Taylo Reference III's - how are these?


Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could share his/her insight on the Taylo Reference III's. The speaker design and specifications intrigue me - and I would greatly appreciate any comments. I am trying to find a speaker that sounds similar to a Watt Puppy or Sophia at a non-Wilsonian price. A tall order indeed....

Thanks - all comments are greatly appreciated,

Peter
pard
Thanks again for your input!

Will my 100W integrated suffice - or do I need substantially more power? I'd really like to keep this amp...

How do these sound compared to Wilson Sophia's? What speakers did you compare these to when you were shopping?

Cheers,

Peter
Aggie, I don't think the Ref III need a sub, they do the bottom end very well. I do find the Ref III like a bit of power though. I agree with you that there great for Jazz and rock.
Peter,
Ty's stuff is phenomenal with jazz. It's very nice with rock, but as with most speakers not made by Klipsch, you'll probably want a sub to augment the very bottom.

I heard the Taylos with PS Audio pre and amp, and the limitations were clearly in the bottom end and due to the amp rather than the speakers. I suspect I haven't heard the best bottom end these can produce due to the PSA's limitations, so I'm hazarding a bit of a guess on the sub.
Pard, I listen to 60-70s rock, Blues and jazz, the Ref III do great at all that I throw at them. If you go to my system you can see what components and wire I have paired with the Tylers. Should be great visiting Ty and listening to all his speakers.
Aggie and Jsa, thanks a million for your comments!

What type of music do you listen to? In addition, to jazz, classical and blues - I listen to a lot of bass heavy rock & roll and electronica. Do you guys feel these speakers are suitable for this type of music? I'd like to be able to crank AC/DC and Rage Against the Machine! ;-) I know many people out here do not play at loud volumes - I frequently do.

Also, what type of amplification are you using? I have a Portal Panache (100 wpc) and I really love it. Tyler mentioned that it should be fine - any other comments regarding this? Taylo's don't seem power hungry and 8 ohms should be cake to drive, so I think my amp should suffice.

Any thoughts regarding speaker cable?

As an aside, my speaker placement would be very similar to Jsa's - perhaps worse: I only have about 7 feet to play with inbetween them- and only four feet behind them. The room is not all that large either - 12' by 20' with 9' ceilings. On the plus side, the room is very well damped.

Again, any insights would be greatly appreciated. I actually plan to drive down to Kentucky to hear them - not sure when I will have the time though.

Thanks!
I have the Ref III and really enjoy them, I get a nice large stage with good depth, they are for the most part invisable in my room, something I look for in a speaker. Bass is tight and punchy and no way bloated, mids are lush and natural sounding never in your face with sweet highs. I think being a front ported design it makes for a room friendly speaker. I have mine approx. five feet out from the wall and four feet from the sides and seven feet apart as that's about as far as I can get them apart, I think if I could space them another foot or two apart they would even sound better.
The Tylers offer great value with top notch parts and Ty is one of the good one's to deal with, he will customize them if you want, like I know he offers a few different tweeters to choose from and you have your choice of out board cross overs or not and he must have 25 different woods to pick from. One thing that I did was replace the brass spikes as the ones Ty offers are ok but I wanted something that better. In regards to your other speakers mentioned I can't comment as I never heard them before. Do a search and you'll see most if not all like his speakers. Good Luck in you audio journey!
Nice speakers. Great build, very nice imaging, and very transparent. You could do a heck of a lot worse for the price.