencies are heard (save for deep bass, but I have a subwoofer for that). You can hear all instruments and the sound, although easily localized, is 3-dimentional.
It is impressive how the relatively small 2-way speakers can sound so much better than 3-way speakers several times the size (KLH). And the C.5 speakers (as other speakers in Athena lineup) sound amazingly good with string instruments from guitars to violins.
The 1" tweeter, used in this speaker, is used in other speakers in Athena lineup (above common for them 2-KHz cross-over point) and is known for its great off-axis performance and frequency response).
The dual woofers provide good bass above about 70 Hz. The sound improves even more (but slightly) when the grills are removed.
The fact that I kept the C.5 as my center speaker after upgrading my front left and right speakers to larger floorstanding Athena F1 speakers indicates that the little C.5 is a great performer and can play pretty loud too!
Bottom Line
The Athena C.5 is well worth the money. I don't regret buying it and keeping it as a center speaker of my home theatre system and highly recommend it if you are on the tight budget or want a smaller (but not very small) center speaker with excellent looks and performance.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
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Location: California
Reviews written: 839
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About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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