Talon Loudspeakers is one of those brands that occasionally crops up in Internet forums, you know, whenever someone starts a flame war over “the best loudspeakers ever”. I’ve never had a chance to demo anything from Talon before CES, so seeing their speakers here was a happy, unexpected treat, but the $75,000/pair price tag — $95k for the “active” version — was the first indication as to why I might not have seen a lot of their top-of-the-line Phoenix before. Yeah.
Some specs:
- Frequency Response: 17Hz – 40kHz
- Nominal Impedance: 6 ohms
- Minimum Impedance: 4 ohms
- Efficiency: 95 db
- Driver complement: Dual 11″ ceramic woofer, 5″ ceramic midrange, 1″ ceramic tweeter
- Dim: 54 x 16 x 32 inches (H,W,D)
- Weight: 370 lbs (per speaker)
Shown here with VAC components, a Firebird turntable from Dr. Feickert, and a DAC from AMR, the sound really ought to have knocked my socks clean off my feet and out into the hall. But, while the mid-range had a good sense of immediacy, the bass was pretty much absent, admittedly, a problem for most of the rooms at the Venetian this year.
Sounds like Talon was having room issues, that’s too bad as I’ve really enjoyed their speakers for a long time. It’s interesting that they opted for the ceramic tweeter in these, seems like a step back from the old Firebird Diamond.
Wilson called and they want their design back.