Canton Vento Reference 7 Floorstanding Speaker Review

Finding Faults In My Blind Date

When something that is the third tier of a manufacturer’s “Reference” line (the top of the line is the Vento Reference 1and the first step-down is the Reference 5) and sounds this good, it’s almost mandatory for a reviewer to find a fault.

OK. If I want to be picky, the 7’s seemed to have a slight excess of bass energy somewhere in the 60-65 Hz range on some music when I paired them with the Eletrocompaniet Nemo’s. Interestingly enough, I did not notice this excess upper bass energy until I placed the speakers in my main listening room and deliberately played music with a lot of mid bass content. Since my main listening room is a larger, acoustically treated room, it makes it easier to hear individual notes below 50 Hz (see below for further discussion). It was only after I deliberately looked for this effect did I notice this “additional” energy on some recordings. It was subtle, and I wondered whether I was “hearing” something just to find fault.

After extensive listening, I decided to substitute the Pass Labs X-600.5’s, which have a significantly leaner bass presentation than the Nemo’s. The “additional” bass energy (if it was really there in the first place) disappeared. As a result, I found the Pass X-600.5 a slightly better match for the Reference 7’s than the Nemo’s, which are very good at improving overly-lean speakers. Even so, I’m sure there will be many listeners who would probably prefer the Nemo-driven Reference 7’s.

Observations On Specifications And Real Life

Subjectively speaking, the Vento Reference 7’s sounded more efficient than their 88.5 dB SPL at 1 watt at 1 meter rating. As I mentioned above, I originally ran them with lower powered receivers, and the Reference 7’s produced very good sound with every form of amplification I used. However, it’s clear that the Reference 7’s are generally capable of more bass extension, dynamics, snap and PRAT the more power they are fed (which is true with most good speakers). You should pair these speakers with plenty of power – they will reward you.

Frequency response specifications always fascinate me. The Canton Vento Reference 7 lists a frequency range of 22 to 40,000 Hz, which in my view is amazing for a speaker its size. I wish that the specs also disclosed the frequencies at which the Reference 7 rolls off, so that I could better understand their practical frequency range. For example, my B&W Nautilus 800D specs specifically state that there is a 6dB roll-off at 25 dB and 33,000 dB. Even though the 800D’s have a frequency response that goes below 25 Hz, the 26 through 30 Hz range is, as a practical matter, the low-end of the notes I’m actually able to discern clearly when listening to music.

Even when specifications provide information about roll-off, they do not in and of themselves address three basic practical issues. The first are the listener’s ears. I don’t know about you, but at my age (and after too many deafening rock concerts), I certainly can’t hear anything at 20,000 Hz, let alone 40,000 Hz (and I’m not sure that I was ever able to actually hear any thing at 20,000 Hz even in my youth). The limitations of the human ear are the main reason that frequencies above 20,000 Hz are referred to as “ultrasonic” and those below 20 Hz are referred to as “infrasonic”.

However, there are many knowledgeable audio equipment designers who believe that reproducing frequencies above the normal human hearing range contributes to the delivery/naturalness/gestalt of the upper frequencies that we can hear. I don’t know whether this applies to the Reference 7’s, but that might certainly help explain the crisply detailed but highly listenable sound that they produce in the upper frequencies. Moreover, Canton’s own DC technology operates on the proposition that ultrasonic waves that you can’t hear negatively affect waves you can hear, and they certainly produce articulate bass.

The second basic practical problem is the listening room. The wavelength of a 20,000 Hz tone is a bit over 6 inches, but the length of a 22 Hz sound wave is about 51 and 1/3 feet. How big is your listening room? If it doesn’t have at least one dimension that is 51 feet long, you’re not going to properly hear that 22 Hz note with correct tonality. (To you acoustics experts out there who are getting riled up reading this, I know that I’m oversimplifying. The main point is that you’re not going to be able to hear the lowest note of pipe organs – around 16 Hz – in a 15’ x 20’ room.). One reason the B&W 800D’s work well in my main listening room is that the room has a diagonal dimension about 39 feet long, which corresponds to a sonic wavelength of about 29 Hz, which is above the range where my 800D’s woofers roll off.

The third point is that tones at, for example, 30 Hz, 300 Hz, 3000 Hz and 10,000 Hz may come at you at the same decibel level, but they won’t all sound equally loud to your ears. Perceived loudness is not just a function of a frequency’s dB level. Your ears perceive some frequencies as subjectively louder than others, even when those frequencies are carefully controlled to be at the same dB.

A 30 Hz tone would need to be played at about 80 dB to sound as loud as a 3,000 Hz tone played at 42 dB. Add to this the fact that all speakers roll off significantly before they reach their lowest bass extension, and you can see why speaker designers struggle with this all the time. (The sensation of loudness of pure tones has been thoroughly studied. Equal loudness contours for single pure tones have been determined by several subjective listening tests performed over the last 75 years. The contours were determined by asking listeners to adjust the volume of single pure tones of various frequencies so that they sound just as loud as a 1000 Hz tone of a prescribed sound pressure level. We are least sensitive to low frequencies. It’s interesting to note that the bones of the middle ear start to provide amplification at around 1000 Hz. We are most sensitive in the 3-4 kHz region. Not surprisingly, most of our speech occurs in the region of maximum hearing sensitivity.)

What does all this mean?

Well, for one, my room size makes it effectively impossible for me to verify the claim that the Reference 7’s actually go down to 22 Hz. Secondly, though I was able to verify that the Reference 7’s go down below 30 Hz, my ears perceived a large subjective drop in low bass volume after about 38 Hz. However, none of this mattered to me. Speakers that have specifications showing bass extension below 40 Hz have to, one degree or another, always exhibited this pattern when I have listened to them, including my B&W Nautilus 800D’s.

The fact is that the Canton Vento Reference 7’s subjectively delivered bass extension that belies their relatively compact size. Add to this the speed, detail and soundstage they exhibit, and you already have a very impressive speaker. Then, add the fact that these speakers (a) have the flexibility to sound good in a wide range of acoustic environments, (b) can be reasonably driven by a wide range of amps, and (c) sound good playing virtually any type of music, and you have a speaker that’s a candidate for “best in class”. I have listened to other speakers, some quite expensive, that just didn’t sound good in some environments. Some sounded good in the smaller rooms but couldn’t “fill” the bigger rooms. Some sounded much too “hard” in the ceramic tile/stone/bare wallboard room. Others got bass that was too mushy when used with tubed amplification. That was not the case with the Canton Vento Reference 7’s. For sure, they sounded different in different settings, but they never sounded like anything but great speakers.

Conclusion

You have some very good choices when you’re preparing to spend $7,000 for a pair of speakers. The Usher Dancer, the Quad 988 and the Revel Performa F52, to name a few. I would definitely add the Canton Vento Reference 7 to this list. It is a very fine speaker that can play any type of music and deal with a variety of listening environments without losing the characteristics that make it attractive. You can have a very high confidence level that they will sound very good when playing in your own audio system in your own home.

Manufacturer’s Comment:

We at Canton would like to thank Ed Momkus for his review of our Vento Reference 7 DC loudspeaker. It is always pleasing when a reviewer takes notice of the hard work we put into the details and finer points of our loudspeakers, and we were particularly gratified with Mr. Momkus’ comments regarding the Reference 7’s adaptability to a wide range of audio systems and environments.

Canton’s engineering team devoted great efforts to ensure just that – from the voicing and dispersion characteristics of the mid-range and tweeter to the highly responsive aluminum cone and motor design of the bass driver, these speakers are intended to deliver the best sound that is possible from any system, whatever its pedigree. At the end of the day, whether it’s generated by a turntable and 10 watt tube amplifier, or a 300-watt digital amplifier and MP3 player, what counts the most is the emotional response that the listener has with the music.

Paul Madsen,
President, Canton USA