Talon Loudspeakers

Hi James and Mike! One thing I've noticed about the Talons is that they do seem to be more efficient than the 90.5 rating they are given. My amplifier runs off of a PS Audio P600. When I was driving the VR6s with the same amp, the output voltage of the P600 was reading 210. When driving the Talons, the output voltage is 170. Yet my VR6 speakers were rated more efficient than the Talons at 96db efficiency. I spoke to Mike at Talon about this, and he said that in the real world, the Khorus is more efficient than the specs indicate because the speaker has no compression. Clement Perry mentions this in his review of the Khorus. I am receiving an Art Audio Jota at 20 watts per channel later this week, so this will give me some example of how well these speakers work with lower powered amps. But I don't doubt that these speakers will do things not normally associated with current mainstream technology. I would love to try them with a 3 watt SET. Just don't have one to do it. Maybe I can borrow one from Welbourne Labs, which is just down the street from where I live. I'll let you know.

Glreno: It would be fun to hear what you think if you get a chance to run it on some Welborne Moondogs. I think you will be startled at just how much 3 watts will do with these babies. Of course in a bigger room you probably wouldn't be satisfied. My room is 17 X 13 X 8. The other thing that kills you is how immense the soundstage is with the meshplate Vaic. This is going to sound like sacriledge but since I use a very tweaked top-o'the-line Marantz DVD for my listening my system doubles with the TV for home theater. You would be stunned at how you can seperate out musical lines you were never even vaguely awayre of and street scenes just floor you with all the distinct focused noises in a wide range of locations. And voices just simply sound convincingly real. Hell I don't need surround the results are so convincing. And bass is quite astonishing although I suspect Clement and Tierry have both convinced me I need a Roc in the near future. Tierry assures me it will give me the effect of having at least another 3db. Happy listening and tinkering, James W.

Jgw -- thanks for the break-in advice. I bought this Khite/ROC set up purposely to find the best solution to quality music while still doing HT. Cool to hear you're having success using stereo talons for a similar purpose. I have an interconnected ring of rooms -- kitchen/living room/family room/entry way -- even without the sub, the Khites send beautiful music to the far corners of every room. Amazing. With the ROC my son comes into the living room worried that there is an earthquake shaking the walls.

Philefreak - I think you will love the Llano amp(s). I'm using an S200 driven by a Joule Electra LA100 preamp. Very very nice. Look forward to your report. JB

Actually the Khites are remarkably good and frankly I prefer there sound to anything but the Khorus and the Peregrine. What is amazing is how well the Khite's will do low frequencies by themselves. With the Roc they make an awesome SAT/SUB system. Again the cool thing about Talon is that all there speakers have the same sound. The larger models are more dynamic, will play louder and have a deeper bass. The Khorus also has more upper frequency extension which is not all that apparent on most recordings. Although there is a bit more air and more upper frequency bloom. Here is a wild thing from Tierry Budge the designer. You can actually put a Khite, A Peregrine, or A Khorsus in any combo as a pair and they will match almost seemlessly. I kid you not, they are that well balanced spectrally between each other. Yup I have heard the Roc at Tom Miller's place(read his review in Perfect Vision) and at Tierry's. Awesome is the only word on Theatre and musically it is just right. Watching Jurassic Park at Tierry's is quite an experience. I hope to get a Roc into my system in the near future. James W.