Talon Khorus with no soundstage?

I owned the Talon Khorus. The imaging of that speaker is one of the best things they do. But they have a very long break-in period...up tp 500 hours of music playback. Until then, the sound is very closed in and boxy. Leave for a week or more and leave your stereo playing. That's what I had to do to accomplish the break in. I also owned the EMC-1, and I know it soundstages very well also. If there is a component in the chain that is suspect in performance, it would be your pre-amp. I have never heard the 4.7, but a dealer friend who sells Electrocompaniet has told me in the past that their pre-amps are not very good compared to others in the same price range.

You should trust your ears, but also the opinion of people who have experience in owning this speaker, and have witnessed the changes that break-in time makes. I didn't hear them at a show or in a showroom somewhere. I owned them for about a year, and can tell you first hand what happens with break-in time. You have also now read an article about it by a professional reviewer. Want further proof? E-mail Stu McCreary of P{ositive Feedback magazine. He walked me through my intial concerns about the muddy midrange and vague soundstage by informing me of the long break-in time. There may still be threads discussing this on Audiogon. I don't think the Khorus is a perfect speaker, and I sold mine some time ago. But soundstaging is not the problem with it.

I believe it is a credible product, but I agree that $14000. may be high. The issue I had with the speaker was that it was somnewhat dark sounding and lacking high level detail. This sound may work in some systems. I also wasn't pleased with the cabinet finish, which I guess has improved (although I don't care for the cosmetics of the Khorus X. We call it the Speak-inator).

It's easy to get a pair of Khorus for $5000. used. Incidentally, I received mine in trade for some other speakers. The previous owner also failed to wait for the Talons to break-in. I was not at all impressed with them initially, and had to read all the threads about the speaker before trading. Regarding your last inquiry about using a break-in CD...I didn't and they broke in at medium sound levels. It just takes longer.

Regarding your pre-amp, I did not say that your pre-amp is your problem, but I don't think it's up to the quality of the rest of your equipment. The sound you are getting from the Khorus is exactly what I heard from the speakers before break-in. If you don't want to put the time into breaking the speakers in, that's your business.

I don't know why the Talon Khorus is such a controversial speaker, but every thread about it draws a lot of negativity. Anybody want to address that?