Old joke: Heaven is the place where the police are British, the cooks are French, the lovers Italian, bureaucrats Swiss, and the engineers German. Hell is the place where the cooks are British, the engineers Italian, bureaucrats French, lovers Swiss, and the police German.
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What We Think
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| Though a bit pricey, this beautifully finished, well-balanced system delights the eye and will not disappoint the ear. |
SETUP Beyond its jewellike finish, the Canton CD 200 Series home theater speaker system is similar to a lot of others in this genre: slim, quasi-cylindrical cabinets, perforated-aluminum grilles, and highly adaptable shelf-stand/wall-mount brackets (Canton's are simple, effective, and quite nicely made). However, the speaker uses push-terminal input connectors instead of the multi-way binding posts you'd expect on a system of this caliber; you can get banana plugs into them, but just barely.
I wired the 5.1-channel Canton suite to my pre-pro/power-amp electronics, which pump 150 watts all around. Canton rates the left-right-center CD 250's frequency response as "40-30,000 Hz," which is lower on the bass end than compact speakers usually deliver and higher in the treble than the limit of human hearing. I can't speak to the 30 kHz part (Fido? Wanna jump in here?), but the 40 Hz end is surely optimistic. Yes, there's some output at 40 Hz, but not much. I first set my preamp's crossovers to 120 Hz for all five channels and ultimately found that 150 Hz delivered smoother, more consistent bass.
My setup's front speakers went, via Canton's supplied tabletop mounts, on existing stands alongside my 50-inch Samsung DLP, with the center on a stand just below the screen. The CD 220 surrounds went on high shelves to either side of the listener, and the 10-inch AS 100 SC subwoofer a bit left of the left-front speaker.
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The Short Form
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| $2,599 / www.cantonusa.com / 612-706-9250 |
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Plus
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| •Lovely brushed-aluminum finish •Solid tonal balance •Good center-channel consistency |
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Minus
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| •Bass loosens slightly at very high volumes •Not ideal for large rooms  |
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Key Features
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| •CD 250 front left/right/center ($500); 1-in alloy-dome tweeter, 2 x 4-in aluminum woofer; 16.9 in high; 7.7 lb •CD 220 front surround ($500/pr); 1-in alloy-dome tweeter, 4-in aluminum woofer; 8.8 in high; 6.6 lb •AS 100 SC active subwoofer ($599); 10-in driver; 100-watt amplifier; 11.6 x 19.9 x 16.9 in; 40 lb •Brushed aluminum or black (CD 250, 200); black, silver, beech, or cherry (AS 100 SC) •Price $2,599 |
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Test Bench
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| The Canton CD 250 and CD 220 front and surround speakers share limited bass capability, but their uniform directivity means that all channels deliver the same timbre to all listeners. Though the AS 100 SC subwoofer has strong output at 62 Hz (106.5 dB maximum SPL), it has unusually limited low-frequency output; SPL drops to 92 dB at 50 Hz, and the sub cannot cleanly exceed 80 dB SPL at 40 Hz or below without obtrusive driver-suspension noise. — Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results |
But no matter — despite the specs, these speakers aren't really made for full-range sound, and reactivating the subwoofer worked wonders. Bass heft and cleanliness were restored, and the speakers delivered a big, deep, satisfyingly dynamic presentation. For example, Chris Isaak's channeling of Roy Orbison on "Only the Lonely," from The Baja Sessions, reproduced all of the singer's meticulously modulated breathiness and "head tones" with great detail.
Overall tonal balance was quite natural, with just the faintest hint of extra warmth in the lower midrange frequencies (which I'd rate more as euphony than any bothersome coloration). The speakers also had a relaxed mid-treble that wasn't recessed enough to subtract any detail but worked to give them a touch less "air" than I'm used to with my reference speakers.
After I experimented with placement, something required for any new sub, the AS 100 SC sub mated to the CD 250 fronts with a lean, boom-free balance I found quite pleasing. Listeners whose tastes demand more oomph in the 80- to 160-Hz octave may find its delivery a bit restrained, but in my setup it worked very well. That said, I found the Canton sub to lack both the ultimate weight below 50 Hz and the across-the-band tightness of my everyday sub — which alone cost more than half as much as this entire system.
The Canton system proved very capable on multichannel music. Recordings such as the SACD mix of Elvis Costello's North sounded brilliantly transparent and spatially cohesive. The Canton suite produced plenty of level for fully involved listening, but these are small speakers, and in my 2,900-cubic-foot room, at least, "pretty loud" was the effective limit. Above this point the system could sound a bit congested and even harsh, and the sub audibly ran out of gas in the lowest frequencies.
MOVIE QUALITY All of this translated to movie sound quite consistently. The CD 250 proved an excellent center speaker: Off-axis response was surprisingly smooth and consistent for a horizontal center, even to fairly wide angles off center. (Surprising, that is, until I remembered that this is a "two-and-a-half-way" design: only one of its horizontal cones works in the midrange, so off-axis midrange variations are much reduced.) Clarity and intelligibility were first-class as well. A talky film such as The Interpreter can become a bit fatiguing if the center speaker makes the ear work too hard, but I felt no hint of this from the Canton.
Front-stage integration was excellent, with a solid image from which no single speaker ever jumped out at me. This wasn't quite as true to the rear, where the CD 220 surrounds would occasionally "localize" somewhat and call attention to themselves. For example, in The Interpreter's opening shot, in which a Land Rover drives front-left to rear-right, the sound "sucked" into the right-rear CD 220 quite audibly. But this is true of many small two-way surrounds — it's why dipole surrounds were invented.
Bass extension was good. The Canton sub had enough bottom-octaves power to render big-boffo film sound (War of the Worlds is my current benchmark) with some authority and entertaining deep-bass impact, at least up to moderately cinema-like master-volume settings. (And its lean blend meant there was none of the one-note-boom from which inferior small home theater systems often suffer.) The sub lacks the output in the 20-40 Hz octave to make the really deep stuff fully visceral at moderately high volume settings. And the CD 250s' need for a high crossover point means the sub sounds a bit "looser" in the upper bass than you might hear with a standard 80-Hz setting, though this would be true of any woofer. It also means the sub can be localized a bit more easily: Behind-the-sofa subbers take note. But these are relatively subtle effects, and I don't want to overstate the case: This is a competent compact sub.
BOTTOM LINE The Canton CD 200 Series home theater speaker system is a surprisingly able layout. Its tonal abilities and transparency place it in the top echelon of what I think of as "plasma-style" speakers, with superb visual appeal and finish quality. These are small speakers, though, and as such may not be the best choice for a big-space, high-powered home theater. And a bigger subwoofer (Canton makes several) might be in order for ultimate deep-bass accuracy. Oh, and they're not cheap. But neither is a Mercedes SLK, and I don't believe most people who bought one of those ever felt cheated.
Read the Full Lab Results
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