Amplifiers for Talon Hawk monitors

Dgob
It sounds like a really good system you have honed together. If it sounds better than the VAC/Talon system i heard, I would love to hear it. I can attest to the levinson sound too although never heard the combination you are refering to. Levinson is the reason i started to follow and become an audiophile about 10 years ago. I was a home theater fanatic and still love a nice home theater but when i visited Audio FX in Sacramento way back when, I was floored by the sound coming from the Levinson/Dynaudio C-5. I think the cut was take me to the river cant remember the group. Right then i knew i had to have one of those!!
All in all, Im glad you have found something that gets you closer to the holy grail of sound. Happy Listening.

I have both Levinson Ref 20 and VAC 160 musicblocs. With the Hawks there is no comparison--the Musicbloc is awesome. I'm also using a Navison 572 monoblocks with an older pair of Hawks. These amps have little bass, which is fine with me and would be fine if you were using a sub (I'm not in this set up). The Navison's are considerably less expensive than the VAC amps. They are also less power--only 8 watts I believe, which in my application is more than enough. It's an office system and I don't play loudly there. The Navison has a wonderful open midrange. Probably not as low in distortion, but just very musical and enjoyable to listen to.

As to the stands--the older models do not have the threads for the stands, so I probably wouldn't really recommend the Wings stand for older Hawks. What you have is probably a great choice--sounds like it from your description.

Rives,

I see your point but think that the 23.5 and old Ref 20 are not really the same beast. Have you seen the brief comparison at http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/606/index9.html?

Chaz801

Thanks again. I am very happy with it but no doubt will continue to tinker as is our way. On the sub issue, if you check the Audiogon link cited about and look at the article by R. L. Hardesty cited by Rauliruegas on the second page of the thread you can see how the Hawks can supercede expectations.

Dear Rives: IMHO if one amplifier is better than other with a specific speaker has to be/see ( between other things ) how good that amplifier match the speaker electrical impedance and for other way what the person is looking for: just sound or music.

I never had the opportunity to hear the Dgob system but I have almost clear what he are looking for ( music priorities ) and something that he wants to achieve is to be nearest to the recording.
I really like the Talons, as a fact time ago I recomended to Dgob stay with it and not change it.

Now and returning on subject as good as the VAC amplifiers are IMHO and due to its high output impedance anything that we hear/heard through it and the Talons will be " heavy colored sound " very far from what is in the recording, you can like it ( like you did/do and I respect that. ) or not but the fact is that that amplifiers can't be a good match ( for music ) not only to the Hawks but to other speakers.
In the other hand the 23.5 that own Dgob is a lot better match than the VACs.

Another subject that you have to know is that the 23.5 ( that own Dgob ) is a unique ML amplifier that has a very nice and unique up-grade that puts it in other quality performance level and IMHO above the VACs, the 23.5 give to Dgob music and music nearest to the recording with a lot lesser " distotions/colorations/noises/etc/etc " than the VACS.

Maybe I wrong but we can't change the Ohm's Law about impedance matching between the amp and speaker.

Now, mi opinion is only that just one more opinion, the important opinion is what Dgob thinks.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul:

You are right about Ohm's law, but you probably know very little about Talon speakers impedance curve. They are about the flatest in the industry which makes them so easy to drive by many tube amplifiers. The max impedance is around 14 Ohms and the minimum is around 4. A nominal impedance of 6 ohms. The VAC is a perfect match for the Talons. We show with VAC regularly--why? Because it's such a great match. I have owned Levinson, reference 20.5 and 20.0 (still own these). I have compared them with the Talon speakers to the VAC directly on Hawks, Thunderhawks, and Firebirds. The VAC is better with all three speakers. This is not to say the 23.5 is a bad match--it's a great amp and will sound great with many speakers. Now I have also tested the VAC with my Martin Logan monoliths, which go down to about 1/2 an ohm. In this case the Levinsons were surperior. The VAC did not handle this very low impedance as well.