Canton Review after 100 hours [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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frenchmon
06-14-2012, 04:29 AM
Now that I have about 100 hours on the 830.2's, I thought I would write my thoughts..

There are multiple things in life which make me feel good all over but none greater than just hanging out with my family, enjoying a good family movie and good food with good conversation. I love that! And besides family, I too have a passion for good quality sound. Oh how I love good music. This is where the Vento (wind) has helped to keep my passion in this hobby motivated and burning strong.

I have never been so excited about speakers as I am about the Canton Vento series, in particular, the Vento 830.2's. They are Germany's biggest speaker company and one of the worlds largest speaker companies in a market that also is the home of mlb audio with the famous 101 X-treme speakers and Elac Speakers among others, and while popular in Europe, Canton is relatively unknown in the United States.

The 830.2's are just shy of 15 inches at 14.2" tall, 8.7" wide and 12."2 deep. The build quality, no matter how many times you look at pictures online, is outstanding! If you know how Germans build their cars, their speaker construction is top quality with the Vento's having a seamless look. Each edge where the top and sides as well as the bottom meet is rounded and seamless. It looks like one piece of wood curved into a speaker box. The finish is high gloss cherry wood, mirror finish. They really are a spectacle to be adored especially when you look at them with the high quality cloth grills. When you look at the 830.2's from the front, you really don't notice the fact there are no grill pins or holes. Canton has strong magnets under the wood so the grills adhere to the front and when you have the grills on, they look very elegant.

I spoke with the Canton Electronics Corp in Minneapolis before my purchase and this is what he told me concerning the drivers and crossovers. "The Vento series was recently upgraded and carries the “.2” designator. This means that Canton kept the form factor the same but upgraded drivers and crossover technology. In the case of the new Vento, the most important change (and it’s very significant) was the addition of the ceramic dome tweeter technology and dome geometry from our Reference series. This tweeter is truly world class and features very extended frequency response, wide dispersion characteristics and high power handling. It’s just an incredibly smooth tweeter. The woofers, midrange and crossovers were also changed slightly to reflect the overall balance – Canton designs each individual speaker as a system – so the driver parameters changed but the materials remained the same. The woofers and midrange are aluminum and they utilize Canton’s patented “wave” surround. The wave surround provides for extremely long yet controlled excursions for Canton’s cone drivers and improves output SPL and frequency response." That would explain why the large dispersion of sound.

The cabinets are a multi-layer laminate, pressure glued to form a very rigid cabinet structure; the curved walls prevent internal standing waves. THe last layer is of course real cherry wood polished to a high gloss.

Well with all that, how do the 830.2's sound? Well I could tell you they sound great....great midrange, nice bottom and great high frequencies. Yes it has all that, but I want to tell you about the transparency! I think the Vento 830.2's are a very exceptional speaker. They have the ability to simply get out of the way and let the music be transparent. The 830.2's dont hinder the performance, but just get out of the way of the performance and disappear. The transparency of the sound lets the midrange come right in and let the listener enjoy the expression....lets the listener feel the emotion....feel the romance of the music. They really let you hear the expression of the perfomer as he gives it on his instument. Yeah, the Vento's have a way of getting the performance to you in such a way, you hang on every note, you swing and your minds involved with the muisc. As pretty as these speakers are, you dont even think about them as you enjoy whats before you. Vento (wind) as if they are the music.

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2083/pict0160g.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/152/pict0160g.jpg/)


http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5964/pict0159aa.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/268/pict0159aa.jpg/)

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/5361/pict0160f.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/440/pict0160f.jpg/)

frenchmon
06-28-2012, 07:19 AM
Well I guess its been all most a month now. These babies continue to sound better. This shows me they are still coming into their own.

Yesterdays listening session involved :

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514KH0N8EZL._AA160_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A52CXB0CL._AA160_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BF4S6MFQL._AA160_.jpg

This is very moving, impassioned music with lots of bass, mid range rhythms and plenty of top end sparkle and the music changes pace and speeds very quickly.....Cantons have excellent transient response. When the music changes directions there is no left over drag, and when stopping on a dime, no over hang.

The Vento's handled it all with easy. They displayed lots of detail and air...operetta voices seem to be as clear as if they where in the room live with you. The mids danced from all direction, and bass was deeper than I thought. No mid bass hump here, its the real deal.


I still have not heard a better tweeter in a box speaker....this tweeter with all it was throwing out last night was pollution free...no distortion or harshness...nothing but transparency , lots of space and air around each sound, great detail.
The Ventos are very engaging speakers, and holographic...they work at keeping you in the music with what they can do, especially in the mid rage. The tweeter is just amazing.