A strange thing happened on the way to...

I would take another dealers thoughts on a brand he doesnt carry with a large dose of salt...a friend of mine has the 1.6s which are amazing speakers...regardless of price...I would suggest taking the drive to hear Maggies...and bring your credit card...chances are u will like what u hear....if I had the room...I would seriously consider the Mags...and just for the record...they have plenty of bass...bring some music..kick back...and enjoy the most transparent speaker on the market...also...nothing sounded exaggerated to me...

I think that you will find the presentation of the Talon's and that of a Maggie to be quite different. Which one you like best will have a lot to do with your room, speaker set-up and personal taste. Sean
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I haven't heard the Talons, but I used to sell Maggies (pre-3.6). I personally love the Maggie sound, especially for acoustic music and vocals, but would tend to agree in general with your salesman's assessment. However, I don't consider these aspects as flaws - in fact, Maggies can do some things regarding the casting of a sonic image and space better than just about all other speakers, if correctly set up in an appropriate room. It's just that those things aren't going to strike you as being "tight defined imaging" in the way you are used to thinking of it from box speakers. Frankly, I find the way Maggies present the musicians and soundspace really transcends terms like those, since live music does not have "focus" and the "soundstage" is all around you. If I got big SS amps, listened mostly to naturally recorded acoustic music, and had a more commodious listening room, I'd probably own a pair right now instead of the Thiels I use. But dynamic box speakers can have advantages in bass weight, midrange presence, dynamic impact, and ease of placement. I also feel that Maggies have somewhat more of a tendency to lend everything played through them a little bit of a similar signature character overall which is endemic to the design, than do most good dynamic speakers (although this presentational character is pleasant enough and quite appropos of a lot of music, particularly classical, and is not to my mind a 'coloration' as such, for they are tonally quite neutral and transparently revealing). They also are more of a "they are here" speaker than a "you are there" speaker. If you think your gear, room, and tastes run toward what I've alluded to, you appreciate a natural, open sound that emphasizes coherence and near-tactile immediacy without hype or fowardness, and you're still curious, I would take the drive, just for the educational experience of getting to know a benchmark classic if nothing else.