No problem, happy to help! I must reiterate that the Athena I have is the ADEL version. @PokerFaze's impressions will be of the non-ADEL version. I think the non-ADEL version will be more competitive with the Aether in terms of what you're looking for.
YES, I did read pretty much review about difference between ADEL version and Non-A ver. Some people love ADEL but others not. Their points are reasonable but consider my budget, that looks like out of my business LOLI'll wait for his coming impressions.
I only have the ADEL version though - the non-ADEL unit has been returned to EE. However, I do have the carrot modules and in my testing, gets very, very close to the non-ADEL unit; you'd have to be in a quiet environment to notice them.
I'll use the carrots to compare them and get back to you!