Pinpoint/holographic imaging; very open, honest, and realistic upper frequency presentation, without being etched or harsh; crystal clarity; midrange smoothness and realism; extremely fast bass; very dynamic; astounding bass response for such a small speaker (flat to around 40Hz, NOT 90 as the previous reviewer states)

Smaller vertical soundstage than some of the other speakers I listened to (but this is really being nitpicky)

I am not sure what the situation is with Pantophil (review below), but the only thing I can think of is that he has an ulterior motive, or the Khites he had were defective. Besides the bass speed he mentions, just about everything he states is the antithesis of these wonderful speakers. I have lived with them for almost a year now and can state without reservation that they are the finest audio transducers I have ever owned. I listened to many products in my search and these came out on top every time. I have seen quite a few live performances in my time and the Talon''s come closest to the real event of any speaker I have heard. All I can say is don''t use these reviews to form an opinion of any audio product (including mine), but go and listen for yourself and YOU make the decision. If you give Talon a fair chance and don''t like them, fine, but don''t use these reviews to make a decision as to whether or not you should even listen to them.

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber, Reference 3A, Merlin, Revel, Wilson, Soliloquy, B&W, JM Lab, Piega, Triangle, Verity, Silverline, and a few others that escpae my memory right now

Total lack of aggression, rich tonality, very nice treble; no hash or glare. Tight bass (but rolls off at about 90 Hz). Can play loud.

The midrange has a flaw that on most recordings, especially rich in tonal character, makes the speakers UNLISTENABLE. The upper mids are nonexistent and what''s left is thick and full of resonances. The midrange lacks refinement and detail. The bass is quick but has no extention at all. Speakers Dynaudio Contour 1.3, Platinum Audio Studio 1, Sonus Faber Electa Amator I an II or even the Concerto go much lower and sound more powerful. Very narrow (although deep) soundstage. Finish is not what you would expect from a $4000 speaker. Another weakness: very poor resale value.

Very strange speakers. They are amazing in some respects (treble and bass speed) but sound awful in other areas (especially midrange and lack of anything below 90 Hz). I bought the speakers because I liked the beautiful treble and overall dynamics. The midrange was weird, but that was supposed to change once the speakers brak in. Well, I put about 700 hours on them and the improvement was very slight; the thickness anl lack of refinement was still there. I finally gave up and decided to sell them. When you buy any of the Talon products, be sure you not to pay more than 50% of the retail value. The resale value is very, very low - 25-30% of the retail value. I don''t know the reason for that, perhaps the fact that most of the dealers were selling new Talon speakers for 40-45% of retail value, and Talon did not seem to mind. Perhaps that''s what they''re really worth...

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Electa Amator 1 and 2, Concerto, Dynaudio 1.3.

See all the previous reviews

see previous review

This is a follow-up review, 11 months down the road and still very happy with these Khites. I recently switched out all my interconnects for Audio Magic silver cables and these speakers took all that detail without revealing any harshness. The fellow below who bought a set to create a HT with a pair of Khorus speakers as mains is right on -- these monitors make a great pair of main speakers. They are the secret value in the Talon line since they deliver such a similar sound as the big daddy Khorus. I mated my Khites up with the ROC sub to get that last two deep octaves, and they blend very well. While it really does take 250-300 hours for Talon speakers to break in, and they keep getting better up to 500, the long wait is worth it (they don't sound too shabby after 80 hours, either!).

Similar Products Used:

see previous review

Incredible bass for its size, clarity, detail

None

Let me first say I am using Khite as center channel in HT set-up. The Talon Khorus' are my main speakers, which I will review separately. The Khite replaced my Vandersteen CC primarily because I was replacing my Vandersteen 2ce's with the Khorus, and I have been extremely impressed with the dynamics and range of the speaker right out of the box. While lacking somewhat in range and detail compared to the Khorus, it is amazing how close it sounds for less than 1/3 the price. In fact, I think the Khites coupled with the ROC would undoubtably make for an awesome HT.
The other reviewers have expressed it well, and as my listening is limited to CC I'll leave it at that.

Similar Products Used:

Vandersteen VCC, auditioned Dynaudio, B&W HTM-1, Aerial CC

more "true" and "honest" than any other brand

none at all

Before I bought the Khites, I had tried just about every brand of speaker available to the recording engineer. All of them had some sort of disadvantage--some flaw. Most of them just made my ears hurt after a few minutes of listening (all of the Wilson Audio speakers have this effect). The better ones had less of that effect, but still felt "artificial". In all cases, there was always the impression of a "mask" covering and obscuring the sound. This "mask" occurred in a variety of ways, but the end result was that I never felt that I was truly hearing what the microphone was picking up, or what the recording was really trying to say.

I've owned a pair of the Khites for about a year and-a-half now, and I can say that these are the first speaker I have ever heard which I felt were truly "honest". I don't know how to articulate it better than that--audiophiles and other engineers will go on and on about "sound stage", "extension", "depth", "clarity", "dynamic response", and a host of other details. In the end, the Khites are by far the better in all of these or any other "detail" one could come up with.

From an engineering perspective, I can hear so much in the recordings I make and the records I own. I can hear things in microphones and recordings now that I never even had a clue were there. My Khites easily beat the $40,000 Genelec main monitors in the control room of a large local recording studio. The extension the Khites have is incredible, easily reaching 35 Hz. The depth, imaging, transparency, transient response, and many other details are far superior as well.

From a casual listening perspective, the Khites "get out of the way" and present the listener with a very refreshing, real, honest reproduction. Music seems to mean so much more coming from the Khites. With any other speaker, that's exactly what you're listening to and hearing--the speaker. With the Khites, that is not the case. You find yourself completely unaware that the speaker is there--you are not conscious of the device reproducing the sound. You are very conscious, however, of a reality and emotion present in the recording that you have never experienced before.

I don't want to praise these speakers too much for the risk of sounding "too good to be true". However, these speakers are more "true" than any you will ever hear. In fact, the only way you'll ever find another speaker that you like more than the Khites is if you have a chance to audition their bigger brothers--the Peregrine or Khorus series from Talon Audio!

Similar Products Used:

Genelec, Dynaudio, & all sorts of other professional recording monitors

Musical, well balanced and harmonically rich presentation with excellent soundstage depth and great dynamic capabilities.

Supposedly a long break-in period. Mine came as dealer demos so I didn't have to worry about it.

I was in the market for high quality small speakers and it took me numerous hours of dealer auditions and home trials before I could finally make up my mind. I guess I listened to almost everything below $5,000, currently available in NYC. Eventually it all came down to Shamrock Audio Eire against Sonus Faber Electa Amator II. Both were great speakers, with the Fabers excelling in detail retrieval and midrange fullness, while the Shamrocks were capable of reproducing very deep soundstage. I think I would have gone with the Fabers, hadn't I stumbled upon the Khites. I took them for a home audition and really liked what I heard: very, very smooth sound with rich tonal balance, detailed but not "in your face" top end and deep soundstanging. Listening to the Khites everything sounds big and full-bodied. There's nothing thin about this speakers, perhaps because the upper mids and lower treble are not as prominent as with most other designs, all that nasty smearing in the treble is gone, and what's left is great, unobstructed detail. All of that brings you closer to the music and allows for long hours of fatigue free listening. Don't get me wrong, the Khites won't put you to sleep: the dynamics are great and bass is very tight and reaches pretty low. If you add a fast and musical sub, it will make for an excellent full range setup. Talon makes their own sub, but at $4,000 it seems overpriced and was way beyond my budget anyway so I went with a REL Storm III and couldn't be happier. The integration with the Khites is seamles; no boom or bloat whatsoever; drums sound so very lifelike - tight, dynamic and full of energy. All in all I'm very happy with my Khites, and by not going with the Fabers I was able to save enough to get the REL sub with a real wood veneer which almost matches the finish of the Khites.

System used:
Bryston 7ST monoblocks
Joule Electra LA 100 MkIII preamp
Wadia 830 CD player
REL Storm III sub
Cables are Kimber KCAG interconnects and 8TC speaker cables

Similar Products Used:

A lot of small speakers in the sub $5,000 range, eg. Sonus Faber Electa Amator II, Shamrock Audio Eire, Merlin, Spendor, JM Lab.

Great timbre and fantastic speed. Perfect match with the Khorus in my home theater setup.

They look very nice, but the finish could be a little bit better.

I purchased the Khites to use them as rear and center channel speakers together with the Khorus as mains. The speakers as a package produce a full-bodied, room filling sound, with excellent speed and dynamics. I find myself spending too much time watching the movies :-).
What's amazing about the Khites is how similar they sound to the Khorus. They have the same rich and dynamic tonal balance, with the same "black" background and no harshness anywhere in the spectrum. In absolute terms they lose to Khorus in two areas: 1) The bass doesn't reach near as deep as the Khorus, although I was still able to get 45 Hz at -3dB with my RadioShack SPL meter. 2) The Khorus' highs seem to be extended a little higher with a little more detail, probably due to the super tweeter that the Khites don't have. I didn't really notice any differences in the midrange reproduction; both have the same rich and often seductive tonality, perhaps with the Khorus being a touch more articulate.
My living room is 32 x 24 x 19' so the Khorus was an obvious choice. If I had a little less space I think I could live happily with the Khites as my mains.

Very life-like midrange which is full and rich, delicate and sweet treble which prevents "ear bleeding'" when you listen to poorly recorded material. Bass is very fast and tight. They image like champs too.
Mahogany finish looks great.

Long break-in period but what you get after 200 hours is worth waiting for.

In a word: these speakers are amazing. Stunning clarity, pretty deep bass with excellent control and speed. The treble is very, very clear and free from any glare or "splash". The really glorious part is the midrange though. It just sounds so natural and full. It's never thin or lean but always stays liquid and full bodied. Vocal are so palpable and three-dimentional that it's almost spooky.
This is truly an amazing design with it's only fault being a considerably long break-in period. You have to put at least 200 hours on them before the sound opens up. When brand new, the midrange is overwhelming and the higs seemed subdued. But after about 200 hours an amazing transformation happens: the treble gets the necessary sparkle and the mids are no longer veiled, just clear and beautiful.

Similar Products Used:

Totem Mani 2, Merlin VSM SE, Sonus Faber EAII and others.

Everything. Speed, bass, detail with clarity, and NON-FATIGUNG! Monitor that does better bass and highs than towers in the same price range.

The guy ahead of me, John Brady, said it all and said it very well. These are true keepers, not stepping stones on your way to some "better" speaker. They play all kinds of music very well. What I would add is that they play amazingly loud with no distortion. This was the first thing my wife noticed, out of the box. She has near perfect hearing and would always get tired of me playing music as the distortion was tiring on her ears. Now I've got a tower speaker in a monitor package, with the strengths of both, and clarity of a much more expensive speaker. Deep articulate bass, coherent single voice sound, room shaking sound. The Khites play great whether soft or loud. These little speakers truely go down to 35Hz with strength and power so that for a lot of people they are more than enough to be happy with.

I bought them with the ROC sub. What a stellar match. The ROC is world class for musical bass and HT. It is so fast it can disappear into the monitors. Together, the three have opened the world of big classical music to me. I get the full weight and sound of orchestra, or of a massive organ, along with all the clarity and detail of the hall. The emotion of vocalists come out. the Khite/ROC combo also makes a big difference on jazz fusion and House music (of course).

And they are NON-FATIGUING! If you want that knife edged detail of "audiophile" speakers, don't bother with the Talon line. So many of the speakers I auditioned that were rated 5 stars either lacked good bass detail, or gave me headaches from forward treble. You know, Thiel, Silverline, etc.. See the Khorus reviews on soundstage.com and stereotimes.com for more about the Talon line, all the speakers have a similar sound and technical characteristics.

Advice. When I want to shake the walls by adding the ROC I get a bit more detail out of the Khites by plugging the front-firing port. This naturally raises their frequency to about 80Hz, releaving the speaker from reproducing the lower notes which the ROC now handles. Vocals get a tad crisper, more real, and the sound gets more air.

While the audiophile press is all hot for the top of the line Khorus, the Khite/ROC combo I consider the real steal. Easier to place, and very, very close to the same sound, for less$$.

My system:
Bel Canto EVo 200.2 amp
First Sound Presence Audio Delux Mk II
Toshiba DVD 9200

(BTW, The EVo amp is awesome. It was born to match to the Talon line, though I understand they make magic with little SETs, too. The Presence Audio adds just a hint of tube life to acoustic music without hazing up the black background quiet of the EVo. My only thought, a second EVo and I could run them in monoblock and the Khites could go even louder. But, I'm content. ).

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned Thiel, Silverline, Triangle (good), Avalon, B&W, Dynaaudio, etc...