Talon Audio

I would like to know what drivers and crossover topology these Talon speakers use, if you don't mind. I seem to recall checking their website out, and it was deliberately vague. And don't tell me the details don't matter, because details always matter (I even heard the "devil" lurks in them, heh heh)...

One little piece of information has recently been added to the Talon site -- Stereo Exchange in NY has just become a dealer. These guys don't fool around. You can get B&W Nautilus' or mega-buck ProAc's there. Anyway, I'm a regular customer, and I wasn't shopping for speakers, but one of the salesmen practically dragged me into their "ultimate" demo room to hear them. I told him I wasn't shopping for speakers, and he said that he couldn't sell them to me if he wanted to because at that point they were'nt a dealer -- the speakers were just in for evaluation. But he said it didn't matter - "YOU JUST GOTTA HEAR THESE SPEAKERS!!!!". Unfortunately the bottom line is that I can't give you a full evaluation, because he played music that I didn't know, but what I heard was stupendous - IN EVERY WAY (especially the incredibly HUGE soundstage). As we listened, the salesman entered what seemed like a mystical state of rapt attention and kept muttering things like "I-I-I n-n-nev-ver, uh, uh, wow, did you hear th-th-aaaat, I-I mean, I never heard THAT before, and I've heard this song a million times!" On my latest visit to the store, he confidently declared that these speakers are THE BEST SPEAKERS IN THE WORLD - even though he'll sell you far more expensive speakers if you're so inclined. Watch for the review in Stereophile!

What'd be really cool is if I could get my question answered, since I don't think much of "magic shows". "Just the facts, Ma'am".......

OK, the drivers. They used custom designed drivers which include a 10" treated paper composite woofer, and a compound tweeter which consists of a 1.5" treated cloth dome to a 1" supertweeter. The midrange dome, on the upper part of it's range, is allowed to roll off naturally...w/o the use of low-pass passive elements. This occurs at 13 KHz, where the supertweeter is crossed in with the necessary crossover elements. So this compound tweeter extends from 2KHz-35KHz. I believe the crossover is a first order type. But please try not to break this speaker down to drivers and crossovers, because while they are impressive, this speaker truly sounded much greater than the sum of it's parts. Why dont you call Talon for more info?

A local dealer told me of this "new technology" speaker that was designed by a former Wilson Audio designer that was 1000 times faster than convential speakers and could be driven by single-ended triodes. As I am pre-disposed to fast speakers (former Genesis V and 200 owner)I was interested. I normally reserve my opinion for products that I have lived with for at least a couple of months but there are some attributes that are instantly recognizable such as the speed of a speaker. The Talons do not sound "fast" and they had no sonic features that made me want to investigate further. In addition, if the designer came from Wilson he didnt spend much time in the cabinent department. Wilsons are one of the highest quality cabinents out there and the Talons were a joke. Asking $12,000 for the cabinent and drivers that I saw was insulting. I have to believe these other posts are some sort of advertising.

I've not seen or heard these Talon models, and don't want to pre-suppose anything about them, or even the people posting in this thread. However, I will say that a whole is NEVER greater than the sum of its parts. I'm a speaker hobbyist myself, and feel that two of my design ideas would be (at least) extremely competitive if they were ever brought to market. Just me saying that is meaningless, I realize, but I'd like to think I know how to gauge speakers. Double speak sales talk doesn't work on me, I'm always interested in how they're designed and built..............And as for Wilson speakers, I feel that every model they produce is over priced, when you consider the competition. They're a big name, a juggernaught, and they won't last forever. The past decade has been kind to them, but I don't see that carrying over into this decade for much longer.

And thanks Dolphin, for those tidbits of info.