Talon Loudspeakers

Mikem,Glreno: I am not advocating that everyone should go out and do this. It's just that the combo of Dan Schmalle's(Doc B)Bottlehead Paraglows running with Vaic Meshplate 2A3's and GE 5 star 5965's and a number of tweaks I have done are absolutely astonishing. Yes I agree more power would be nice and certainly the Jota or even an 845 would provide more volume and perhaps a bit more drive. What you have to understand is that the combination of a parallel feed output trannie and the Vaic's have authority and drive that don't take a backseat to anything. Doc's Parabee(300B version of same type would probably be even better with 8 watts. But if you follow the threads on tube assylum or bottlehead.com you will hear people screaming about the musicality of 45's. I realize that is to low at less than 2 watts. But according to a few people the meshplates sound amazingly similar to 45's and yet the Vaic tubes have amazing slam. Why do I love them? Air, palpable air and emotion like nothing else I have heard. Make every solid state and push/pull tube sound anemic, thin, hard dry, closed in etc. Pace and rythmn are better than anything I have heard. And of course these are things the Talon already excells at. So just imagine if you will. Yeah it's only 95 to 96db max but oh is it glorious. James W.

Vrauthor: At the risk of taking a different approach to break in. I have spoken at length to Tierry about the break-in phenomenon. I think the Talon's pretty much establish themselves with around 100 hours or so. Yes some of the sublties keep getting better after that, but I think a large part of the extra hours is growing accustomed to the way they sound compared to other speakers you have owned. After a couple of weeks of listening go back and try and listen to your old speakers? It will suprise you how hard they are to listen too. Believe me I have a hard time enjoying anything else anymore. Happy listening, James W.

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.