Product Review - Talon Audio Khorus Floor-Standing Speakers - February, 2002
Jason Serinus
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Specifications:
Height: 112cm (44.24")
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Talon Audio Technologies, Inc., 5175 South Green Pine Drive, Murray, Utah 84123; E-Mail [email protected]; Web http://www.talonaudio.com; Phone 801-619-9000; Fax 801-619-9001 |
Introduction
For a number of years, I have enjoyed a speaker combination of two-way, upgraded
Michael Green tunable Chameleon IIIs and a stereo pair of Hsu subwoofers. With
the Hsu crossover set quite low so that they wouldn't double with the Chameleons
on the bass, the setup has brought me much pleasure.
The Chameleons have many enticing features, the most seductive of which is their
ability to completely disappear while projecting a huge, air-filled,
three-dimensional soundstage. Because they are tunable, one can make minute
adjustments for room asymmetry and anomalies. Since my room is asymmetrical,
with a dining alcove on one side, this proved an especial benefit.
However, like virtually all fine speakers, the Chameleons – at least the
discontinued Chameleon III that I have owned – have their down side. They are
pretty specific as to the width of their sweet spot; especially when positioned
nearfield, they are very much a one to two-person speaker. And they boast
neither deep bass extension, the high sensitivity necessary for mating with
single-ended triode amps (I gave up reviewing with the Pass Aleph 30 because it was
not a good match for the Chameleons), nor the fullest midrange. Nonetheless,
when the Chameleons are tuned optimally, there are no back walls or side walls;
instead, one discovers a living, breathing helping of sound that transcends the
disturbingly flat, cardboard cutout limitations of conventional digital sound.
As my reviews have increased in product variety, using the Chameleons presents a fundamental problem. Their ability
to change their sonic signature with the slightest adjustment of one of their
eight controls leaves me without a solid reference. (Is what I'm hearing due to
that interconnect I'm reviewing, or is it because the Chameleon needs tuning?)
Perhaps this is being a mite unfair. After all, some of the finest speakers on
the market sound different at different room temperatures and humidity.
Nonetheless, as I find my evaluations of sonic characteristics increasingly
heeded by a growing audience, I feel a responsibility to artists, manufacturers,
and record labels to be able to speak with certainty.
Enter the Khorus X
A little over a year ago, while attending CES, my audiophile
compatriot Clement Perry waxed ecstatic about the first generation, $14,000
Talon Khorus. After being introduced to Mike Farnsworth of Talon, I headed to
the large trailer Talon had set up at “The Show.” While my initial impressions
were mixed, I realized that a demo conducted on the spongy floor of a large
trailer could in no way represent a speaker at its best.
Shortly thereafter, despite several extremely positive reviews on the web, the
folks at Talon decided to revise their speaker design. Months later, the Khorus
X, with an upped price of $16,000, appeared on the scene. It was a pair of
this revised design that
came to me for review.
Talon claims that the Khorus X boasts improved dissipation of mechanical energy.
They now use a
polyurethane adhesive in manufacture of the cabinet that provides a stronger
bond, and penetrates more thoroughly (while curing) into the higher-tolerance
joints. Cabinet walls are fabricated out of a multi-laminated material. Besides
adding rigidity, this material seals the cabinet and disallows any of the
typical MDF breathing. The front baffle is fixed and thicker. Woofer loading,
though essentially unchanged, is accomplished in such a way that responsiveness
and presence are greater. To finish off the loading, the port is smoother and
manufactured out of solid aluminum.
Alas, receiving the Khorus X proved complicated. Each speaker weighs 190 pounds;
its shipping weight, when coupled to a wooden shipping pallet, amounts to
something like 205 pounds. Delivery may not present a problem for someone whose
listening room is on the ground floor, and whose physical frame and strength (or
deep pocket to hire a mover) makes unpacking and positioning manageable.
In my case, however, chez Serinus is a 14.5 x 17 x 9 room on the third floor of an 80-year old apartment building that lacks an elevator.
I wish to honor and thank Mike Farnsworth and crew for bending over backwards
(without breaking anyone's back) to make this review possible. A separate moving
team was hired to get the speakers from my building's downtown Oakland sidewalk
– not the best place to leave a $16,000 speaker overnight – up the stairs and
through the front door. (I can't recall if the boxes actually fit through the
door, or if the speakers were unpacked in the hallway and then dollied in. I
will take credit for striking up a simpatico conversation with the mover's wife;
the two of us teamed up to convince him to remove the speakers from their
pallets and set them on the floor.
Physical Description
Physically, the Khorus X is quite impressive speaker. It is available in seven
finishes, including the handsome “Piano Black” gloss finish I saw at Perry's.
(The shiny black makes a striking contrast to the speaker's unusual aluminum
edges, aluminum top, and aluminum bottom – also available in a gun-metal black, I
am told).
My review pair, similar to the photo at the top of this review, arrived in
yellow/ivory “Italo Pearl.” While such a color works quite well in a dark room,
it is not an ideal match for the fading beige carpet and plain unbleached muslin
backdrop that offer no visual distraction to music played chez Serinus.
(I must admit I fell in love with the gorgeous “Crimson Birdseye” finish I saw
on these speakers at CES 2002. One cannot have everything in life, at least not
all at once).
While the Khorus X looks great with its black grille on, it sounds best “naked.”
Since the grilles adhere magnetically, it's easy to put them on to impress your
guests, and then remove them when the listening begins.
Design Philosophy from Designer Tierry Budge
In an e-mail sent just as I was beginning to audition the speaker, Tierry shared
the following:
“These speakers really sound their best with the right amount of time (doing
set-up, mainly), as well as the right associated equipment, and good (and clean)
set-up connections. It's not that the speaker is so demanding of the right
set-up and associated equipment, it just took considerable time to find the
right approach to design and implementation.
“In the high-end, there is such a difference between clarity, transparency,
broadband openness, three-dimensionality, detail, extension at both extremes,
etc. It can be nearly impossible (at best!) to choose the correct
associated equipment to use as a reference . . . even then, when upgrades take
place, you're forced to start all over.
“Over the years, I've been exposed to a fair amount of music (I've played six
different instruments, since the age of four.) Trying to find the right frame of
reference in audio (i.e., choosing the right equipment) has just turned into a
mass of confusion. One day, about seven years ago, I started to look at music in
terms of a musical reference. That is, I broke down the instruments (as it were)
into the musical components. I found that each instrument has a particular
volume and form of the following combination:
1) transient, 2) fundamental, and 3) harmonic. These three elements can be
different in character, occupy different bandwidths, have different volumes, and (most important to our "hobby") come at three different times! I
found out that, to our ears, these three elements get naturally associated with an
instrument, but it was much tougher to accomplish this in audio. It took several
years (after 25 years of research) to finally begin to see results.
“I realized that it could be quite a challenge because of all the phase-shifts
that naturally occur in the drivers. However, once I had the
"window" that I needed, I began to realize some things: Since all the music we
listen to (in audio) is, obviously, recorded, things like frequency balance,
instrumental color, transient balance, and even the sense of ambience, were all
the province of the recording engineer. In a sense, you could say that the audio
system is at the mercy of the recording engineer.
“At first, this thought was a bit disturbing, until I realized that what I
was used to hearing was kind of backwards. That is, with every recording I
played, I would find myself saying, "Oh yeah, this is a Wilson speaker, or a
Thiel, or a Magnepan, etc." I found out that not only was I acclimated to hear
a given sound, even the speaker itself had a given signature. So, I began to
design around musical components (transients, fundamentals, and harmonics) and
found that the sound began to get richer and cleaner. (Some hear this "cleaner"
as sounding a bit more "rolled-off.") Given my background in high-end audio, I
wondered how this would be accepted. But no matter what I tried, I always came
back to this musical foundation of transient, fundamental, and harmonics.”
Technical Description
There are actually two 10” woofers in the speaker, positioned back to back, with
the second located directly behind the first. Below the woofers, the cabinet is
filled with layers of progressively denser material. Hence its extreme weight,
and its ability to reproduce intense bass response without severely shaking the
floor.
Talon asserts that the speed of the Khorus X is 3 to 20 times faster than that
of comparably priced speakers. Although this is impossible to evaluate by ear,
the speaker sounds very much alive and present rather than laid back and veiled.
The Khorus X tweeter is a modified Scanspeak design, while the super-tweeter is
from Audax. The speaker utilizes their own 10" driver configured with Talon's
patented group phase technology. Group phase coupling allows the 10" driver to
start and stop effortlessly by exhausting the back wave pressure from the rear
of the driver. Revolutionary port design dramatically reduces port turbulence.
This patent pending design was created by Talon engineers and is exclusive to
Talon Audio products.
Talon designates this speaker as “2.5-way.” This
means that there is a full crossover between the woofer and midrange dome, and
only half a crossover between the midrange and the super-tweeter. The midrange
dome, on the upper part of its range, is allowed to roll off naturally without
the use of low-pass, passive elements. The roll-off occurs at approximately 13
kHz, where the super tweeter, which extends to 35 kHz, is "crossed in." Talon
claims that this approach allows them to keep the speaker as simple as possible.
When I asked Tierry Budge for clarification on these matters, he supplied the
following via e-mail:
“About Group Phase Coupling (GPC): Every driver has a resonant frequency. In midrange
drivers and tweeters, it's possible to use the crossover to limit the bandwidth
so that the amplifier doesn't have to try to work with the driver's own
resonance so much. However, woofers do not have this luxury. As a result, the
audio signal has to deal with the natural characteristics of the driver and this
same driver's resonant frequency. The effect tends to reduce dynamic tracking,
make the soundstage (and images) quite unstable, and reduce the overall size of
these same images. GPC allows us to nullify the effects of the woofer's own
resonant frequency. This not only helps us to solve the aforementioned
problems, but the driver is freed-up to increase its overall bandwidth. For
example, traditional methods of implementation (of our own 10” driver) would
predict an overall bandwidth of 60 to about 800 Hz and a maximum output of about
110 dB. However, GPC allows us to use this same 10” from 17 to 2200 Hz and, to a
level of at least 126 dB, with less current demand and 20 times lower distortion
and cone break-up. Actually, the response time of the driver is so much quicker
(typically 25-40 times) that it became critical to be very precise about the
design of the dust cap. The 10” driver's dust cap had to be designed and
out-sourced independently. Truthfully, the dust cap (which is fabricated from 3
separate and specific materials) takes over frequency reproduction duties from
800-2200 Hz.
“Let me also explain what I mean by ‘2.5 way.' The first full-range system I
designed was a 4-way (five years ago.) Besides possessing various response
weaknesses, it took forever to build. However, some of the solutions introduced
by Group Phase Coupling helped overcome issues of complexity. The only challenge
was that GPC worked best when used with a dedicated driver. But, the benefits of
such a design were greater response/dynamic linearity, and simplicity of
construction. Truthfully, GPC made it possible to keep implementation simple so
that sound quality took front stage (instead of complexity).”
Initial Impressions
Because my initial impressions of the old Khorus speakers were less than gushing, it is
important to say, right off the bat, that I am writing an extremely POSITIVE
review. These are very special, marvelous speakers.
However, the Khorus X didn't sound so great at the Bay Area Audiophile Society
system-hopping event that I held literally one week after Mike had correctly
positioned the speakers chez Serinus. This was due in part to the fact that Mike
had just replaced one of the tweeters, and re-soldered tweeter connections in
both speakers. It may have also been because, even though Talon submits its
drivers to extensive break-in before letting the speakers leave the factory, my
pair may have needed even more break-in to shine.
Initial comments from the 15 audiophiles who auditioned my system were that the
Khorus X sounded dry, and lacking in air and depth. They felt the sound was rather flat and
uninvolving; the magic simply wasn't there. Several people who knew my system
quite well, and had heard it through years of changes, said that they preferred
the Chameleons.
While I agreed with the criticism, I was also aware that the bass response of
the speakers was phenomenal. Furthermore, I simply could not accept that after
we went to so much trouble to get the speakers set up properly, they could cost
so much money and impress several reviewers, yet remain inherently flawed.
Instead, I sensed that my system was in great need of upgrading. This was
further confirmed when, somewhere in my extended review process, I replaced the
Khorus X with the Chameleon III, and realized that the Khorus X was revealing
deficiencies that the Chameleon III had masked. Somewhere, sometime, somehow,
something had gone amiss in the Serinus system.
I determined to conduct a reality check. In July, while attending the Music
Critics Association of North America Convention in NYC, I paid a visit to
Clement Perry's home in New Jersey. There I heard the Khorus X/Roc subwoofer
combination sound so much better than the Khorus X had at chez Serinus, that I knew
I had a lot of work ahead of me. While I did not anticipate having the
flexibility that the TACT preamp afforded Perry – my tunable speakers were in
his case replaced by a tunable system – I knew I could do a lot more to create
a system that would give the Khorus X a run for the money.
System Changes
Many, many months of system revision and equipment modification ensued. The
Svetlana KT-88s in my Bruce Moore Dual 70 amp were replaced, first by JJ Teslas,
and then by Electro-Harmonix 6550s. Timbre became far more neutral and
extended, the overall sound far more pleasing. (I will shortly try other tubes,
which I'll discuss in a future article on tube sound.)
Then, the Tesla 6922s in my Bruce Moore Companion III preamp were changed many
times. For a while, I used Jan Phillips 6922s. I finally ended up with Siemens
Caa gold pin 6922s. The difference in sound between the Tesla and the Siemens
is enormous.
Powercords too went through many changes. I am still experimenting with these
cords. Each time my system has changed, so have my impressions. Expect to see
several extensive powercord reviews on this website in the coming months.
My preamp's shunt attenuators (volume controls) were also modified, first by increasing my ability
to adjust volume by smaller increments, then by replacing the shunt attenuators
with superior series attenuators. Then these too had to be modified to allow
for greater flexibility in volume adjustment; two different alternatives were
tried before we found the one that best suits my needs as a reviewer. (An
upgrade to capacitors and resistors is still in the works.)
Following that, the preamp's internal wiring was changed to Nirvana. (I had previously
rewired my Chameleons with Nirvana hook-up wire, which I find quite neutral and
revealing.) Finally, when my system's sound remained too dark despite loaner and
review powercords worth many thousands of dollars, careful examination of the
preamp revealed that its filament voltage was inadvertently set way too low, and
its headroom attenuated. After more toll calls and gratuitous gray hairs than I
care to think about, all this was corrected.
Speaker Modifications
Subsequently, Mike again showed up at my door. As it turned out, he and designer
Tierry Budge had decided to modify the speaker's crossover. The ability to
witness this modification firsthand enabled me to lure our fearless
Editor-in-Chief John Johnson from the suburban comfort of Silicon Valley to the
unexplored wilds of downtown Oakland's Adams Point.
After Mike had modified the left speaker, I demagnetized and played my favorite
“Blues No More” track from Terry Evans' JVC-XRCD, Puttin' It Down. The
difference between the sound of the left and right speakers was immense. Imagine
the sonic equivalent of the split face that greets you on a Mac. Can you conjure
up the sound of a system that sounds like a mime, half of whose face is painted
gray and the other half white? When you've got the picture, you can understand
how different the two speakers sounded. Even before the 100 hours of required
break-in, the modified speakers immediately impressed as far more transparent,
alive, and involving. In fact, now all Khorus X speakers have had their
crossovers modified.
Sincere Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Mike for his faith in my ability to create a system that is
worthy of such a fine speaker. Finally, my appreciation to Dave Blair of Custom Power Company, Vin
Guarino of Nordost, Peter Bizlewicz of Symposium Energy Absorption Platforms,
Caelin Gabriel and Grant Samuelson of Shunyata, Bob Bergner of Bruce Moore
Audio, the irreplaceable audio whiz and repair person extraordinaire David
Tonelli, Paul Knutson, my partner in high-end excess Joey Cain, the fabulous Bob
Cohen of The Cable Company (ably assisted by the team of seductive sirens known
as Karen, Chris, Suzanne, and Lisa), and dealers Brian Rovinsky (St. Cecilia
Sound Gallery), Jim Volpatti (Silent Lucidity), and Joe Cutrufelli (JC Audio)
for their generosity of assistance and patience.
Whoever said that being an audiophile was easy? This has been a long haul, as
each modification to my system was accomplished in the midst of an intense
schedule of writing CD and performance reviews and artist features. Thankfully,
the upshot of the process is that I have created a sound system that sounds great
and will enable me to reliably review a wide variety of audio equipment.
Listening Criteria
When evaluating a piece of gear, it is important to have a reliable sonic
reference. To my ears, this comes mainly when listening to recordings and
performances of un-amplified music played on acoustic instruments.
Don't get me wrong. Studio-recorded pop music that employs electronic
instruments can be marvelous. (The Terry Evans disc is a case in point.) But
given the processing, amount of artificial reverb, multi-track layering, and
many levels of sonic manipulation involved in producing today's pop recordings,
it is hard to tell exactly what is producing what.
A case in point. At one of Sony's tight-ship surround sound SACD demonstrations
at a previous CES, listeners were treated to a preview of a new multi-channel
Joni Mitchell CD. I'm a child of the ‘60s, and happen to love Joni Mitchell. But
there was no way for me to listen to a 16-track, studio-enhanced surround sound
production and evaluate how good it sounded in SACD. Sure, I could evaluate
transparency. I could even make a stab at timbre. But since everything had been
so highly manipulated at the control panel, it was impossible for me to tell the
forest from the trees.
Thus, my personal reference remains frequent attendance at un-amplified concerts
in a variety of venues. I know the sound of Mahler in the eighth row center of
Davies Symphony Hall as well as I know how it sounds from the side of the Second
(top) Tier. I know what Hertz Hall sounds like in the first row (immediate), in
the center (rich and resonant), and in the balcony (distant but warm). I know
that the Kirov Orchestra can sound very different than the Berkeley Symphony
Orchestra when reviewed from the same seat in UC Berkeley's Zellerbach
Auditiorium. And I certainly know that if I have a choice between hearing the
Oakland East Bay Symphony in the terrible, made-for-movies acoustic environment of the
Paramount Theater or spending a night at home listening to my system, I'll
choose the latter.
It is with the sound of un-amplified music in my head that I approached the Talon
Khorus X.
What the Khorus X Has to Offer
If there is one single word that describes what I like best about these
speakers, it is their “honesty.” They are extremely clean, remarkably fast,
detailed without being etched, and honest in their timbral presentation. While
their bass is tremendously impressive and well-controlled, it is not in the
least bloated or overly emphasized. The same can be said of their fine midrange:
it is neither artificially bloated nor weighted toward the warm or romantic. And
when it comes to their top end (abetted by the super tweeter), it is as clear,
accurate, and pleasing as one might possibly wish without being artificially
etched.
Audiophiles put great emphasis on three-dimensionality and soundstage width.
Certainly these have their merits. Given that a 14.5 x 17 living room cannot
deliver the thrills of a 3000-seat, acoustically tuned concert hall,
three-dimensionality, height, width, air, and depth compensate for shrunken
dimensions. (There's a good argument for surround sound here, but I cannot
imagine such a setup in my confined space.)
In reality, however, despite countless attempts to tune into soundstage size,
depth, and air in live environments, I have never heard them emphasized to the
extent that they achieve prominence in many audiophile systems. Joey and I have
sat in Davies Symphony Hall with eyes closed many times, and we find ourselves
too blown away by Michael Tilson Thomas' conducting of the San Francisco
Symphony to give a damn about the layering of instruments in a hi-fi system.
It is my belief that what often passes as three dimensionality in two-channel
stereo is partially the product of an over-weighted treble interacting with a
less than ideal room. It's a lot of fun, and certainly holds one's interest. But
it hardly approaches the correct sound.
Here is where the Khorus X' honesty comes in. Yes, in Arleen Auger's Love Songs
recital (Delos), her voice is in front of the piano. But the piano does not
sound way in the distance, as it can with some speakers. Rather, Auger's voice
has a roundness and presence to it, and the piano has its own roundness and
presence. The two dance and blend with each other in space, as they do in live
recital, rather than sounding like separate instruments vying for attention.
Whether playing tracks from Reference Recordings' orchestral spectacular Bolero!
(which received an Emmy nomination for engineering) or the Tallis Scholars
singing polyphony, the Khorus X leaves me feeling as though I have heard an
accurate reproduction of the musical experience.
When I listen to the aforementioned Terry Evans' extended “Blues No More” track,
I can hear just how successfully the Audioquest/JVC XRCD recording captures a
marvelous sense of air. The sound of brushes on cymbals and sticks on drums is
very clear. Ry Cooder's guitar rings out from the right speaker, suspended in
space. But I do not hear what I heard from a Wilson Grand Slam/Convergent Audio
Technologies presentation at CES 2002, where Terry Evans seemed to have ascended
to the heavens, singing out from above me as though he had sprouted angel wings.
Nor do I hear the intriguing but ultimately unreal disembodied sound I hear from
many speakers, with each instrument carefully positioned in a separate acoustic
space that makes the whole thing sound rather phony. Rather, I have a sense of a real
acoustic venue, a genuine layout, and an honest interaction between players.
If there's too much reverb on a recording, I hear it. For example, just this
afternoon, an audiophile society member and his girlfriend brought over the
brand new Diana Krall CD. We compared two tracks on the new disc with a track
from her classic "When I Look in Your Eyes". The difference in recording technique
was enormous. “The earlier recording is better,” said both my visitors. Yes,
less reverb, less doctoring, more natural. Thanks to the Khorus X, electronic
tinkering is immediately apparent.
Conclusion
For those of you who have quickly scrolled through all of the above to cut to
the chase, I say the same thing I say to those who have read my every precious
word.
The Khorus X is a great speaker. Its accuracy, honesty, musicality, range, and
sensitivity are amazing.
If you like your music warmed-over, romanticized, or hyped-up;
if you want your music absolutely dry; if you want bass that pounds so hard, even when it's not supposed to, that your
second chakra gets a major workout;
the Talon Khorus X may not be for you.
If, on the hand, you desire your listening experience to approach the reality of
live performance and/or what the recording and mastering engineer(s) hoped you
would hear, this speaker very well may prove ideal.
It certainly works for me. The Talon Khorus X now graces my listening room, and
serves as my reference loudspeaker.
Review System:
Bruce Moore Dual 70 tube poweramp with Electro-Harmonix 6550 tubes
Bruce Moore Companion III tube preamp with Siemens CCa tubes(rewired with
Nirvana hook-up wire)
Digital:
Theta Gen. 5A single-ended DAC
Perpetual Technologies P-1A with Monolithic Power Supply
Audio Alchemy DDS-Pro transport
Power:
PS Audio P600 Power Plant power
synthesizer with Multiwave
PS Audio Ultimate Outlet for amp
PS Audio Power Ports in wall
Cabling:
Nordost SPM Reference speaker cable to the
speakers
(AQ 3' Clear II speaker cable to the Hsus if in use)
Nordost single-ended Quatro Fils interconnects from Theta to preamp and preamp
to amp
(AQ 1m. Diamond II co-ax interconnect from Hsu sub amps to preamp if in use)
Nordost Silver Shadow AES/EBU digital interconnects from transport to P1A to
Theta
Shunyata Python power cables on the transport
PS Audio Lab Cable on the Power Plant and Ultimate Outlet
Various review cords on other equipment: Currently, these include a Fatman Gold
2000 on the amp, a Nordost on the preamp, the Custom Power Company Top Gun High
Current on the Theta, and the Ensemble on the P-1A.
Sundry:
Michael Green Deluxe Ultrarack and Basic
Racks, plus MG audiopoints and room treatment
Black Diamond Racing cones under Theta
Inner tubes, maple cutting boards and bags of sand, homemade bass traps
Shakti stone atop Theta and Shakti On-Lines on most powercords
Bedini Dual Beam Ultraclarifier, Audioprism Stoplight and Blacklight, Gryphon
Exorcist, Sheffield/XLO degmagnetizer and break-in disc Ecstacy
Analog (hardly the strong suit of the system, rarely used):
Dual 1219, Sumiko Blue Point and a Classe 6 phono preamp with the optional
umbilical cord. Paired with Tara Decade and Nirvana SL-1 interconnects, and a
Shunyata Black Mamba powercord.
- Jason Serinus -
© Copyright 2002 Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity
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