Uh-oh. I know what interesting means. I had a barber once who told me that, at barber school, he'd actually taken a course in conversation...
"What the heck do they teach you in a class on conversation?"
"They taught us there was one thing you could say to any statement a customer uttered, no matter how bizarre."
"Which is . . . ?"
"'That's really interesting.'"
So when JA told me that the Canton Vento 809 DC was "interesting," I reckoned he just had nothing else to say…
The Vento 809 DC delivered it all with lithe grace. This was no heavy-handed speaker. In fact, I characterize it as light, agile, and accurate. When there was bass to deliver, however, the 809 delivered it with lots of slam. At other times, the speaker…
Description: Three-way, floorstanding, bass-reflex loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" ADT-25 aluminum-manganese dome tweeter, 7" aluminum-cone midrange unit, two 8" aluminum-cone woofers. Electrical crossover: low-pass, 250Hz (12dB/octave); high-pass, 3kHz (12dB/octave). Frequency response: 36Hz–38kHz, ±6dB; 41Hz–24.4kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 88.5dB. Nominal impedance: 4–8 ohms. Nominal music power handling: 180–340W.
Dimensions: 44.1" (1120mm) H by 9.8" (250mm) W by 13.8" (350mm) D. Weight: 62.9 lbs (28.6kg).
Finishes: Cherry veneer, silver lacquer; black fabric…
Digital Sources: Krell DVD Standard DVD/CD player; Musical Fidelity X-RayV3 CD player, Polk XRt12 Reference XM satellite radio tuner with Musical Fidelity X-DACV3 D/A processor.
Preamplifiers: Conrad-Johnson ACT2, Krell KAV-280P.
Power Amplifiers: Coda S5, Conrad-Johnson Premier 350, McCormack DNA-500.
Loudspeakers: Sonus Faber Cremona.
Cables: Interconnect: Audience Au24 SE, Shunyata Research Aries, Stereovox Studio HDSE. Speaker: Audience Au24, Shunyata Research Lyra, Stereovox Studio HDLS. AC: Shunyata Research Anaconda.
Accessories:…
My estimate of the Canton Vento 809 DC's voltage sensitivity was 92dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is both high in absolute terms and 3.5dB higher than the specified figure. The speaker's impedance remained between 4 and 6 ohms for most of the audioband (fig.1); though the electrical phase angle was mainly moderate, the Canton will need to be driven with an amplifier rated at 4 ohms.
Fig.1 Canton Vento 809 DC, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.)
The smoothness of the traces in fig.1 is marred by glitches at 130Hz…
Every once in a great while a rock musician comes along who not only sums up everything that has come before him, but who sounds so new his appeal is irresistible. Elvis Costello didn't just "burst" upon the moribund rock…
Yes. The company that failed to crack the upscale video-monitor market a few years ago with its Optonica line (but now is very successful with expensive SharpVision LCD home-theater projectors) has hopped on the last train to Krellsville with this gorgeous,…
The output of the amplifier at this point is still a ±32V pulse train, which, if fed directly to the loudspeakers, will results in high levels of RFI. The MOSFET stage is therefore followed by an initially gradual-sloped passive low-pass filter. While this…