Tower Speaker Reviews

Canton's specs state that the Chrono 70's bass extends all the way down to 25Hz, which is probably only a bit of a stretch. With a nominal impedance of four ohms, and a sensitivity in the mid 80s, I found that the Chrono 70 presented a reasonably straight- forward load to most amplifiers. For much of my listening I used a 150 watt-per-channel Denon AVR-X8500 receiver, which was able to drive the Chrono 70s to frat-party levels with ease.

Setup
Canton's manual recommends that the speaker's back be positioned between 12 and 20 inches away from the front wall to give the rear-firing port plenty of breathing room. Initial listening proved this to be sage advice, as the Chrono 70 can crank out prodigious bass. I ended up with the pair closer to the 20-inch maximum distance, with the added space needed to minimize boundary reinforcement and bring bass levels into proper balance. Overall, the Chrono 70's sound erred slightly warmer than neutral at first, but I was able to restore high frequency extension and openness by angling the speakers in slightly toward the listening position.

Performance
Streaming some of my favorite demo tracks from Qobuz and Tidal, I first decided to explore the Chrono 70's ability to dig deep into the bass, something amply demonstrated by the title song from Shelby Lynne's Just a Little Lovin' album. Right from the start, the weight behind drummer Curt Bisquera's kick drum and the deep growl of Kevin Axt's bass belied the Chrono 70's relatively modest driver complement. Better still, this was far from the type of tuneless mid-bass thump that smaller speakers sometimes pass off to provide a simulacrum of deeper bass; with the Chrono 70, it was tuneful and agile, sounding at times like a carefully dialed-in subwoofer.

To get a handle on the Chrono 70's dynamic capabilities, I next played the opening of the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances from the Reference Recordings release with Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra. Following the first few delicate bars with violins and winds, this quickly builds to a big crescendo, with basses digging in hard and loud tympani rolls before moving on to an even bigger and louder crescendo. Even with peak volume levels of well over 100dB at my seat, the Cantons were able to shrug off this ultra- demanding music with ease and showed no signs of impending distress.

Moving on to something a bit more subtle, I played the opening of the Philip Glass score for the movie Mishima. This starts with a variety of bells and other percussion instruments before low strings and tympani enter to underpin the delicate high frequency sounds. I was able to really fine-tune the speaker toe-in using this track, maximizing tonal clarity and fine detail from the percussion while also ensuring that the soundstage remained spacious and had plenty of depth. Delicate tinkly percussion is a tough test for any speaker, but the Chrono 70's aluminum-manganese tweeter pulled it off beautifully.

For something a bit more raucous, I played "Tied Up" by Yello, a track that guarantees to get a party going. Again, I was truly impressed by the Chrono 70's ability to crank out sound effortlessly and cleanly. Certain horn-loaded speakers might offer a smidgen more of a "jump factor" in a listening comparison, but these Cantons have a much more neutral balance than most horns in the same price range.

Conclusion
The Canton Chrono 70 doesn't look like anything particularly special on paper, but once I hooked it up for a listen, it was immediately clear that this speaker manages to punch way above its weight class. Better yet, it can be easily expanded with Chrono center, surrounds, sub, and Atmos speakers for a complete home theater setup. The Chrono 70 offers transparent sound, plays hard, and, at $1,995/pair, delivers excellent value.