Size
The speakers in their boxes are quite large from the transportation standpoint. They didn't fit in my Infiniti G35's trunk (and, unfortunately, the rear seats don't fit) and had to be placed in the back seat. Be advised that two speakers placed horizontally on top of each other do obscure your rearward visibility and require gently throttle and brake application to avoid them sliding around.
Specs
Once removed from the boxes, the speakers are 35.5 inches tall. The dimensions are 35.5"Hx9.5"Wx12"D. Each speaker weighs 41 lbs (45 lbs with carton).
The Athena AS-F1 is a two-way floorstanding speaker (from the Athena's Audition series) with a 1" Teteron dome tweeter and a 8" Injection Molded Polypropylene woofer with rubber surround. The speakers are ported (in front) and are magnetically shielded. I have one of my speakers right next to my TV and experience no ill effects.
The speaker is 8 Ohm compatible and handles up to 200 W of power. The sensitivity is 92 dB and rated frequency response is 40 Hz - 20 kHz at +/- 3 dB with a crossover point of 2 kHz.
Installation
The speakers are quite hefty (at 41 lbs each), but are quite easy to remove from the boxes if the box is tilted. They come with 4 plastic conical feet that can be screwed into the speaker bases (threaded holes for them are there). They also come with 4 rubber flat feet that have one adhesive side. The manual says nothing about any of this. I tried both and found that plastic conical feet worked slightly better on my carpet.
The speakers (silver front, black ash sides) have black removable grilles. Even though the Athena is a Canadian manufacturer (Audio Products International), the speakers are made in China.
The speakers have very sturdy gold-plated binding posts that easily and conveniently accepted my 16-gauge speaker wire. They also accept banana plugs, if you remove plastic protective caps. Make sure you set your speakers to "Large" in your receiver's setup menu (since they go to/below 40 Hz). I set my subwoofer to 50 Hz (the manual says nothing about this, so you might have to experiment with subwoofer control).
The speakers were (and are) connected to my Panasonic SA-HE70 receiver. I listen to music using my Panasonic DVD-S35 DVD player as well as watch movies through the same DVD player, my DirecTiVo and sometimes my VCR.
Break-In
The manual states that you should perform the speaker break-in for 50-100 hours before the speakers will sound to their full potential. This applies to all Athena speakers. And true, out of the box, the speakers did not sound spectacular. The bass and midrange were slightly muffled and the treble sounded a bit metallic.
The recommended break-in is to play music at moderate listening levels. After setting my DVD player on "Repeat All" mode I saw improvement even after 2 hours. After leaving for work (DVD player still playing) and coming back, the improvement was even more pronounced.
After the break-in was complete, the speakers could truly shine.
Sound Quality
I have to mention that listening to good speakers may be bad. Bad for your budget. Once you hear good sound, you might have to upgrade speakers everywhere. Your computer speakers don't sound good anymore and more so your car speakers.
The Athena AS-F1 is rated to go as low as 40 Hz (-3dB) and it seems like it is true. I have turned my subwoofer off and, although I could perceive a slight lack of the lowest bass (the kind that can be felt rather than heard), the speakers did go very low in the bass.
The frequency response seems to be very linear with all frequencies faithfully reproduced and with treble being distributed well over the wide area (off-axis). I have my speakers set about 1.5 meters apart and sit about 2.5 meters away from them. For my listening tests, I turned the subwoofer off as well as disengaged the other speakers (center and surrounds) by switching the receiver in to stereo mode.
Listening to classical music, I could distinctly hear many instruments in busy sections and could hear some instruments that other, lesser speakers lost. The percussions sounded well-defined over the whole frequency spectrum. The string instruments sounded beautifully.
The electric guitars in rock music sound amazingly well and the drums have "tight" quality to them. There is no loss in either part of the spectrum (unlike some other speakers, which lack either bass, midrange or treble).
The speakers not only excel in separating instruments, but they also excel in placing them. You can close your eyes and you will hear where the instrument is located. Furthermore, the Kapol Intro from the Pi Soundtrack sounded 3-dimentional even without using Dolby Pro Logic II and with no use of surround speakers (it does sound better with them, though).
The speakers produce good bass, but I still recommend using a subwoofer, especially for movies for sounds in the 20-50 Hz zone.
The speakers are quite sensitive and required me to increase the volume of the center and surround channels 1-2 dB (they are Athena C.5 and S.5). The AS-F1 blended well with my center, surrounds and subwoofer.
Bottom Line
The Athena AS-F1 is an excellent performer for an unbelievably low price. I very highly recommend them for stereo or multi-channel music and movies.
Recommended
Yes
(Excellent)