Athena Technologies AS-B2.2
Loudspeakers
In the film Risky Business,
after Tom Cruise’s character, Joel Goodsen, has painstakingly reassembled his
audiophile father’s obviously high-end stereo system, his father calls him into the
room. As a classical work plays, Mr. Goodsen asks Joel what he hears. His son is silent,
his mind racing through the possibilities: Could a component be missing? Is something
broken?
"A preponderance of bass," his father
says, readjusting the equalizer.
Bass may be the opiate of the masses, but in the wake of
boom boxes and boom cars, and as more and more music is heard through portable devices and
sonically deficient, manufacturer-supplied earbuds, music reproduction is judged less by
the quality of its bass than by its quantity. Every speaker has to face up to this,
especially in the heavily populated and competitive category of the two-way bookshelf
monitor.
Athena Technologies, Energy, and Mirage are all brands
produced by Audio Products International, based in Toronto, Canada. Currently one of the
leading speaker companies in the world, API made significant headway in the early 1990s
and, along with such competitors as Paradigm and PSB, helped to establish Canada’s
reputation for making world-class speakers at reasonable prices. Athena’s Audition
Series (AS) retains this spirit of progressiveness in its appearance as well as its sound.
Description
Athena Technologies’ AS-B2.2 speaker ($249 USD per
pair) comes in a single finish -- a synthetic yet realistic black ash that is grainy and
tactile. At 15.75"H x 7.875"W x 9.5"D, the speaker is a bit tall and narrow
for a bookshelf monitor, which only adds to its sleek profile. This bass-reflex design is
ported in the rear, and connection is made via gold-plated five-way binding posts that can
accept bare wires of up to 12 gauge. The one-piece faceplate is covered in a smoky silvery
composite material that presents a contemporary look that should integrate nicely with
most home-theater setups. The AS-B2.2 is magnetically shielded, which enables placement
near a video display. Its plain black grille bends slightly outward from its four
protruding silver pegs. The grille is easily removed, does nothing to improve the
Athena’s sound, and arguably even less for its appearance. I left them off.
Minus its grille, the AS-B2.2 looks striking. At the top, a
1" Teteron tweeter sits like a reflective gray bubble, secured by four small silver
screws to an oval enclosure fixed in place with four more small screws. Below this is a
large black dust cap in the center of a 6.5" polypropylene woofer that matches the
color of the tweeter. This driver has a black rubber surround and is secured with more
silver screws. The third circle on the face of the speaker is a discreet black button near
the bottom with the brand name in small lowercase silver lettering. All of this detailing
-- pegs, screws, letters -- combines with the attractive shades of the dominant silver
styling to catch the light and sparkle in contrast with the black of the box itself.
Setup
The AS-B2.2 has a reported impedance of 8 ohms, a claimed
frequency range of 50Hz-20kHz, and can handle up to 150Wpc. I drove them with an NAD
C320BEE integrated amplifier. Given that the NAD’s 50Wpc rating is widely thought to
be conservative and the Athena’s sensitivity is rated at an impressive 91dB, very
little gain was needed to drive the speakers to satisfactory listening levels. I connected
them to the amp with 9’ runs of Element Cable’s Double Run speaker cable
terminated with banana plugs, placed them about 8’ apart on stands that put the
tweeters at my seated ear level and the speakers 3’ from the front wall, and toed
them in slightly to optimize the treble response. I played CDs on my trusty source, the
all-purpose Pioneer DVD-353, linked by Monster Cable interconnects.
Sound
Since the introduction of the compact disc, the songs of
innocence on Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run have hidden behind a wall of
sound washed with mud. With the release of a beautiful digital remastering in the
album’s 30th Anniversary 3 Disc Set [Sony 94175], however, the
recording’s initial analog power to move, remind, and inspire has been restored,
wrestled away from classic-rock cliché. From the opening harmonica of "Thunder
Road" to the horns on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," through the saxophone
downshifting of the title track and the pretty piano and violin of "Jungleland,"
the AS-B2.2 was involving, musically alive, and balanced between airy highs and
unexpectedly strong low frequencies: I was grabbed and threatened to be pulled under by
the bass and kick drum on "She’s the One." While not quite bringing the
recording studio into my listening room, the AS-B2.2 was able to present details
previously subsumed in the mix, such as background vocals and the sound of the
glockenspiel, and made me feel good about being able to give this remastering its due.
Tenor saxophonist Louie Belogenis explicitly traces his
roots to John Coltrane and Albert Ayler, with the same agenda (transcendence) and a
similar vocabulary (ecstatic). On Unbroken [Tick Tock 01], his first release as a
leader, he is backed by bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz and drummer Kenny Wollesen, who
frequently establish modal grooves and repeated bass vamps that, through the AS-B2.2,
induced a pleasantly mild hypnosis. The notes of the double bass struck with the weight of
a brick dropped on a stack of cotton on "Transmission," and on "Bells
Canto," the shaking and ringing were rendered with crisp realism. Belogenis’
timbre is alternately hoarse and whispery, high-pitched and urgent, smooth and mystical,
with a touch of vibrato; the AS-B2.2’s natural, laid-back presentation handled it
all.
On their own, Chris Whitley’s National Steel guitar
playing and vocals, the latter ranging from breathy whisper to cracked falsetto, can be
bluesy, soulful, and sexy. Rocket House [ATO 21501] adds layer on layer of drum
programming, turntable scratches, synthesizer blips, and pinpoint tape looping to
transform Whitley’s bare-bones approach into a great meal for the ears. Through the
Athenas, daughter Trixie’s girlish, disembodied backing vocal on "Chain"
and "Serve You" seemed to come from the back of the soundstage, while the
instrumentation and additional effects were properly positioned in the foreground. The
aggressive break beat on "Rocket House" was rendered with tightly controlled
quickness, as was the transient speed of the clipped, syncopated rhythms of "To
Joy." "Vertical Desert" offered a textural challenge of vocal pitches,
swooping keyboards, and spatial atmospheric effects that the Athenas met with
characteristic warmth.
By now, I’d given in to the Athena’s seductively
smooth midrange and plush bass extension. It also proved a wonderful speaker for reggae,
reproducing Burning Spear’s Marcus Garvey [Mango 539377] and its miasma of
Robbie Shakespeare and Ashton "Family Man" Barrett’s bass playing, as Earl
"Chinna" Smith’s skanking guitar chops and Winston Rodney’s keening,
incantatory vocals cut through the smoky haze. Rodney doesn’t sing so much as chant,
and on the title track, the Athena accurately conveyed the loping rhythm and lyrical
repetition of his phrasing, its audible nuances intact. On "Slavery Days,"
Rodney’s lead was presented in sharply detailed contrast to Rupert Willington’s
and Delroy Hinds’ more mellifluous supporting voices, all in three-dimensional
fashion. But I kept coming back to Jack Ruby’s production, as if the CD had been
mixed on the antique, idiosyncratic, patched-together gear in Lee Perry’s Black Ark
Studio. The bass was hardly seismic, but if a speaker can have the sound of tubes, the
AS-B2.2 is that speaker.
Comparison
First I compared the AS-B2.2 to the similarly priced
Paradigm Titan ($220/pair). The no-frills Titan is available in two basic vinyl finishes
and has a fixed grille of black cloth, but it’s a wonderful point of entry to the
high end. The Titan’s midrange was warm and rich, but its highs were less detailed
and extended than the Athena’s. In the midbass, the Athena was a bit more extended
and warm, and while both speakers were impressively dynamic and equal in transient
articulation, the Athena was more revealing of low-level dynamics and had a more extended
deep bass. The Athena demonstrated greater ease with loudness and slam, likely as a result
of its taller cabinet.
Next I put the Athena up against my reference speaker, the
German-made MB Quart QLC-204 ($399/pair), which also has a 1" tweeter and a 6.5"
woofer but has a claimed range of 48Hz-32kHz. At 86dB, the MB Quart is not nearly as
sensitive as the Athena, and required a bit more oomph from the NAD amp. The
QLC-204 is most simply described as bright, and, true to my previous experience of it,
presented a greater offering of microdynamics with the recordings mentioned above,
particularly in the upper frequencies, and a more complex tonal palette overall. But I
found myself liking the AS-B2.2’s midrange warmth and damped lower end more,
and particularly the way it handled the reverberating woody sound of double bass and the
heavy thud of roots reggae. And the Athena is almost a third less expensive.
Conclusion
Athena Technologies’ engineers have made some choices
that almost always must be made in a loudspeaker at this price point, and the AS-B2.2 is
likely to appeal to a specific taste. It’s tilted in the direction of politeness,
with a full midbass and a satisfying, softly sweet high end. This suggests that a tube
amplifier would recess its sound to the point of being closed-in, but that pairing is
unlikely for the entry-level market Athena has evidently targeted with the AS-B2.2. But
with a lively, modestly powered amplifier, the speaker’s looks and sound should
achieve a lushness uncommon for the price.
In short, the AS-B2.2 offers maximum musicality at minimum
cost. With its sweet treble, warm midrange, and well-engineered and surprisingly smooth
and palpable bass, it would be extremely difficult to pay less than $249/pair and get as
much as this speaker delivers.
...Jeff Stockton
Price of equipment reviewed
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