Bookshelf Speaker Reviews

After five nights of casual, low-level listening, it was time to add some high-resolution audio to the mix and turn up the volume. The Integra DPS-8.3 disc player, Silver Serpent line interconnects from www.bettercables.com, and some 1970s quad recordings on PentaTone SACDs flooded my listening room with sound. I heard more differences between various orchestras' string sections in various halls than I'd heard before. While the system's imaging was superb, the midrange was more strongly outlined than it is in most concert halls, with an overall effect that was austere and a bit lean, like a face with more cheekbone than flesh. My Paradigm reference speakers are warmer and more voluptuous (as well as slightly larger and more costly), but the Cantons matched their nuance and complexity. If the Cantons were a beer, they'd be a pale, aromatic Weissbier, not a dark, hearty Bock.

At no time did the Cantons go to the extremes of thinness or hardness. Rarely have I heard fabric tweeters produce so much low-level resolution. At moderate levels, the speakers did a nice job of conveying the dynamic shadings of Stephen Kovacevich's piano on the PentaTone Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 2 and No. 4 SACD. When I switched to Richard Thompson's Rumor and Sigh DVD-Audio, they stood up to high-level blasting.

I spent time with the 5.1-channel DVD-Audio release of Frank Zappa's Halloween, a live performance from 1978, and marveled at his life-after-Hendrix guitar solos on "Ancient Armaments" and "Stink-Foot." Zappa's vibrant fuzz-tone is as good a test of a speaker system as any unplugged instrument, and the Cantons made it feel like a fat, furry animal levitating above the floor. That in turn led me to the CD version of Zappa's Yellow Shark, a riot of texture and borderline atonality. Somehow, the speakers made me visualize the instruments blossoming like time-lapse photography of a rose garden. Switching back to CD was relatively painless. Canton seems to have voiced these speakers for real-world audio sources.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's DTS soundtrack provided a mosaic of moments that added up to a comprehensive portrait of the Cantons. The turbulent drums that punctuate chapter 7's rooftop chase had a clean, fast attack, accurate pitches, and a well-measured decay. In chapter 22 (the restaurant fight scene), the cracking and crunching of the collapsing wood were strongly etched, but the swordplay's metal-on-metal effects provided the most startling moments.

The ferry scene in The Ring offered an instructive contrast between the Cantons and my reference speakers. First comes the low hiss and pat-pat-pat of rain before the departure. The ferry ride starts with a low, growling wind and the engine's quietly submerged roar. When the heroine confronts a frightened horse, the clatter and thunk of the panicked animal in its stall is genuinely scary. The horse's struggle ends with a sickening splash as it goes overboard, is sucked under the boat, hits the screw, and turns into a red flood in the boat's wake. A little girl screams amid the ferry's horn, and a loud hiss rises to dead silence. This scene clarified an essential difference between the two systems: The Paradigms made the experience continuously visceral and sucked me into a remorseless undertow of emotion. In contrast, the Cantons highlighted individual moments—the rain, the horse's pounding hooves, the splash—and somehow cerebralized the scene. Both systems were dramatic, but one dominated and devastated me while the other thrilled and tickled me. Naturally, this leads to my standard words of equipment-matching caution for highly detailed speaker systems. The Cantons won't mate well with tinny electronics or sparsely furnished rooms. Give them some warm-voiced power, a thickly padded rug, and book-lined walls, and you just might end up thrilled and tickled.

At $1,599, the Movie LE 125 is one of the higher-priced compact sub/sat sets. I wouldn't call it inflated, though. For $1,000, you can buy the five satellites, without the sub, as the Take 5-LE 1. Canton's AS Series subs are good enough to be worth a strong recommendation in and of themselves, and the AS 25 SC is available separately for $599 (it's worth every penny). It would mate handsomely with high-quality satellites of any brand and is available in basic black, as well as a beech finish.

Any meditation on things German that limits itself to audio products and beer is necessarily incomplete, but one thing is undeniable: Germans are good at making things. American streets are full of German cars, and there will always be a market for well-made products that are based on smart engineering and careful manufacturing. That includes the Canton Movie LE 125 system. It's a credit to Weilrod.

* Mark Fleischmann is the author of Practical Home Theater, available through www.practicalhometheater.com (or 800/839-8640).

Highlights

• Top-flight clarity, pinpoint imaging, and vivid detail
• Deep, well-controlled bass from a small-footprint sub
• Beech/silver look blends into a light room dcor