Peabody and I listened to these Speakers today!

[frenchmon]

in this order....JBL LS 80

http://www.stereomag.cz/obr/eisa2008/1JBL%20LS80.jpg

nice sound bass a little flabby....mids good, upper ranges kinda to mellow. To polite.

Next was the Canton Vento. I forget what model but Canton speakers have to be the best kept secret in audio. The pair we saw was a very nice cherry wood..excellent craftsmanship.

http://www.canton.de/assets/images/produkte/vento880.2dc-1.jpg

They just do every thing just right. Well the only complaint that I had that I shared with Peabody is that they may be a tad to agressive..but they are truly 3 dimensional speakers that make the speakers cabinets disappear. They are supper transparent, great air around each instrument, excellent bass the way Peabody loves his bass....sorta like Dynaudio in the bottom end but equally balanced in the mids and the tweeters. Like I said they are like supper transparent in its presentation.

Next up was the Canton Ergos. Another fine product but a little cheaper.

http://www.canton.de/assets/images/produkte/ergo690dc-1.jpg

These speakers while being a little cheaper than the Vento are every bit the speaker the Ventos are. But get this....while the Vento is a great speaker, a little aggressive in its presentation, the Ergo's are not aggressive at all, just like the Vento they have great extension both ways and are just as 3 dimensional, but there is something that the Ventos dont do as well as the Ergo's....these speakers are emotional and romantic! Yes!!!! These Puppys will have you in love..especially with the female singing voice. And get this...after you take of the grill, the baffle is velvet!! I have never seen that before, in any speaker Has something to do with reflections I suppose, but if you are looking at the picture now...what is black is black velvet! This is truly a great speaker and this speaker is number one on my list when I buy new speakers at the middle to the end of next year. They just do every thing right.

The next speaker is just a master piece of a speaker. JBL Synthesis Arrey BG

http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/510jbl.2.jpg

http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/510jbl.1.jpg

These speakers also share some of the mid to upper ranges with the Cantons, and they have a very large bottom end. I was in amazement of the transparency of these babies. What separated the transparency of these and the Cantons was that teh Arreys where like you where right there in the music. Stay tunned....we may have a pair of these in the house soon....no not my house but guess who? Oh and they retail for $11,500.00...if not for such a great deal that was offered, I think the Ergos where on order....but lets wait and see, I dont want to jump the gun to soon by speaking for some one else.

[Ajani]

Nice write up... I love the look of the Ergo... Looks like a man's speaker and should have serious bass response...

It will be nice to hear how those JBLs fare with the Conrad Johnsons...

[harley .guy07]

yeah Mr P. sent me email asking me if I had heard the JBL's and I told him that I had not heard anything in their higher end lines since I live in an area with only one high end shop and they are Martin Logan/McIntosh only with a little Rotel in there for a lower price point but they failed to mention that until I walked into a side showroom that had a Rotel pre and amp feeding another pair or ML's but you can tell that they want to push the McIntosh stuff which I have honestly only liked a couple of times when I heard it running very bright B&W speakers which mated well due to the fact that the McIntosh being very warm made the B&W's tolerable but when I heard them with ML I thought that the ML's would do better with something else. Now hearing a high end JBL would be interesting and might be worth a trip to Mr. P's if the timing was right just to hear them. I used to be a JBL fan until they started their Best Buy thing after Harmon America bought them out. Now that they have a little more control in building high end speakers again I would like to hear what they have come up with. they sure look cool and kind of contemporary while also looking conventional in a horn speaker kind of way. I did read a review of the arrey a while back and it got very positive reviews in the way of overall output, dynamics, and natural musical presentation. Would like to know how the CJ stuff will mate with it.

[LeRoy]

in this order....JBL LS 80

http://www.stereomag.cz/obr/eisa2008/1JBL%20LS80.jpg

nice sound bass a little flabby....mids good, upper ranges kinda to mellow. To polite.

Next was the Canton Vento. I forget what model but Canton speakers have to be the best kept secret in audio. The pair we saw was a very nice cherry wood..excellent craftsmanship.

http://www.canton.de/assets/images/produkte/vento880.2dc-1.jpg

They just do every thing just right. Well the only complaint that I had that I shared with Peabody is that they may be a tad to agressive..but they are truly 3 dimensional speakers that make the speakers cabinets disappear. They are supper transparent, great air around each instrument, excellent bass the way Peabody loves his bass....sorta like Dynaudio in the bottom end but equally balanced in the mids and the tweeters. Like I said they are like supper transparent in its presentation.

Next up was the Canton Ergos. Another fine product but a little cheaper.

http://www.canton.de/assets/images/produkte/ergo690dc-1.jpg

These speakers while being a little cheaper than the Vento are every bit the speaker the Ventos are. But get this....while the Vento is a great speaker, a little aggressive in its presentation, the Ergo's are not aggressive at all, just like the Vento they have great extension both ways and are just as 3 dimensional, but there is something that the Ventos dont do as well as the Ergo's....these speakers are emotional and romantic! Yes!!!! These Puppys will have you in love..especially with the female singing voice. And get this...after you take of the grill, the baffle is velvet!! I have never seen that before, in any speaker Has something to do with reflections I suppose, but if you are looking at the picture now...what is black is black velvet! This is truly a great speaker and this speaker is number one on my list when I buy new speakers at the middle to the end of next year. They just do every thing right.

The next speaker is just a master piece of a speaker. JBL Synthesis Arrey BG

http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/510jbl.2.jpg

http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/510jbl.1.jpg

These speakers also share some of the mid to upper ranges with the Cantons, and they have a very large bottom end. I was in amazement of the transparency of these babies. What separated the transparency of these and the Cantons was that teh Arreys where like you where right there in the music. Stay tunned....we may have a pair of these in the house soon....no not my house but guess who? Oh and they retail for $11,500.00...if not for such a great deal that was offered, I think the Ergos where on order....but lets wait and see, I dont want to jump the gun to soon by speaking for some one else.

You two guys must be tired from all that listening and evaluating. I think I will have a Stout in both of you guy's honor!

[harley .guy07]

I agree. and I went back and read the review on this speaker and the reviewer used mostly stereo and mono blocks from Bryston for the review so I can not tell what the CJ stuff will do but they do seem really low in efficiency for a horn speaker, about the same or slightly higher than the Dyn's so he should have enough power but he is looking at a totally different price class and when you do that you got to remember that there are other way more options in that price class to think about. Not more speakers as far as numbers but brands that can give a difference presence and at that price you could have a lot of different options. At that price class you are stepping into boutique category and when you do that you have to really do your research and kind of treat it like you are buying a house or car. something you will have to live with for a long time most likely.

[frenchmon]

I agree. and I went back and read the review on this speaker and the reviewer used mostly stereo and mono blocks from Bryston for the review so I can not tell what the CJ stuff will do but they do seem really low in efficiency for a horn speaker, about the same or slightly higher than the Dyn's so he should have enough power but he is looking at a totally different price class and when you do that you got to remember that there are other way more options in that price class to think about. Not more speakers as far as numbers but brands that can give a difference presence and at that price you could have a lot of different options. At that price class you are stepping into boutique category and when you do that you have to really do your research and kind of treat it like you are buying a house or car. something you will have to live with for a long time most likely.

Harley I agree with you bout stepping into another class. While he did not have them there, he offered Peabody a nice price on a pair of Canton Reference speakes. Those puppys are truly in another class all by them selves, but the price offered was a bit more than the Arreys.....oh I am not at liberty to give price offered to Peabody on the Arreys, but lets just say the price offered is a steal, and shopping around for other speakers wont net a price like the steal he is getting on the Arreys, so it makes perfect sense for Peabody to jump, because this deal wont come around in a hundred years.

[Hyfi]

Where is Mr Ps post rebutting these reviews:ihih:

[frenchmon]

Where is Mr Ps post rebutting these reviews:ihih:

.....LOL! good one Hyfi.....When I went to pick him up yesterday, I was expecting to duck....I was waiting for a left hook!

[frenchmon]

Leroy...if you get a chance to hear some Ergo's or any of the speakers above I hope you have the pleasure of hearing them in a real home setting. The sells man does not have a brick and mortar store. He is a dealer for Harmon International and Canton and some other gear. So he made arrangements with some of his customer to let us hear the speakers in their homes, in their setups. All of the speakers above where in a dedicated home theater configuration. The first pair of JBL's where being powered by a new Cambridge out fit...the sound was great. The Canton gear was being powered by the new Marantz AV7005 preamp/processor with a Theta 7.1 amp. The Arreys where powered with Levinson gear. It was a great experience.

The Canton outfit was really fun. He had the Ventos up front with 4 Ergos serving as surround. It was fantastic.