Maggie 3.6 vs. Talon Khorus?

Hello,

I have owned the Khorus for about 5 months now. Previously I owned Maggie 3.3s for about 3 years. No doubt the differences between the 3.3 and the 3.6 is minimal vs the Khorus vs Maggie sound.

The Maggie sound/experience is quite unique to just about every other speaker out there. You either love them like no other or you can not at all tolerate their weaknesses. They bring on a musicality and richness and huge presence that is phenomenol. If you can get them 10-12 feet apart, they fill the space between them so incredibly. It was all this that got me addicted to the Maggie sound. But it was my lack of success to get the sound I enjoyed so much with them at higher volume levels like I had them at medium levels.

The amp that I had with them was first the ARC VT130 and then later Classic 150 monos. The VT130 was clearly the more magical amp in the mids with the Maggies. But neither of these could handle the Maggies at high levels .... but oh how awesome it was to the power limits of these amps.

Yes I know everyone claims that Bryston is THE amp here, but these speakers come to life with tube amps. Ultimately I realized I could not afford the tube amps that these speakers so much needed and so I passed these speakers on to quite the "fortunate" buyer. I have regretted this ever since as I should have just stored them under my bed when the day came that I could afford or find THE amps for these speakers.

I then heard the Khorus and they were so impressive. These have far superior resolution. I clearly hear some bits and pieces of detail in music that I had never heard with the Maggies. And without a doubt the bass is far more extended and controlled. The khorus handles sudden changes in volume much easier too. Would this be a "speed" characterization?

The ARC amps handle these speakers with so much more available headroom now. And in fact I find the ARC sound to be quite a good match with the Khorus. It was almost too much of a good thing with the Maggies.

The incredible airyness of the Maggie ribbon tweeter is not quite there with the Khorus. But I find the Khorus tonal balance to be a bit more neutral. The Maggies clearly do have a weight in the mids that quite frankly I love(d). I am not at all an imaging fanatic so this "quality" is not an issue to me.....but the Khorus does a more pinpoint job at image location.

So it really comes down to your personal tastes in tonal balance and presentation. And it has everything to do with amplifier selection. The Khorus allows for far more choices here and perhaps even a higher output SET amp. I am sure a 15-25w such amp would be incredible here. But forget about it with the Maggies!

By the way, a couple of used Counterpoint SA20/220/NPS400 amps might be just what the Dr. ordered to make the Maggies do their magic without breaking the bank. But if you want a less picky speaker with a more neutral presentation and much easier to place in your home, the Khorus is next to impossible to beat for its price on the used market.

Hope this all helps.

John

I am VERY fluent with both speakers, I own the 3.6 and a one of my best friends(who lives locally, well close enough;) owns the Talon Khorus X MkII- I have said it before and one more time for the record I wouldn't trade even any day! I enjoy visiting the Talon's but I am more excited to come home everyday and listen to my system(the only difference between his system and mine- aside from the speakers- are the amps, he uses $20k OTL tubed monos, I use a $5800 solid state dual mono). He has been changing components and swapping things in and out and can never seem to be happy, I am happy. His speakers have more bass though there is NO comparison in the musicality compared to the 3.6. Both are HIGHLY resolving and require first rate components in front of them to really show there true colors.

My experiences differ from Jafox, I find the maggies have more body/texture then the Talon's- with the maggies you need a good amp and source and then try cables till you find something that works for you(including power cords which are often over looked- when I started trying more PC things started to get REAL good) The maggies are more room dependent and for HT I am not sure which I would rather have, the maggies have more speed but lack an urgency that the Talons have which may be very beneficial for HT use. Also you can not ignore the frequency response difference between the two speakers, the Talons would probably be easier to integrate into a HT. With the maggies to do HT you would need a much larger room then with the Talons. All of this being said if I didn't have the 3.6 and didn't care for the magnepan sound the Talon Khorus would be a nice alternative. Mike Farnsworth of Talon is a class act, one of the nicest most informative people I have spoke to in the audio world. Maggie people are all over the place, look here and try to find someone from your area with maggies and take a listen, it may be for you but some aren't into it. That being said I am hooked! Good luck.

I had the 3.6's for about 3 years.

Amplification makes all the difference in the world with the Maggies. They are 89db sensitive and not easy to drive. The more power/amperage you can feed them, the better they tend to sound. Very few 100 wpc amps can come even close to comparing with what 500wpc to 1000wpc can do to the Maggie sound. This is my main complaint against the Maggies... owning them gets you into a viscous cycle of upgrading amplification. Yes, I have heard the 3.6's driven by an AR CA50 integrated amp (50 wpc tube power). No it did not sound nearly as good as driving them with a VT100 mk2 amp which did not sound as good as driving them with a Plinius SA-250 amp which did not sound as good driving them with two Plinius SA100 mk3 amps in MONO (665 wpc into the Maggies).

If you do get the 3.6's, and you experiment with different amps, you might find yourself craving as much power as you can afford (or that you can put on your Amex card, heh heh).

KF

Actually the Maggie 3.6's are more like 86db sensitive. I had Mag IIIa's for years and tubes are a great mix for music but makes sure you have enough watts like everyone has said. But in dynamic movie gunshots the speakers are really fast and image amazing but sometimes they don't move enough air if you are looking for THX levels. This will cause the mags to flap against the magnets.. I have NHT 3.3's for HT right now.. nothing like 23hz bass flat.

But I'm breaking my system apart again and I'll probably go back to Maggies 3.6's or Maggie 20.1 (if I win a lottery), and try to power them with some VTL 450's for music. The magic on horns/accoustic bass/jazz and female vocals are amazing and like someone already said the upgrade game ends and you start looking like crazy for good music and watch the tubes glow.

If you like the Talons, Don't buy the Mags without hearing them. Bring your own favorite music and trust your ears.

Oopse my mistake Cytocycle , you are correct Maggie 3.6's are 86db sensitive. DOH!

Donno what I was thinking when I posted 89db, heh heh.

KF

Another suggestion: For my ears, the VMPS RM-40 is the ideal "compromise" without compromise between these two speakers. The RM-40's ribbons have midrange and top end clarity that surpass both the Maggie 3.6 and the Khorus at only slightly more money than the Maggie. Neither speaker can compete with the 40's bottom end with two 10" and a 10" passive tunable radiator. The RM-40 is also not as difficult to drive as the Maggie and is more sensitive -- about 91 db/1watt/1 m, I believe. The Khorus have nothing sound wise over the RM-40, but are physically smaller and look cool in their pyramid shape. The Maggies offer a imaging and wall of sound unique unto themselves and similar to full range elecrostatics. Weigh your options carefully.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

Hello again....I did not mean to imply I found the Khorus to have more body than the Maggies. On the contrary as I find the Maggies to create a much bigger 3D presentation which has much to do with why I am quite the Maggie fan. But with a swap from Maggie to Khorus in my system, the Khorus simply had more low level information through the frequency band. I have no doubt that I will move the Khorus to my HT system and once again use the Maggies for my music-only system. Life is good to have 2 such systems!

I'll be the contarian of the group. I purchased the Khoruses after the Maggie 3.6s because I found the Maggie's lack of bass unable to live with. The Maggies do several things better than the Talons, including their wonderful airy quality and the textures they create with percussion instruments. That said, I found the Talons more musical, easier to live with, and a far more balanced speaker given their ability in the lower regions. My feelings may have differed if I properly integrated a subwoofer with the Maggies (hard to do) or had I not used the Tact Room Correction System with the Talons which evened out their presentation.