Canton Reference 5.2 dc

I own the 5.2 reference. Initially I found them rather thin sounding speakers as I previously owned Dynos. So I missed the body and air. I removed the lower bass driver and removed the damping sponge from behind it. Also removed the sponge plug from the down firing bass port. Now I got the body and 3D what I wanted to achieve. I recommend you guys to try this little trick...I thing the philosophy behind the canton speaker design was to achieve an unboxy sound character so they over dumped the whole box. The idea is that by putting 5kg sponge in the box you will only hear the sound of the drivers without the boxy coloration.I also removed 80% of the sponge behind the mid driver. Now the sound has a healthy body with much air,the drivers can breath resulting a more dynamic character which is welcome in my system

I have listened to the 890 a lot but done a side-by-side comparison with a Reference 5 only briefly. The Reference speaker had a richer sound and was more coherent. The sound approached that of my Silverline Bolero speakers. If I were building a system using Canton speakers I would most certainly use the Refernce line, I liked what I heard a lot. I should add though that I wouldn't hesitate to use the regular Vento speakers either, they are very good too, I just liked the References more. Also, the system on which I was listening to the speakers was an all tube setup.

I think the 3.2 was a significant step up from the 809's in bottom end and discernment. they are smoother and more open and spacious. Sorry for the slow reply.....

Thanks for the feed back. Kennyt would you say that the 3.2s were a major step up all around or just in the Bass? and would you say they are substantially larger speaker or just slightly?

I've had the Vento 809's with the 802's still as my surrounds, also have the center and had their Vento sub as well so well acquainted with them, also had the Ref 3.2's for a while, all really great speakers and a bargain in my mind. They like some power, but you already have that so think you'd be very happy with them!

I own the 5.2s and really think it's a great speaker. They are not bass-driven speakers - rather coherence is how i would describe them with a "sparkle factor". The tweeter and mid range is marvelous. it took a while to settle in but once it did the mid bass was solid but coherent. The imaging is awesome and will spit out what your sources send them - in other words, they have the ability to disappear.