After moving into a bigger space, I considered upgrading to floorstanders from my Kef LS50's. I drank the Kef "Kool-Aid" and enjoyed it immensely, so I considered the Kef R series floorstanders but I found them too boxy (their physical shape not the sound 😉 While sound is the primary consideration for my audio purchases, aesthetics play a big role as well.
Unfortunately, I don't have much local access to audio hardware so I depend on reviews and online shopping to scratch my audio itch. Accessories4Less has long been one of my goto sites for great prices, supplemented by eBay and Amazon. The Focal Aira series ticked the performance and affordability boxes but I couldn't see myself sharing my living space with them long-term, so I passed.
The Canton Reference 5 and Vento 896.2 in the cherry laminate finish, aced aesthetics, price and size. My final consideration was "Are they any good/how do they sound?" Older reviews of the Reference/Vento series were all positive but I couldn't find much on the current offerings. I read somewhere that the Cantons are really popular in the EU, so I used Google Translate to search and read reviews originally in German/French/Italian etc. The positive reviews persisted so I decided to pull the trigger on the Vento 896.2 after I couldn't source the Reference 5 in Cherry.
Necessity dictates I use a freight-forwarder which adds to the delay. I simply couldn't wait to wrap my ears around these Canton beasties. Once I swapped out my much loved LS50's with the Cantons I launched into a massive listening session. I use Roon to manage my music collection (CD's ripped to FLAC) and supplement it with a Qobuz high-res subscription. My music taste is just about omnivorous and includes rock/jazz/classical/country/folk/electronic/reggae/soca/calypso/bluegrass/reggaeton to name a few. I kept queuing up song after song and had to restrain myself from jumping to a new song after listening for a few seconds.
My placement options were just about restricted to to same space the standmount LS50's had previously occupied. Fortunately, the LS50's like some space around them so the Canton's had room to "breathe" it was just a matter of alignment toe-in etc. The Canton reviews suggested limited toe-in so I started with facing them directly at the rear wall. This sounded just fine, imaging was good. On Dave Brubeck's Take 5 I could place the precise location (width and depth) of each instrument. Compared to the LS50's with their sealed SVS sub accompaniment the sound was meatier. Jimi Hendrix's guitar had more slam. I expected some loss of precision and possibly airiness but the Canton's held their own. I'm glad I was alone, as I couldn't get this idiotic grin off my face. I threw on Thrift Shop because the line "This is f***ing awesome!" kept bouncing around in my skull.
I am obviously still in the honeymoon phase; it's been a few days but I'm loving every minute. If there is any credence to break-in, I only stand to benefit! The only negative so far, is that I’m sleep starved from spending countless hours in front of my new darlings. My significant other had to give the repurposed LS50’s some love as they were distraught after the Canton coup. I’ll never get rid of my LS50’s (all the hype about them is true) but the Cantons have usurped their former role as my primary transducers. I know that a bigger budget could get me something better, but I'd be up to my neck in both debt and diminishing returns.
Mark