Alfine A860 Athena Dual Mechanism Massage Chair-2025 Flagship

Let me start by saying I conducted an exhaustive research of massage chairs before finally going all out on the Alfine A860 Athena Dual Mechanism Massage Chair-2025 Flagship.
I have considerable neck, back, feet problems due to my damanding job. I used to see a chiropractor and massage person almost weekly to relieve my daily pain.

My first exposure to a massage max chair was their model MD906 (a 3D one massage roller chair) which my chiropractor purchased for his office.
I had never used a massage chair type like this and I really enjoyed the massage it gave me.
I had full intent on buying that exact chair.

When I started my online research I went down a rabbit hole, quickly realizing there were so many different styles and types of massage chairs available. Prices ranged from $1000-$20,000. The more research I did always brought me back to Massage Max chairs.
I compared every chair they offered to each other, and those chairs to every other competitors chair online.

Needless to say the Alfine A860 Athena Dual Mechanism Massage Chair-2025 Flagship had every option you could think of at one of the best prices available in the market. (This is also a dual roller massage component 4D+3D.)

From the massagemax website I located a local dealer 60 miles from my home. I drove to that store and met Mr. Liu who was more than helpful at explaining all of the chairs options offered. He even had competitors chairs on sight to compare as well. I sat in multiple chairs and realized that the cheaper chairs are fine for basic massage, but are no comparison to the more expensive chairs dual roller massage.
Mr. Liu also does maintenance on all the types of massage chairs and one of the major selling points to buying the A860 was that Mr. Liu showed me the internal moving parts contained in each of the massage chairs.
The parts built into the cheaper chairs were no match to the more expensive chairs Internal parts.
You could clearly see the more expensive chairs we’re going to last for years with no issues, when the cheaper chairs were almost guaranteed not to last for more than a few years without major replacement parts.
The other major selling point to the A860 was that this chair carries almost double the warranty of other chairs.
The only NEGATIVE to this chair is it only comes in black lacquer with either black or red interior.
The POSITIVE is it’s an all leather chair which is comparable to a top sports car feel.
The chair comes with 22 massage options and over the air updates. I honestly couldn’t see a need for anymore options than this. I actually prefer to choose my own massage options through the manual mode so I can max out the air and roller pressure.

Best time to buy this chair was during Black Friday and Christmas sales but it doesn’t hurt to ask a seller what they can do for you.
If you order from manufacturer directly you can also avoid taxes which will save you several hundred as well.
Shipping and delivery were a breeze because I also had Mr. Liu and his team deliver, install and put the parts together.

I honestly love everything about this chair and have no regrets on spending the extra thousands from the cheaper chairs. I now save hundreds a month on human massages and avoiding my chiropractor now that I have this chair doing both their jobs at once.

We’re really loving this new chair. We’ve wanted one for a while, and after checking out a bunch of options, we finally chose this one. Honestly, it’s got so many features, and we’re still figuring out how to use them all. If you’re looking for a quality, feature-packed chair, we definitely recommend this one.

We were very pleased with the delivery to our room and the installation service provided. The chair is incredibly comfortable to recline in, and it has so many features. We're still exploring everything it can do, but overall, we're extremely satisfied.

Overall love this chair…only complaint is i wish you could set/change option before the session actually started.

I researched quite a bit before purchasing this. Tried multiple models of Alfine's and different brands'. Liked this one the best. (the lower end model had almost identical functions but it wasn't genuine leather).
I'm overall happy. But the foot compartment rattles when it runs intensely already. Lt upper back rest also rattles occasionally. The balls under butt when they are at the junction between butt and waist seem/feel stuck for like .5 sec because I feel/hear the click (not a free rotation but it goes like booo click). It only happens once in a while.
The voice command's a pity and I disabled it. It responds even when I'm not using it to TV or to my own voice randomly.
Not sure how useful the Wi-Fi function is as I haven't downloaded any massage programs yet. Honestly I don't even know how to. I remember seeing instructions in the manual but in the LCD screen, it was not clear how to.
There are 2 different menus to save your customized massages. Not sure why they made 2 different ones. One (I don't remember the name of the button) only has 2 slots so it's kind of useless. The other is "Customize" where you can load and save multiple massages.
Manual button provides customization options for you. You can play around with that to find the best massage technique and then save.
Shiatzu technique is used worldwide and this chair provides it. But it's too painful even in Gentle mode around my scapulas. On the contrary, the butt massage is not really strong enough. When I worked my gluts and thighs, I want them massaged but it's not really giving me the satisfaction I wanted. Well it does not massage thighs at all anyway.
The calf massage is complete design flaw. The chair detects your body when turned on and when you toggle to different massage or even during it, it detects your length of the legs occasionally. The foot rest lowers till it feels no pressure from your feet and then it rises again till it detects your feet. But it does not stop in proper time and raises my feet more to the point that my calfs and thighs are slightly lifted from the chair. So when it starts massaging the calf, I barely feel anything because calves are lifted. I remember the clerk at the shop when I tested it told me to push against the foot rest when it was rising and I didn't understand why he was telling me that. Now I know why.
And the foot roller is quite pleasant and satisfying but when it does shiatzu (I think) massage on the feet, it pushes too much and it hurts my feet.
Also the air bag in that is too strong in most massages unless I customize it. It cuts of my circulation if I use any massage for a full length (20 minutes). I'm 5'9" with muscular build at 162lbs.
The chair's 2 separate sets of balls with 4d massage functions give 5 stars.
The rattles are annoying given it's a new chair. 2 starts for that.
Different strengths on different parts of the body is disappointing. 2 starts only.
Preset massage functions and customization options: 5 stars
Voice control: might as well remove it. 2 stars
Foot/leg compartment: 2 stars for poorly thought out functions.
Leather: this is to be seen. I paid more to get genuine leather and I can't tell if it's fake or genuine just by looking.
Price: 5 stars for the functions I get despite some downsides.
Would I recommend it? Yes.