Amplifiers for Talon Hawk monitors

I think the 23.5 is an excellent choice. I've used my Hawks with Ref 20.0, Classe 10, and VAC aurical. The ref 20 is the best SS I've heard with it. The Krell makes sense for the Firebirds because it has a higher damping factor, which is not needed for the Hawks. I really like the VAC (the new model is the musicbloc 90).

I'm now using the VAC musicbloc 160 with Hawks (and Firebirds). This is an amazing amp. I was extremely happy with the Auricle amps, but what VAC has done in the musicbloc 160s is really special. I'm hearing twice the depth in soundstage and before the auricles already had more depth than any solid state amp. The only downside to the musicblocs---they are not inexpensive. Definitely worth an audition if it's within your means.

Imaging and depth will improve with the VAC. It's just a really excellent combination. In many respects I almost feel like the speaker and amps were made for each other. I'm currently enjoying the Musicblocs on a pair of Firebirds. As to frequency extremes--well the Hawks don't go that low anyway. 30 Hz is about their limit--so the sub amp will be handling the lower extreme. As to the high end with the super tweeters, I doubt I can hear above 20kHz any more so I doubt I can make a very good assessment.

Stands make a huge difference. Why that stand with that speaker--I don't know, but we did make some changes to the Hawks so that the new ones are threaded and can be bolted to the new stand. This does improve the sound, but also makes it less likely that they could get tipped over.

Glad you are enjoying it.

I have both Levinson Ref 20 and VAC 160 musicblocs. With the Hawks there is no comparison--the Musicbloc is awesome. I'm also using a Navison 572 monoblocks with an older pair of Hawks. These amps have little bass, which is fine with me and would be fine if you were using a sub (I'm not in this set up). The Navison's are considerably less expensive than the VAC amps. They are also less power--only 8 watts I believe, which in my application is more than enough. It's an office system and I don't play loudly there. The Navison has a wonderful open midrange. Probably not as low in distortion, but just very musical and enjoyable to listen to.

As to the stands--the older models do not have the threads for the stands, so I probably wouldn't really recommend the Wings stand for older Hawks. What you have is probably a great choice--sounds like it from your description.

Raul:

You are right about Ohm's law, but you probably know very little about Talon speakers impedance curve. They are about the flatest in the industry which makes them so easy to drive by many tube amplifiers. The max impedance is around 14 Ohms and the minimum is around 4. A nominal impedance of 6 ohms. The VAC is a perfect match for the Talons. We show with VAC regularly--why? Because it's such a great match. I have owned Levinson, reference 20.5 and 20.0 (still own these). I have compared them with the Talon speakers to the VAC directly on Hawks, Thunderhawks, and Firebirds. The VAC is better with all three speakers. This is not to say the 23.5 is a bad match--it's a great amp and will sound great with many speakers. Now I have also tested the VAC with my Martin Logan monoliths, which go down to about 1/2 an ohm. In this case the Levinsons were surperior. The VAC did not handle this very low impedance as well.