I replaced my sweet Athena suite (F2/F1/C1/R1) with the SVS 5.0 package a few weeks ago and have been extremely impressed to say the least. I did it in the interest of saving space (rolling all the music/recording/guitar stuff into the HT) and would have been happy not to sacrifice too much in the way of sound quality to mount speakers below my screen (2.35:1, ~7' wide), but I've been very pleasantly surprised at the improvement in the mids/highs, extension and detail, especially for multichannel DVD-A and SACD. I did raise the crossover to 100Hz to help with dynamic range from the much smaller sats, but localization isn't an issue as my IB sub is in the front stage. Blending is very good as the sats have a decent reach below the crossover and a shallow rolloff. The center is especially nice for music, as it doesn't exhibit the sibilance/spittyness you find in most MTM centers. The SVS set has a lower dynamic ceiling than the Athena floorstanders (which seem almost limitless in that area), but my levels are lower these days and I do more late-night music than movies. In my small room, they don't seem all that taxed, really.
My PB10 is currently shaking my bro's house, but the prospect of that sub with this package is mouth-watering at the price.
Haven't compared other internet-direct brands, but I've had speakers such as Spicas, Magnepan and NHT in this room and these hold up pretty nicely. I can't wait to see what they do with their higher lines if this stuff is "entry-level".
As an aside, I used
these mounts for all five speakers and find them easier to install and adjust then Omnimounts, in addition to being cheaper.
07-05-06, 06:08 AM
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