Canton CD 300 Series Home Theater System

Canton CD 300 Series Overview

With the new trend towards flat panel displays and silver colored electronics (at least for televisions) it is no wonder several manufacturers are releasing space-saving loudspeaker designs custom-tailored for the person living with 21st century technology. We previously reviewed Canton 's Karat Reference Series loudspeakers and found them to be competitive performers for their price. Now it was time to see if this German company could mesh form with function and not leave us wanting for more.

Canton CD 300 Series Build Quality & Unpacking

To begin, we unboxed the system and noted that the speakers were well-packed in Styrofoam with sheets of soft cloth that protected the finish of each speaker on both sides. In addition, Canton supplies wall brackets for flush mounting the CD 360 F loudspeakers to the wall. This is nice considering that for most companies this would be, at best, another expense or, at worst, a Frankenstein aftermarket part. The aluminum speaker bases for the CD 300 towers are separate from the tower and screw on via three Philips head machine screws. The bases are even indented so there's no way to misalign the loudspeakers in the stands. Each stand has a hole in the base, allowing you to unobtrusively run a small gauge cable through it and further hide system cabling. As these speakers were going back following the review, we placed the surrounds on speaker stands rather than wall-mounting them.

All speaker covers are silver metal grills and are quite easily removable. Simply slide a screwdriver or other flat object between the grill and case and gently pry the grill out. We liked the speakers with the grills on as well as off, but would suppose that since this system so favors an unobtrusive design, leaving the grills on would be the best option for aesthetics. Of course, if your television is black you might decide the opposite.

Build Quality

When you lift the CD 300 towers you will at once note their impressive weight and relative density. I wanted to take a look inside and see what Canton did with the enclosure and the drivers. As you can see in the accompanying picture, Canton used plenty of dampening material in the cabinets and the diameter of the motor structure on their 4" aluminum drivers are almost as big as the cones. Canton labels this a 2 1/2-way bass reflex system, meaning that each cabinet contains four 4" aluminum drivers and an aluminum-manganese ADT-25 dome tweeter. The top two drivers handle mid-range and bass while the bottom two, primarily handle bass frequencies. The idea is that this type of configuration will yield a much "bigger" sound from a smaller, narrower package. Canton claims that this design provides the equivalent surface area of a single 8" woofer, but in a narrower cabinet. If you do the math: Four 4" drivers = 4 x 2^2 x pi = 50.26" while one 8" driver = 4^2 x pi = 50.26" thus their claim is absolutely true. The CD 360 F speakers are a shorter but otherwise identical version of the CD 300 towers which also lack the front-firing flared port.

The 4 mid-bass/bass drivers are a modified version of the 4" concave aluminum cones used in the Karat and Ergo lines. The difference is that the CD 300 Series needed to rework the motor structure in order to get the lower frequency response needed by the CD 300 and CD 360 F speakers. Each of the 4" drivers has a concave aluminum dust cap which Canton applies for reasons of better linearity and increased dispersion. The surrounds are formed from injected rubber and are quite sturdy, appearing to have longevity as a strong point.

The ADT-25 tweeter does something unusual in that it has a single structure for the dome and voice coil former to achieve better heat dispersion and avoid some of the problems with glued domes. Aside from heat benefits, the resulting structure also better maintains its shape during use and resists break up during high SPLs.

The AS 200 SC subwoofer surprised me with its performance considering its modest size. I wanted to peel it back and see just what was inside that yielded such a sizable response from a relatively small enclosure. Opening up the sub I was pleased to find that it was manufactured from 1" thick M DF and had some significant cross-bracing to stabilize the cabinet. In addition, there was ample dampening material to render the interior of the cabinet fairly inert. We were not surprised to see that the basket for the 10" cellulose/graphite driver was apparently made out of the same polycarbonate that we've seen before in Canton lines. They prefer this over aluminum or steel, claiming better stiffness across the entire operating range of the speaker and superior damping. The 140 Watt R M S amplifier, though not very powerful at this price range, seemed beefy enough to deliver the goods. The sub also featured adjustable level control, a variable 50 Hz - 150 Hz crossover and adjustable 0 - 180 degrees phase control. The AS 200 SC also features line level and speaker-level inputs and outputs.

Canton CD 300 Series Setup and Listening Tests

I set the CD 300 towers in front and began with them toed slightly in. The subwoofer was sent a line level signal from the Yamaha RX-V2500 receiver. The CD 360 F speakers were utilized as center and surround speakers and the entire system was powered by a 200W/channel Rotel RMB-1095 amplifier with the Yamaha receiver functioning as a preamp/processor. After some experimentation, the system crossover was set to 80Hz and all speakers were set to SMALL. Distance and levels were set manually using the on-board test tones and configuration options. Very quickly into the initial listening sessions I found that I could not seem to get an accurate or wide soundstage from the CD 300 towers in two-channel mode. I moved and readjusted the towers several times and finally arrived at a position that seemed to remedy the initial problem. The problem seemed to stem from a slightly diminished off-axis response and I was initially attempting to place the speakers outside of a 100" diagonal projection screen. The system is much more comfortable around a plasma or other digital television up to 50" or so wide. For this reason we recommend not placing these speaker more than 7-8 feet apart and even toeing them in a bit more than you might be used to in order to achieve good separation and acceptable imaging. Once this process was completed I was ready to take some notes and enjoy listening to the system.

Listening Tests: Two-Channel

I first wanted to hear some clean vocals before I moved on to anything more complex or orchestrated. To do this I selected a few different pieces, one of which is a favorite of mine, Laura Story's Indescribable . Track 9 "Send M e a Rainbow" presents reasonably dry vocals which punch out of a wetter mix of bass and guitar accompaniment. The bass line consists of drawn out notes that provide a pad behind which Laura's vocals emerge. I was pleased by how well her voice came through untrammeled by distortion or an overabundance of sibilance. Track 10, "You Are Free" brings in some piano and a cello and adds more up-front, yet still dry, vocals. This song allowed the CS 300 Series to show off its capability for pushing out high levels of upper frequency ranges without sounding overly harsh. A hidden bonus track following track 10 gave further evidence that female vocals at least sounded warm and natural. The open-mic-nite feel gave me a sense that the CD 300s were capable of realistically reproducing these open, ambient recordings.

2 the Max, an album, produced by Charlie Bertini , recorded and mixed by Andy de Ganahl, and mastered by Bob Katz, is a great classic jazz piece with some of the most talented players in the country as far as I'm concerned. Starting off the Bill Allred's Classic Jazz Band album is track 1, "Matty's Royal Garden Blues" which is a direct tribute to Matty Matlock and wastes no time in jumping in and giving these speakers a mid-range frequency workout. Instrumentation was well-defined, and trumpets, trombones, piano, sax, bass and drums all sounded clean and palpable. Here is where the imaging issue again reared its ugly head as I was unable to get the system to disappear into the mix and reveal the full instrumentation as I knew it to be on this CD. Instead, localization remained whereby the sound was filling the room, but still coming distinctly from the speakers. I suppose this is a potential tradeoff on the excellent style and design of the system. Toeing the speakers in and closing the distance between the main channels as described earlier minimized the problem but it didn't completely eradicate it.

Listening Tests: Multi-Channel

I returned once again to Norah Jones' Come Away With Me SACD as it does a superb job of delivering top-quality source material with which to judge a loudspeaker's reproduction quality.

The vocals on track 3 "Cold Cold Heart" sounded natural and lacked any overt distortion or compression in the upper ranges. Bass lines were well-toned and clean, though the soundstage was not as wide as with other systems I've heard in this price range, even after playing with quite a few different loudspeaker positions. Reverb filled the room nicely from the piano as Norah performed her magic. Track 7, "Turn Me On" allowed some dry vocals to emerge from the mix, and I loved the signature Hammond B-3 sound that sits back in the mix. This leaves the bass and drums free to frame and drive home this tune.

For a movie that was supposed to be one of the worst films of 2004, Troy was OK provided you could ignore the revamped story and characters, somewhat strained dialogue and just plain drab color. The battle scenes were excellent in my opinion and exercised the Canton CD 300 system, allowing me to hear some wide dynamics and how it handled environmental surround material. Dialogue was always easy to understand and the battles had their share of subwoofer sweetening for a fuller, more robust effect, though at higher volumes the sub seemed to lose some of its tightness and definition. Overall I found the CD 300 System to be excellent for home theater use in the sense that it delivered a realistic representation of what was taking place on screen. The surrounds were robust and able to deliver sounds clearly and with ample definition. I popped in several other movies such as Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Gladiator, and The M atrix. All gave equally positive results.

Canton CD 300 Series Conclusions

After running it through its paces, we feel that the Canton CD 300 Series with Karat AS 200 SC subwoofer is an elegant system and a fabulously attractive match for any new flat panel display. It puts forth much more sound that seems possible for its form factor. While this system may not have a completely flat response and a noticeable off-axis drop, a factor that we feel leads to its difficulty in putting forth a perfectly-defined soundstage, the overall sound is pleasing, clear and authoritative with very little audible compression or distortion. For those looking to purchase a moderately-priced, decent-sounding, unobtrusive system to compliment their flat panel display, the Canton CD 300 Series is an excellent choice. Indeed, it is one of the most visually elegant systems to grace this reference room in some time. Add to that a 5-year non-transferable warranty and the CD 300 Series becomes a very enticing purchase indeed.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Soundstage
Dynamic Range
Performance
Value