I Bought a pair of Canton Reference 9 k in piano black on audiogon with stands for just under two grand. The built quality is superb the internal parts and wiring looks top shelf just as they state. I use them with a Technics SUG 700 integrated amp and Marantz CD. the imaging is outstanding and the detail as well so much inner detail woo. They are not forward rather the sound seems to begin at the speaker and go back. The sound stage is limited to the distance between the speakers. They have a very limited off-axis response I mean limited to the seating position plus a few inches either way, I do have them toed in as I listen nearfield.speakers 7 ft apart I'm sitting 8 ft from them they are two ft. from front wall . 6 from the sides. The soundstage is also limited in its height.
My prior setup was Adcom amp, preamp and cd player driving Snell 2c mark 2 speakers( those speakers were to big for my room but man they could shake the walls with Respighi's Pines of Rome. the snells bass was superior as was their dynamic range everything else was no contest the Cantons were in a different class. Now my digital amp was not as full-bodied as the class b amp from Adcom.
The canton's really shine with small groups jazz, rock, vocals and for stand-mounted I was surprised at how deep and articulate they play, seriously. I still bought an SVS SB 1000 plus and frankly it does not add much.
The cantons disappear when playing music. As you can surmise my system is not warm total SS. I would like to hear them with tubes someday. I can say this I went to a local dealer and listened to B&W, Focal, Paradigm, and two others Warfdale? I forgot but the Cantons for my ears were tops both in sound and bracing the knock test on the Cantons was like knocking on a brick. Though I'm not sure the speakers I was listening to were in the same price range as the Cantons as I do not recall model numbers. I remember the B&W was a 700 something nice looking with that tweeter outside the box that caught my eye, they sounded brighter. thats about it.