Canton Reference 9.2 DC Bookshelf speakers

Loudspeakers are funny things; their design says as much about the designer as it does about anything else. Having tested a loudspeaker I either do, but too often do not, want to meet the designer; he's either a man after my own heart, or a bounder! The person that designed this loudspeaker (or perhaps I should say the organisation) I would like to meet, because he (they) very much share my own views on what a loudspeaker should do, and how it should do it. I really took to Canton's £2300 ($3800) standmount Reference 9.2 DC loudspeaker. It isn't cheap, but it is a real cracker, being both accurate and fun to listen to.

So yes you can have both. Just because a loudspeaker is accurate, a property I consider important, it does not mean it is necessarily academically correct and boring. Artificially boosting treble or midrange to try and enhance sound quality hasn't been done here; in their Reference range Canton have had the confidence and common sense not to resort to such tricks. How I wish many of today's British manufacturers could appreciate such an approach, one that ironically was once strong in the UK, growing out of a BBC monitoring tradition, as well as Quad's electrostatics. Canton hail from Germany and bring to the UK the notion of accuracy as part of high fidelity, an idea some UK designers have long abandoned, it seems to me.

I absolutely refused to use treble lift when designing World Audio Design loudspeakers, but then our loudspeakers did not have to fight it out in the showroom. I did quickly learn that designing a loudspeaker with a flat frequency response (easy to do) does not mean it will sound good. However, not having a flat frequency response guarantees a loudspeaker cannot provide an accurate rendition of a recording, offering its own interpretation, for better or worse according to taste.

A Reference loudspeaker should, if it is to justify this much abused description, at least be able to provide a reasonable degree of tonal accuracy - and this the modest looking Canton does, much to my surprise when measuring it. It's sad I should be surprised, but there you are. Most designers feel unable or are just plain unwilling to try and attempt accuracy, although I'm told in confidence that how a loudspeaker is finally balanced is commonly decided by what best sells in the showroom, as reported back by the sales force; it isn't an executive decision made by the designer who, in this scenario, is paid to do what he is told!

I admit to knowing little about Canton, but it seems that they are one of Germany's larger and longer established loudspeaker manufacturers and the Reference range represents their best efforts. The Reference 9.2 DC is a standmounting two-way loudspeaker with an 180mm aluminium cone bass unit that works up to 3kHz mated to a 25mm aluminium oxide ceramic dome tweeter the website says, or a aluminium-manganese tweeter according to the handbook!

Each loudspeaker weighs a solid 11.3kgs and stands 40cms high, is 23.5cms wide and 34.5cms deep. Ours came in a lustrous white lacquer finish and had removable black grill cloths. The rear carries a pair of well made, gold plated bi-wire terminals with removable links, and at top a port that loads the bass unit.

As always the Cantons were run in for twenty four hours continuously, initially using pink noise, and then a Monitor Audio De-Tox disc. Most listening was conducted with our Musical Fidelity AMS50 Class A transistor amplifier, but as usual the loudspeakers were also run with our Icon Audio MB845 MkII power amplifiers.

With a firm push behind the upper midrange that highlighted vocal enunciation, the raw edge to Jackie Leven's menacing 'Extremely Violent Man' was made obvious; I found the Cantons made their point strongly. Having a balance that was smooth, full bodied and easy on the ear across high frequencies the Reference 9.2DC was at the same time pushily forward, yet full bodied and almost rich in balance.

Nice? Very much so; I liked this loudspeaker from the off. Making Jackie Leven sound like the big man he is, with firm rolling bass and lovely stage depth I found myself immersed straight away. This is a loudspeaker that is as smooth as velvet yet attention grabbing at the same time, a unusual but beguiling combination. It has great insight too; I could hear right around Jackie at the microphone, the studio and its acoustic falling away behind him.

With a nice, evenly balanced recording like Skunk Anansie's 'Hedonism' the Cantons showed themselves off. Drum work had weight and plenty of slam, leading edges were clean as a whistle and time domain progress as exuberant as a Duracell powered bunny rabbit. The Cantons fairly raced along, keeping a wonderful grip on the music, whilst painting Skin large centre stage, shouting out the lyrics with her own peculiar guttural delivery.

Great imaging, pin-sharp, with more body than Arnie after a session at the gym, made the Cantons an unusually easy, engaging yet totally convincing listen. I couldn't help but be impressed by their sense of silky smoothness, and a timbral cohesiveness that comes from sympathetically matched cone/ dome materials (this was always a big issue for me when choosing drive units for World Audio Design loudspeakers), plus lovely dynamics, of the sort that makes music sound lively and exciting. There was a little colour to percussion at times, a brightening perhaps, a little bit of extra light as it were, yet this served to illuminate instruments on the sound stage rather than lessen contrasts.

The way the Cantons picked out Willy DeVille's gravelly delivery of 'Spanish Harlem' was lovely. A little added edge lifted his enunciation, throwing his voice out at me. This made for a forward soundstage, behind which lay a background with a geography it seemed, the Canton's teased out so much detail.

With Steve Earle's 'The Other Kind', a piece of Classic Rock of a type unknown today (am I showing my age here?), mandolin was picked out with shiny clarity. Earle didn't have quite the fullness and body I have heard with some loudspeakers, but those were mostly full blooded floorstanders like big Tannoys. The 9.2s were lightning-fast and set up hard illuminated images across a wide, if forward sound stage. Bucky Baxter's jangling pedal steel guitar lit up the room from 'Promise You Anything'.

That the Reference 9.2 is a 'modern' loudspeaker was obvious listening to the hiss from tambourine in 'Esmeralda's Hollywood'; it jumped across the room at me! The 9.2s are very forthright, they really throw the sound out, but as "evil struggled with the good" I couldn't help but keep the Reference 9.2s cranked right up to enjoy 'Esmeralda's Hollywood'.

As always the Cantons had to endure the huge bass lines from an Angelique Kidjo CD, this time 'Aye'. The opening track 'Agolo' showed they played the bass line with heart, but they did sound a little large and bloated. It was obvious that bass damping was uneven, some notes having more power than others, but bass lines had strength to them, giving the Reference 9.2s a nice sense of heft. What you have to bear in mind here is that these CDs, under analysis at Hi-Fi World Towers, have enormous energy right down to 30Hz and present a little too much of a load for small loudspeakers; only big floorstanders can handle such material convincingly. The Reference 9.2s sounded big and attempted the impossible, if not quite achieving it! Tracks like 'Adouma' rolled along weightily though, and all seemed fine. Canton have opted for more bass and less control, rather than less bass and more control which, if you have limited cabinet volume to play with, is a valid choice I feel, having faced this design choice myself.

Violins of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra jumped out at me from a well lit orchestral space, playing Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Scheherazade'. The Reference 9.2s are not backward in coming forward as they say, but then that is the sort of presentation modern metal cones provide, when treated with exotic materials, frozen to absolute zero or covered in pixie dust, as whim dictates. But you get a surgically clean and wonderfully clear rendition and this is how orchestra was delivered by Canton's 9.2s. Oboe had sparkling presence, violins jumped into the fray with vigour and horns called out with a rich, brassy rasp. Vivacious is a term that describes their handling of an orchestra, instruments being lifted right up and out of the mix it seemed, dancing vigorously on the sound stage just in front of me.

The Cantons offer a front row listening perspective, and with stable, well wrought images the whole came over with a drama many loudspeakers lack. And all this without shrieking treble or any sense of sharpness.

Unsurprisingly, the Cantons toned down a bit when connected to our Icon Audio MB845 MkII valve amplifiers, a certain degree of relentlessness leaving them, replaced by a mellower, more considered presentation that allowed solo violin to dance in front of me, with nary a hint of sheen or artifice. Even with the MB845s though, the Cantons hardened up on orchestral crescendos and were obviously not plastic coned loudspeakers, but for the most part I enjoyed a nice, simple sense of clarity, one I found really enjoyable.

One caveat I have to make is this; such a forward and revealing loudspeaker better handles modern, high quality recordings than the many older digital ones I possess that are a little iffy in themselves, meaning digitally distorted - all those old DDDs. This includes swathes of classical recordings where wide digital dynamic range was confused with good sound quality. Another peculiar example is Duffy's fairly recent 'Rockferry', from the album of the same name. Wondering why it sounded rough, one day perchance I spotted an interview with the recording engineer who admitted adding digital distortion for extra "graunch". This is very difficult to play and the Reference 9.2s did not flatter it, although the track was listenable.

So Canton's Reference 9.2 DC loudspeakers are thoroughly modern and revealing, brutally so at times. Yet they are unusual for having what at times could be described as a warm balance, with - most of the time - easy sounding treble that never offended me. I took to this presentation and enjoyed it, even if at times it could be a little challenging. What sounded good when Steve Earle recorded 'The Hard Way' in 1990 doesn't compare to modern 24/96 from John Mayer or Carlos Santana, or 24/192 resolution digital from the 2L label of Norway, with Percy Grainger's playing of Grieg's Piano Concerto for example, that redefines digital. Early digital deficiencies are thrown at you by the Cantons, but later quality made apparent.

So Canton's Reference 9.2 DC loudspeakers are forthright, but truthful, and accurately balanced. I enjoyed their pace and vivacity: theirs is a sound full of life, accurately presented - and it was exciting. Loudspeakers are funny things but Canton have obviously tried to craft a product that provides accuracy with excitement and this is worth hearing.