Well, I have'nt heard them side by side, but considered both in a long search for highish sensitivity, tube friendly speakers. The list included Coincident, Art, Zu. and Silverline. The 2 I enjoyed the most were Devore 9's and the Daedalus DA-RMAs, I eventually bought.
The DA-RMas and Athena are essentially the same, just a floor standing version of the large, near floor standing monitors. I don't think you can go wrong with either company, I just preferred Daedalus by a reasonable margin. Very transparent and neutral with no colouration I could detect. Easy to fit into a room and good imaging. For the price, very hard to criticize. Because they are sold direct, with no dealers, distributors, uou can near double the price to get a match in quality with conventionally marketed speakers. There are a number of users around the place, happy to Demo the Daedalus, just contact Lou for details of any near you.
