In the past I've had a big problem trying to convince "non-audiophiles" to go with a speaker like Nohr (some hate the "Nohr look" while others want something that will play higher levels with more bass). Unfortunately, I am finding that Nohr's budget offerings really don't meet the bass level expectations of my mid-fi friends. For some reason they actually think that five to six hundred dollars is allot of money! Believe it or not, many actually think that this should be enough money to find a serious full range speaker with pounding bass. What's an audiophile to do?? What the hell do I recommend? Well I finally think I've found a budget speaker that meets the above criteria of non-audiophiles (and perhaps audiophiles too!)
It is the Athena Technologies F2 floor standing speaker at $599 a pair.
Actually I am a bit surprised that no one (on HD for instance) has talked about this speaker. It has more authority and will play louder than any of the other "recommended" budget speakers on HD's prior threads (that I can recall). This "authority" quality seems to be VERY important to most non-audiophiles that I know. In my experience many non-audiophiles have an expectation that "expensive $600 a pair" speakers have the ability to play pretty extreme sound pressure levels, especially in the bass. Most budget minded audiophile speakers cannot do this and really fall apart when they are eq'd for "better bass" (do you know how many non-audiophiles crank the bass and loudness controls on their receivers? This will destroy most audiophile budget speakers!). The Athena F2's actually have two 8" woofers in a tower acoustic suspension speaker configuration. IMHO this driver complement does a much better at meeting the expectations of the non-audiophile for bass (it works pretty darn well for audiophiles too!)
Another point about the Athenas is they seem to be VERY well balanced and sorted out for a budget minded speaker. I was told that the same development group that made the Sound Dynamics RTS-3 design had a hand in the Athena's development. The RTS-3s are legendary for their midrange that compares with multi-thousand dollar high end speakers (I still am scratching my head on how the desingers pulled this off for only $198 a pair). In comparison, the Athena F2's have a better tweeter and far surpass the Sound Dynamics in terms of bass, sound levels, overall refinement and bass definition with less bloat, which was the biggest downfall of the RTS-3 IMHO. (Note: The RTS-3's are no longer manufactured).
Best of all, the prior design experience with the RTS-3's indicates this design group has ears and has figured out a way to achieve decent high end sound on the cheap with their new Athena F2 offering, with very good authoritive bass to boot!
