Canton Vento 826.2 Speaker Review

[Trell]

This is 1000 euros per speaker or per pair?

The KEF R3 is going around for 500 euros per piece in Europe and it’s pretty difficult to outperform that right now (objective measurements wise).

That must be for a pair of them as the latest refresh has a price of 599 Eur each on Canton.de

 

[olivier salad]

I once had Canton Ergo 620 and while they had great soundstage the sound was bright, artificial and metallic

 

[Tangband]

Comparison with Genelec 8030c :

 

[thewas]

The distortion due to the break up of the woofer would be a good candidate for an additional notch filter which probably would also reduce the distortion issue significantly, see

https://purifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/220211_R05-Notchfilter.pdf

and

Active DSP DIY speakers, for testing a few ideas

FFLOTSAM (Fabricated From LeftOver Things Studio Active Monitor) Active DSP speakers, for testing a few ideas I had some stuff lying around; a few random Baltic Birch-ply panels, some countertop material, a few cans of partially used brown spray paint, and some not-too clumpy spar varnish (that...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[UNow42]

Canton makes the loudspeaker drivers in their own factories in the EU (Czech Republic or Germany depending on model). The enclosures are made by the german company Roterring in their plant in Poland. They do this also for other loudspeaker manufacturers from Germany.
The price is per pair and includes tax (19% in Germany).

 

[dogmamann]

The 7k's you reference are a much larger set of speakers, and thus will have better SPL capabilities. Granted the lower response of the woofer in the Vento is also suffering similar amounts so its not quite the same as if it was just in that one area, but these will naturally be more limited due to the small size and only one woofer, so the distortion can only be ignored if you plan to not run them at any substantial SPL level. Once you go beyond that there is the possibility of large bursts of distortion on peaks in output, and it seems to set in fairly quickly so there's not a lot of room beyond 86 dB before things get unhappy. Whether that is an issue will depend on how its used.

The distortion we are talking about is in the upper mids which is not because of woofers bottoming out

 

[dogmamann]

Canton makes the loudspeaker drivers in their own factories in the EU (Czech Republic or Germany depending on model). The enclosures are made by the german company Roterring in their plant in Poland. They do this also for other loudspeaker manufacturers from Germany.
The price is per pair and includes tax (19% in Germany).

I guess canton doesn’t manufacture drivers in Germany. In a video posted by fidelity Hamburg, the the ceramic drivers are also is shown as part of shipment if I am not wrong. So,

Thanks for the review, and for the record I do own Canton Vento speakers myself (not this small model you reviewed) for my 5.2 setup and are fairly pleased with them.

Canton is refreshing their Vento line about every three years so the previous model(s) can be had for around 50-60% of MRSP of the refresh, so good deals can be made. I just checked that on a online retailer I've bought from before and the Vento 826.2 is currently 390,00 EUR each, and by emailing one can get better prices (or at least I did before).

It's worth mentioning that in EU the sales price includes VAT (value added tax) that in Germany is 19%.

I think the best value is to get 896.2s for 899 each.

 

[Deleted member 19122]

Most Cantons I've heard do have that slight treble lift.But any room eq usually sorts that out.In the EU they are a bargain especially used and the quality of the enclosures is second to none given the price point and product support is way above and beyond most mass manufacturers.I've been out to the Taunus facility and they still have drivers in stock from the 70's to service their original speaker lines .The fact that they manufacture everything in house and keep it in the EU is to be highly commended.Only recently did they even have a factory in CZ.In the USA they are not such a hot deal,Accessories for Less had them at great prices for a few years but alas no more.

 

[UNow42]

Comparison with Genelec 8030c

The Genelec 8030c is not only the better sounding speaker, they have also the power amps included.

 

[dogmamann]

Here are some measurements:

Canton Reference 7K loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Canton Reference 7K's frequency response in the farfield. My reference axis for the measurements was level with the center of the midrange unit, which is 36" from the floor, the height of my...

www.stereophile.com

There is an entire thread about this here. I had gone through it before, that place is a war zone

 

[Ilkless]

Canton makes the loudspeaker drivers in their own factories in the EU (Czech Republic or Germany depending on model). The enclosures are made by the german company Roterring in their plant in Poland. They do this also for other loudspeaker manufacturers from Germany.
The price is per pair and includes tax (19% in Germany).

Honestly a great value for European production, I respect them and I have liked the Vento tuning for the longest time. Unfortunately I think my local distributor in Singapore stopped selling it.

 

[dogmamann]

This is 1000 euros per speaker or per pair?

The KEF R3 is going around for 500 euros per piece in Europe and it’s pretty difficult to outperform that right now (objective measurements wise).

Kef - narrower focused soundstage
Cantons are wider simply. So depending on what you want from speaker, one of them would be an immediate strike off.

I like both, but I would prefer the ls50 meta out of the Kef budget line, as it’s wider than r3 somwhow.

 

[dogmamann]

The Genelec 8030c is not only the better sounding speaker, they have also the power amps included.

This comparison applies for any passive bookshelf’s vs genelecs including revel and Kef which is mostly loved here

 

[Cars-N-Cans]

The distortion we are talking about is in the upper mids which is not because of woofers bottoming out

Its not really from them bottoming out per-se so much as likely due to the presence of energy there from other distortion sources in the woofer, which increase in a nonlinear way with excursion and output. Since there is only one woofer and lower sensitivity in the bass region, further excursion is required for a given SPL output, and there will naturally be more energy to excite the resonances. While these are at a similar level to the bass distortion, they fall in an area where the ear is more sensitive. Also its hard to say unless you know for sure that the two share the same mid-bass drivers, have similar sensitivity in that region, similar tuning, and have a similar range of frequencies covered. On top of this the enhanced bass output of the 3-way 7k will have an impact on the overall perceived SPL output of the speaker, meaning it might not be tasked with as much in the larger design. Too many variables to really draw a direct comparison of the two. I would assume Canton is aware of the issues, and it would not surprise me if the larger one was more well-behaved, but nothing is a given in high-end audio. Edit: This doesn't mean its automatically a problem, but I would want to take it into consideration if I were purchasing these. They may not be suitable for everyone given there are some limitations on peak SPL output.

 

[thewas]

This comparison applies for any passive bookshelf’s vs genelecs including revel and Kef which is mostly loved here

Everything has its advantages and disadvantages in comparison even to the 8030, for example the Canton has a nicer look for a living space, the Revel have deeper bass and the KEF smoother vertical directivity.

 

[Deleted member 19122]

The Genelec 8030c is not only the better sounding speaker, they have also the power amps included.

Precisely but they are fugly and I don't want to have the hassle of worrying about plate amps in speakers and running AC cables all over the place for 9 speakers!

 

[thewas]

On top of this the enhanced bass output of the 3-way 7k will have an impact on the overall perceived SPL output of the speaker, meaning it might not be tasked with as much in the larger design. Too many variables to really draw a direct comparison of the two. I would assume Canton is aware of the issues, and it would not surprise me if the larger one was more well-behaved, but nothing is a given in high-end audio.

Exactly, also the current Vento series uses different mid/woofers which possibly have improved on that issue.

 

[pierre]

EDITED 30th of Dec

I tried an EQ to see if I could improve the preference score and answer is yes. I optimised for a (marginally) flatter LW and a different bass curve.

Score is 5.7 and goes to 6.4 (so not a significative improvement).
with a perfect subwoofer, scores goes from 7.9 to 8.4.

The good directivity of the speakers helps to design a good EQ and effect is significant. The speaker with EQ is much closer to a Revel for example in the bass area. Note that the sharp and small PEQs can be removed since they are barely audible.

EQ for Canton Vento 826.2 computed from ASR data, apply above 55Hz
Preference Score 5.7 with EQ 6.4
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.17
Dated: 2022-12-30-12:37:42

Preamp: -0.5 dB

Filter  1: ON HP Fc    50 Hz
Filter  2: ON PK Fc   195 Hz Gain -1.79 dB Q 0.78
Filter  3: ON PK Fc  9827 Hz Gain -1.13 dB Q 2.18
Filter  4: ON PK Fc  3449 Hz Gain -0.83 dB Q 3.00
Filter  5: ON PK Fc   586 Hz Gain +0.74 dB Q 3.00
Filter  6: ON PK Fc   212 Hz Gain +0.55 dB Q 3.00
Filter  7: ON PK Fc   166 Hz Gain -0.50 dB Q 1.57
Filter  8: ON PK Fc   985 Hz Gain +0.59 dB Q 3.00
Filter  9: ON PK Fc   730 Hz Gain -0.91 dB Q 3.00

 

[TonyJZX]

canton have a factory in czech republic or slovakia so i think they are being cheeky with that sticker

but why would you pay a german guy an avg. wage in germany when you could get the same EU labor for less over the border?

i see this design of this as deliberate... they must think that the sound is what their audience wants

but yeah $1,000+ you'd be wanting something more neutral

 

[MZKM]

I think the low frequency response is biased toward extension that this has. If so, this is a flaw in the metric.

Canton:

Revel:

Canton:
Rolls off @ ~150Hz
LFX @ 47Hz

Revel:
Rolls off @ ~80Hz
LFX @ 51Hz

---

It really matters how you define low frequency extension.
This is especially evident with the KEF R3 having an LFX of 36Hz: