Talon Khorus - anyone with experience?

JayMX

So these fell into my lap yesterday. Near perfect condition. Fully functional. I’m not even gonna talk about what I paid but let’s say it was low enough I dared dive in (but the wife is not very happy...)

The Khorus pair came with a single Khite and a Roc sub. I set them up and gave the SDA's a day off... To my ears, after a full afternoon of trying every (not fancy) amp I own (I don’t own any schwanky high end amps), I find the Khorus pair to be very veiled and muffled, from 3K up they just seem to be lacking... Tried preamp out from Yamaha C60, Marantz SR6011 and the Kenwood KA-8150 all in different combinations with my Yamaha M60, GFA555, B&K ST-1430, Sansui G9000, and the Kenwood KA-8150. By tweaking the Kenny and G9000 tone controls (hard) I could squeeze clarity out, but I’m afraid my gear is a little too pedestrian (or possibly underpowered) for these fancy old monoliths.

I’ve read that Talon recommended 300 hours of break in, but they’re almost 20 years old (qualifies them as vintage, yes?) I can’t imagine they aren’t broken in by now... The cabinets are beautiful, extremely well built, super heavy. Fancy drivers. Subwoofer is a BEAST and the little Khite is working well as a center channel. The big Khorus cabinets have me scratching my head though...

Has anyone here had ears on these? Relatively expensive back in the day. I find mixed reviews and impressions online. Would love to hear from other owners if there's any up in here. Holla back and feel free to bash my gear - I’m afraid these old gals might be out of my league...

Clipdat

Is it possible that something has "gone bad" with the crossovers, resulting a pronounced roll off of high frequency information?

P.S. that sub looks insane!

BlueBirdMusic

Nice!! I agree about the sub!

motorstereo

I had a pair of them a few years back. Very expensive ($14G when new) and exceptionally well made speakers. Unfortunately they weren't my cup of tea and didn't make the cut here. When I auditioned them the seller was using a pair of equally nice monoblocks and I thought they really sounded nice. At the time I didn't have the electronics to do them justice and they just never sounded right here. I also read that there were crossover issues with that model which may have also contributed to their sound.

VR3

That one tweeter with the copper ring is a seas millennium I believe, very nice tweeter

Sound_Recluse

Imo if they are almost 20 yrs old then the crossovers are probably needing new caps to make them come back to life. At the same time you are lacking the power to push them. Never had ears on them before but they look awesome!!!

motorstereo

Here's a pic of mine from years ago. I see my grilles are a bit different from yours. Mine were made out of cherry wood and the wood had gotten darker behind the grilles unlike most speakers which normally get darker with sun exposure. Mine also had huge and very heavy spikes unlike any I'd ever seen.

VR3

High quality crossover parts can last much longer than 20 years. When I pulled out the stock crossover from my Utopias, twenty years old, all parts were within 1% of the value they were supposed to be, very tight tolerance

invalid

A lot of really high end gear can show deficiencies in the upstream gear.

JayMX

motorstereo wrote: »

Here's a pic of mine from years ago. I see my grilles are a bit different from yours.

My first thought:

- A pair of "wing" style grilles like yours were included with my set. I think I prefer the less fancy ones, but if I decide to go batcave with my decor, I'm all set...

VR3 wrote: »

High quality crossover parts can last much longer than 20 years.

- That's kind of what I was thinking. I haven't dared crack open the cabinets but I suspect they didn't skimp on the components, especially after reading all the flowery and technical verbiage there is out there about these. They sure ought to have some nice film caps in them. Maybe I'll get brave and take a peek.

invalid wrote: »

A lot of really high end gear can show deficiencies in the upstream gear.

- Agreed. Admittedly, my equipment isn't high end but my GFA555 specifically does sound pretty good on my SRS2's and 3.1TL's which are both 90dB + similar efficiency to the Talons. I get plenty of SPL and clarity from them... But who knows...? I have a friend with an Odyssey Khartago Stereo Extreme - might borrow it and see if it makes any difference. Fun to experiment!

VR3

ah ha, dont be so sure on that one! The Diva Utopia as an example uses an electrolytic cap in series with the midrange circuit, they were around 10k a pair!

You would be surprised where manufactures skimp sometimes.

As an example, Legacy Audio crossovers are... on par with what Polk uses with the RTiA series.

pitdogg2

Many high end crossovers I've had the experience to see used Solen or Bennic film caps. Neither I'd personally use in my crossover.

Huh What?

I don't have the Khorus, but I have the Talon Raven 2002, which is very similar, as well as a pair of the Talon Firebirds and I am certain that if you're finding them to be veiled and muffled that there is definitely something not functioning correctly with them. I actually sold my 2.3 TLs when I bought the Ravens, and sold my 1.2 TLs to justify buying the Firebirds. The founder of Talon Speakers is still in the audio business (on the side) and offers crossover repairs and upgrades for the older models. PM me if you'd like contact info.