@Kachda Hello. I recently purchased the Canton Vento 896.2s. This is my review:
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
