Audio Video News

Canton has announced several new models of loudspeakers that should arrive at dealers in January.

Foremost among them is the Karat L 800 DC, a full-range, three-way floorstanding loudspeaker that incorporates many of the engineering principles developed for the company's flagship Reference 2 DC speaker. The L 800 DC features a side-firing 12" woofer and has a slim front baffle, said to improve upper-frequency dispersion and off-axis imaging. Canton's Displacement Control (DC) technology, which uses a proprietary high-pass filter to prevent infrasonic frequency signals (below 20 Hz) from interfering with the bass driver, which is said to extend cleanly to 20 Hz.

The L 800 DC has two concave aluminum 7" midrange drivers and Canton's famed1" aluminum-manganese tweeter, with its dome and voice coil former constructed as a single structure for lower mass, and greatly improved heat dissipation characteristics, and extended high frequency performance beyond 30 kHz. The cabinet is constructed of reinforced 1" MDF, and is 8" wide, 45-1/4" tall, and has a depth of 18-3/4". The L 800 DC will be available in January, 2003 in Ash black, Cherry, or Beech veneer finishes, as well as the Karat family's unique silver lacquer finish. Suggested retail price is $4,200 per pair.

Minneapolis-based Canton USA has also introduced new "S" series Karat loudspeakers. Designed around a new 5" concave aluminum midrange driver, the series consists of the S 8 DC three-way floorstanding loudspeaker, the S 1 two-way bookshelf speaker, and the CS 4 dedicated center-channel. "The extremely light and fast diaphragm features a concave voice-coil cap that improves the symmetry of acoustic dispersion, and helps to defeat the standing-wave modes that can develop with conventional dome dustcaps," states a new product announcement. "The use of aluminum makes the driver extremely rigid, and also acts as a heatsink for the voice-coil, allowing the system to play very hard without strain." S-series speakers also use the aluminum-manganese dome tweeter.

The addition of the new Karat AS 200 SC down-firing powered subwoofer rounds out the matched components to form a high-end home theater and multichannel audio setup that is ideal for small rooms and apartments. The AS-200 SC is a 250-Watt, powered subwoofer with a 10-inch down-firing Cellulose/Graphite driver. It features an adjustable level control, switchable phase adjustment, and a variable crossover frequency of 50-150 Hz. "Canton's exclusive SC (Subwoofer Control) technology, provides improved response linearity, and eliminates the muffled or 'blatty' distortion that can otherwise occur," the company claims.

All of the models are available in ash black, cherry, or beech veneers, as well as Canton's unique silver lacquer finish. The Karat S 8 DC will have a suggested retail price of $2000 per pair; the Karat S 1 will have a retail price of $750 per pair; the Karat CS 4 and AS 200 SC will have suggested retail prices of $500 and $1,000 each, respectively. All models will be available in January of 2003, according to Canton USA.