They are frenkly quite bad sounding speakers, the only time I have heard them sound reasonable is when used with a Tact rcs room/speaker coreection. The midrange is very recessed. |
Mass music is often really badly recorded, I have heard the Talon and thought they were very even and balanced sounding.
Do yourself a favor, pick up a XRCD Jazz CD and/or Gold CD and test, or pick up a Radiohead CD for Quality and see.. I have a quality system and often metal/rock music sounds so-so...
Matt |
Believe it or not they might not be broken-in yet. It can take a hell of a time to break them in. Some people just getting tired and sell them for nothing comparing to the new retail price. The break-in time should be minimum 400hrs(months of continuous playing). If you have some recordings of the ocean waves than play them at the high volume for a couple of days to "massage" the drivers. This kind of CD you can get from amusicdirect.com. Once you play it you can see how your drivers are moving.
If you listen to a heavy metal or hard rock it doesn't mean that for the sound sake you must listen to some XRCD, SACD jazz...
The best sounding rock recording as far as I know is King Crimson -- Larks Tongues in Aspic. You might also want to check your speakers with Queen's Innuendo. Metallica has lots of MFSL stuff and every album recorded great. |
I listened to Talon speakers that were broken in and thought that they sounded the same as your desciption,compressed.Their sound reminded me of the portable transistor radios that were popular back in the 60's. I was not impressed and cannot understand what all the hype is about!
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You may want to think about dumping the Krell. A $14k (retail) pair of speakers deserve better than that integrated amp. |
Don't know about the Talons, but with your equipment, I would certainly move up from the Nordost Blue Heaven. If you want to stay with Nordost (very "quick" cable, but perhaps not the best for bass fullness) I would try SPM or Red Dawn Rev. 2 (not the original). This may open up the sound. Also, if you listen at high levels, does your amp have enough power to drive the Talons without "running out of steam"? Happy Tunes! |
300i is great as a Rock'n'roll amp and good enough to drive Khorus. Rega Planet seems to be lifeless for any kind of music either electronic or acoustic imo. It's got plastic body and pocket CD-player mechanism besides. I still do not know how you can tweak plastic bodies. You can literally "downgrade" Planet to a better source. |
Have you tried repositioning your speakers? As previous poster had implied with suggesting the room correction devices, your room has more influences in the way your whole system sounds than changing any part of your amplification chain, IMHO. It is my belief that properly positioned average speaker system will sound better than the top end speakers in a poor room, improperly positioned.
Before you give up on the speakers, try moving them out away from your walls. |
My experience has taught me that most of what you hear and don't hear from your speakers are your front end and your cabling. I had to swap out my 801 matrix 2's for some circuit city dcm's because I blew a woofer. I was surprised to find that they didn't sound all that bad at low to medium listening levels. But they always sounded crappy with my aiwa receiver. (Those were my pre-audiophile days. :) )
If you like to drive your system to high volume levels at times, invest in the best separates you can afford. 250-300 ss watts into 8 ohms rating is perfect. Also, your cd player and preamp need to be well matched. I believe that if you can try out some product that fits these descriptions you will see the difference. |
Dear Dave,
Please call us at Talon and we will be happy to troubleshoot and make suggestions. We want all of our customers to be satisfied with our speakers, regardless if they are new or used. We have many loyal and ecstatic customers that have immediately had great results. Others have taken some time to get excellent results, and others have simply given up. Great results can be achieved, just a little effort and considerations need to be made.
The recipe for success is to have low noise, transparent electronics and cables, with a properly set-up listening room. Not all electronics and cables are created equal, nor does price or brand name dictate the quality of performance. Experience in listening to different electronics and cables will offer the perfromance you are looking for. For example, if you are feeding your Porsche regular gas and are frustrated with its performance on the muddy road you are racing it on, would you blame the car? The speakers can only perform as well as the system and room are integrated with them.
As mentioned earlier, please contact us and we will be glad to troubleshoot this situation.
Happy Listening,
Michael Farnsworth
Talon Audio |
There you go, a stand-up manufacturer. Let us know what happens, will you? |
Thank you all for your kind help
i've heard good things about the people in TALON
still, i didnt expect to get a response from them here.
a stand up manufacturer indeed !
i will contact TALON and try to solve that problem.
needless to say, i love hi-fi audio but i dont consider
myself a guy with an audiophile ear.
i guess what i'm trying to say is that at high listening
volume the sound gets so bad even a 10 year old would notice. gets distorted to a point where u just cant recognize the music.
i have also noticed that the KRELL tends to heat to a point where u simply cant touch it when played for a lengthy period of time at high volume (an hour or so),
does that mean that the KRELL is running out of juice and
does it have anything to do with the distortion?
i will let you know what happens when i speak with TALON.
THANK YOU AGAIN.
David |
I've heard many different Krell amps and was always impressed by the power and clarity but, these were 300 w/c or greater units. I do however own a pair of Khorus's. Mine were demo's and about a year old when I got them. There's no way mine are broken in but right out of the box they blew me away once I had them positioned correctly. These speakers are a blessing and a curse. They seem to be incredibly accurate and smooth though any weak components are going to be brought to light almost immediately. Something else to keep in mind is that mystery of why matching even expensive high end components for best effect is one of trial and error. I'd take the Talon reps advice and give him a call and the writer that suggested you try some better cd's and different kinds of music for comparison. I've noticed that some of my old rock cd's don't come close to my newer music in quality. After that I'd borrow a different amp, cd player, cables and experiment a little bit.
With my 350 w/c Mac amp and crappy little 15 year old Magnavox (soon to be a Cary 306) cd player the music is incredible so I doubt the trouble lies with your Rega. On the other hand I'm running Acoustic Zen cables to my Khorus's. I guess I'm trying to say that with the gear I've got right now I'd sooner shoot my dog than dump my speakers and, I love my dog. Don't give up just yet but, if you do list them on Audiogone then drop me a line as everyone who has heard mine would love to get a great deal on yours! |
I would look into a better amplifier and better speaker cables. One thing about great speakers is that they do demand high quality components. You can really hear the grain in a mid-grade component.
I've heard the krell integrated, and it is a little grainy. I've hooked my crummy old denon receiver up to my audio physic avant's & you can REALLY heard the mid-fi electronics. It sounds far worse with high resolution speakers.
One of my friends has Talon Khoruses. He uses a Krell 600, Krell kps 25 (?) & quattro-fil w/spm speaker cables. I haven't heard his system yet, but he's been around the hobby a while & knows his stuff.
As mentioned above, you might also be hearing the low quality of some rock recordings. I pulled out some of my old rock recording a while back (late 80's cd's) & I couldn't believe how bad they sounded on my system.
Good luck, and KUDOS to Talon for their quick response. |
And new rock recordings sound better?
If your favorite music doesn't sound good on your system, change your system. |
I beleive your problem lies with your lack of reserve power.
I have found out that my B&w n802s require a great deal of power to open up. It is entirely possible that your amp may be clipping.
Damon |
Be sure to ask about crossover changes....
- Dan |
I would take Talon's advice and first call them for guidance. You may have a undiagnosed problem with the speaker or it could be something as simple as room placement. I have had the Khoruses for over a year and if anything, they excel at being driven at high volumes. My system consists of an Essence Stereo Amp, Sony SCD1 SACD player, Tact RCS, and Stealth Speaker cables.
The folks at Talon are a pleasure to deal with and will back you up. My 3 year son stuck his fist into one of the Talon woofers, inverting it, and Mike, while on a visit to NY was kind enough to replace it at no charge, himself. You can't ask for better service than that. My experience has been good enough that I've just purchased the Khorus xs and am awaiting their delivery.
I purchased the Khoruses after owning Maggies (3.6) and Verity Parcifals, and after extensive listening to Revels (Salon and Studio), B&Ws (801), Dynaudios (3.3), Genesis (350se's), Audio Physic (whole line), Aerial (10T), Wilson Watt Puppies (5.1 and 6.0), Sonus Faber (Amatis), all excellent speakers. I highly recommend putting the time into making the Khorus' work for you, it will pay off. |
Slaufer, this is off-topic, but I would love to hear a thumbnail comparison of all of those speakers you owned and evaluated. Strengths & weaknesses, that sort of thing. If you have the time.
--dan |
My peregrine Xs go loud very easily. There soundstage is wide and uncompressed. I'm running mine with a 300 watt high current amp. The talons need a fair amount of current i have learnt to drive them properly. I suggest getting a pair of bel canto evo mono blocks for about 3k used. It may take some time to save up but in the end i think you will be a lot happier with your system. The Talons, however, are certainly not the weak links in your systems performance. |
