my Talon Khorus sounds bad

Don't know about the Talons, but with your equipment, I would certainly move up from the Nordost Blue Heaven. If you want to stay with Nordost (very "quick" cable, but perhaps not the best for bass fullness) I would try SPM or Red Dawn Rev. 2 (not the original). This may open up the sound. Also, if you listen at high levels, does your amp have enough power to drive the Talons without "running out of steam"? Happy Tunes!

300i is great as a Rock'n'roll amp and good enough to drive Khorus. Rega Planet seems to be lifeless for any kind of music either electronic or acoustic imo. It's got plastic body and pocket CD-player mechanism besides. I still do not know how you can tweak plastic bodies. You can literally "downgrade" Planet to a better source.

Have you tried repositioning your speakers? As previous poster had implied with suggesting the room correction devices, your room has more influences in the way your whole system sounds than changing any part of your amplification chain, IMHO. It is my belief that properly positioned average speaker system will sound better than the top end speakers in a poor room, improperly positioned.

Before you give up on the speakers, try moving them out away from your walls.

My experience has taught me that most of what you hear and don't hear from your speakers are your front end and your cabling. I had to swap out my 801 matrix 2's for some circuit city dcm's because I blew a woofer. I was surprised to find that they didn't sound all that bad at low to medium listening levels. But they always sounded crappy with my aiwa receiver. (Those were my pre-audiophile days. :) )

If you like to drive your system to high volume levels at times, invest in the best separates you can afford. 250-300 ss watts into 8 ohms rating is perfect. Also, your cd player and preamp need to be well matched. I believe that if you can try out some product that fits these descriptions you will see the difference.

Dear Dave,

Please call us at Talon and we will be happy to troubleshoot and make suggestions. We want all of our customers to be satisfied with our speakers, regardless if they are new or used. We have many loyal and ecstatic customers that have immediately had great results. Others have taken some time to get excellent results, and others have simply given up. Great results can be achieved, just a little effort and considerations need to be made.

The recipe for success is to have low noise, transparent electronics and cables, with a properly set-up listening room. Not all electronics and cables are created equal, nor does price or brand name dictate the quality of performance. Experience in listening to different electronics and cables will offer the perfromance you are looking for. For example, if you are feeding your Porsche regular gas and are frustrated with its performance on the muddy road you are racing it on, would you blame the car? The speakers can only perform as well as the system and room are integrated with them.

As mentioned earlier, please contact us and we will be glad to troubleshoot this situation.

Happy Listening,

Michael Farnsworth
Talon Audio