Derek S-H
Outstanding Member
There currently appear to be few user reviews of the Canton online, so I thought I'd write about my experience to help anyone who's thinking of buying one. Apologies in advance if it seems overly lengthy and tediously detailed, but the intention is that it would answer virtually any queries someone might have without actually having to ask the question!
First, a little background detail about my telly, which was an important factor in my decision to buy the Canton. I have a Pioneer Kuro 50" plasma which weighs 36 kilos on its table top stand. That immediately rules out most current soundbases as I was planning to rest the Kuro on top of the unit. Also, the Pioneer was a bit of an anomaly at the time as it didn't come with speakers nor a table top stand as standard - all you got was a remote, a power cord and an instruction manual, that's it! Anything else was extra.
At the time of purchase (2009) the soundbar market was relatively small and expensive and soundbases didn't even exist. Pioneer offered their own in-house, add-on external speakers in two forms: a single horizontal design that fitted under the TV via a height adjustable stand or two vertical speakers that attached to the sides, thereby extending the telly's width. I tried the horizontal design first, and though it was fairly loud and upfront it also seemed quite a narrow sound image without much space or air. I then switched to the twin vertical design and the sound image was much wider and bigger, though in terms of quality it didn't really differ from the other design.
The stereo speakers cost £80, which wasn't cheap but not stupidly expensive either for the time. By offering these add-ons, Pioneer managed to cleverly circumvent the established criticism of flatscreen tellies and their thin, poor sound. Mind you, the speakers in standard mode were nothing to write home about, you had to boost the sound significantly using the telly's built in digital sound processing modes (SRS) and thereby artificially enhancing the midrange, bass and sound image height and width.
I lived with this arrangement fairly happily but always kept an eye on soundbar technology and improvements over the years. I do have 5.1 Surround Sound, but I also had my telly professionally calibrated and there was always a sense that the picture was far superior to the potential sound, that it was adequate but no more.
Come January 2014 and I decided to start seriously having a look around at soundbars. And then "What Hi-Fi" ran a Group Test of soundbases and I immediately realised that this was a sound technology and upgrade that was far better suited to my needs. Firstly, there wouldn't be any unsightly trailing wires running across the TV shelf from the back of a unit parked in front of my telly. Secondly, height wouldn't be an issue as I would be able to place my TV directly on top of any unit with the additional benefit of hiding connecting wires. And thirdly, I wouldn't have to concern myself with a lack of bass impact without an external sub as soundbases have bass drivers built in.
Now this is purely coincidental, but the dimensions of my TV stand are 56 cm wide x 30 cm deep, the Canton is 55 x 30 and it fits absolutely perfectly and blends seamlessly, almost like they were designed to work together. Add this to the weight factor mentioned earlier (the Canton can support tellies up to 40 kilos) and the only other competition was the Maxell SB3000, which looked like an absolute beast and would be far more dominant aesthetically.
My only other concern was about the Canton's downward-firing twin bass speakers. I have an Optimum TV stand with toughened 10mm glass shelves, it is very heavy and solid but I wanted to try and isolate the Canton as much as possible, to try and reduce any distortion or vibration. I bought a granite chopping board from Ebay (60 x 30 was the closest I could get, dimensions-wise) and thought about some squidgy isolation feet between the granite and the glass shelf, but the combined weight of everything on top would just squash them down so much as to render them virtually useless. I then found this:
Draper 30743 Vibration Absorber Mat: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools
Dimensions were 60 x 30 and a perfect match for the granite board! Maybe this was a bit of overkill, but better that than to try and change anything once the Kuro and Canton were in position. The current arrangement is:
TV
|
DM50
|
granite
|
absorber mat
and I have put my hand on top of the glass shelf whilst something was booming out and have felt no vibration at all.
Now, onto the Canton itself. It arrived last month and came packaged with:
1 x unit
1 x remote
1 x instruction manual
1 x power cable (note: the Canton is German and comes with a 2 pin plug as standard. Make sure you get or have a 2 into 3 pin Euro adapter available otherwise it won't work out of the box!)
1 x digital optical cable
1 x digital coaxial cable
1 x analogue stereo cable
Canton recommended that you connect to your TV via optical for best sound quality and to run the unit in for at least 15 hours, so I used my own QED optical cable rather than the cheap freebie supplied. This involved the relentless banality of 4Music (bass and treble) and QVC (midrange) for what seemed like an eternity. After this torture, I then cranked it up and sat back to watch "Match Of The Day" and was immediately completely underwhelmed - it sounded flat, thin, lifeless and worse than the Pioneer speakers I had before!
I don't have Cable or Satellite and only use Freeview. I know that sound quality can vary enormously between TV channels, but I wasn't expecting such a lacklustre performance, not after all the glowing professional reviews and adhering to the running in period. The Kuro doesn't have a coaxial connection, so that only left the analogue stereo connection (QED again) to try. What a transformation! It was like a thick, heavy blanket had been lifted off the unit and it could finally sing.
Treble is sweet and unobtrusive, midrange is fantastically clear and detailed - you can really hear the emotional expressiveness, subtlety and nuances of voices - and bass was truly stunning - fast, taut, propulsive, abundant (no real need for an external sub), tight and musical. The balance of abilities is simply outstanding and Canton have pitched the sound just right - it's warm and rich, clear and detailed, not overly analytical and clinical and certainly not fatiguing over extended listening periods.
Must also mention the dinky yet solid and chunky, metal-bodied remote. The main unit is beautifully built and finished and the remote matches that. It's also well laid out and has just half a dozen functions, so it's simplicity itself to use. The Canton offers a lipsynch function (which I've never had to use) and an EQ function during initial set up. This is basically: EQ1 (for having the DM50 on a shelf in free space with your telly on a wall), EQ2 (having your telly on top of the Canton) and EQ3 (having the DM50 inside a TV unit on a shelf). It's nice that Canton offers these options, but having flicked between them I could discern no noticeable difference whatsoever but still stuck with EQ2.
I also like the minimal sound options of the Canton - either Stereo (for music) or Surround (for TV and films). A great many AV amps offer a ton of sound modes, hardly any of which anyone uses, so its nice to just have as little to fiddle about with as possible. This pretty much describes setting up the DM50 in the first place - it's just two cables, one to your TV and one to the power socket. After that, the only thing you ever have to do is switch it on and adjust the volume up and down. I just leave mine in Surround mode and lose myself in whatever I'm watching.
Now, nothing in this life is perfect so here are the criticisms! Firstly, the unit itself has no external buttons or switches anywhere; to maintain its clean look, I suppose. However, this means that you are entirely dependent on the remote to operate the unit, so what happens if you lose it? Or it breaks? Or it just stops working? I always want any device to have at least an on/off switch and volume up/down as a back up. Secondly, the digital connection was not the best way to connect the unit at all, certainly not for my TV, and HDMI would have been a useful option to explore, especially as I understand that analogue connections are increasingly a rarity with modern flatscreens. Thirdly, though perhaps a little unfairly, the Canton produces a huge, room-filling wall of sound when it's cranked up, but it's ultimately a small-ish box right in front of your face (I'd recommend mounting it as high up as possible because of this, though still underneath your screen) and there's not much height or width projection of specific objects within a soundtrack. Panning left to right or front to back is almost non-existent too; it is a big, powerful sound field but there's not much sense of movement like you get with 5.1. And finally, though the Canton is rich and warm, it is also surprisingly accurate and if you feed it a bad signal it will sound terrible. Give it quality, though, and it is simply breathtaking.
But perhaps these sound quality criticisms are a little harsh. If all you've ever heard is your TV's thin, weedy and feeble speakers then upgrading to a soundbase is just a complete revelation. They certainly offer a neater, less obtrusive and more compact alternative to soundbars, though maybe at the expense of image width and panning sound effects (though you could always explore soundbases that have side firing speakers, I suppose). The current market seems to offer most models in the £2-300 price range, so the Canton stands alone at being £400 and nothing else priced above it.
Is it worth spending the extra? I would say yes, I certainly haven't regretted my decision and it's been a clear improvement over the Kuro's in-house external speakers. But I must also say that I do believe in the Law of Diminishing Returns and incremental improvements, also that I think the human ear adapts over time to whatever it is exposed to. If you feel that £400 is far too much to spend, then I'm sure you'll be more than happy with anything in the £2-400 price band below.
I must also say that it's worth checking on your telly's connection options as that can make a significant difference to the overall sound. And (and this is just a personal observation) your TV's internal amplification - the Kuro's manual states the sound output at a measly 36 watts, the Canton has a claimed rating of 200 watts! Am I really getting the best out of the unit here and using the analogue connections too?
To finish (finally!), buying and using the Canton has mostly been an absolute joy. I haven't had to artificially manipulate the sound to create a vast improvement on what I was using before. Aesthetically, it fits and blends in beautifully and seamlessly. The build and finish is top quality. It was a doddle to set up and is simplicity itself to use. And the sound is truly magnificent from something so small and discreet; it's not just about the quantity but the quality of sound that's been so hugely impressive.
Highly recommended, if your budget allows!
First, a little background detail about my telly, which was an important factor in my decision to buy the Canton. I have a Pioneer Kuro 50" plasma which weighs 36 kilos on its table top stand. That immediately rules out most current soundbases as I was planning to rest the Kuro on top of the unit. Also, the Pioneer was a bit of an anomaly at the time as it didn't come with speakers nor a table top stand as standard - all you got was a remote, a power cord and an instruction manual, that's it! Anything else was extra.
At the time of purchase (2009) the soundbar market was relatively small and expensive and soundbases didn't even exist. Pioneer offered their own in-house, add-on external speakers in two forms: a single horizontal design that fitted under the TV via a height adjustable stand or two vertical speakers that attached to the sides, thereby extending the telly's width. I tried the horizontal design first, and though it was fairly loud and upfront it also seemed quite a narrow sound image without much space or air. I then switched to the twin vertical design and the sound image was much wider and bigger, though in terms of quality it didn't really differ from the other design.
The stereo speakers cost £80, which wasn't cheap but not stupidly expensive either for the time. By offering these add-ons, Pioneer managed to cleverly circumvent the established criticism of flatscreen tellies and their thin, poor sound. Mind you, the speakers in standard mode were nothing to write home about, you had to boost the sound significantly using the telly's built in digital sound processing modes (SRS) and thereby artificially enhancing the midrange, bass and sound image height and width.
I lived with this arrangement fairly happily but always kept an eye on soundbar technology and improvements over the years. I do have 5.1 Surround Sound, but I also had my telly professionally calibrated and there was always a sense that the picture was far superior to the potential sound, that it was adequate but no more.
Come January 2014 and I decided to start seriously having a look around at soundbars. And then "What Hi-Fi" ran a Group Test of soundbases and I immediately realised that this was a sound technology and upgrade that was far better suited to my needs. Firstly, there wouldn't be any unsightly trailing wires running across the TV shelf from the back of a unit parked in front of my telly. Secondly, height wouldn't be an issue as I would be able to place my TV directly on top of any unit with the additional benefit of hiding connecting wires. And thirdly, I wouldn't have to concern myself with a lack of bass impact without an external sub as soundbases have bass drivers built in.
Now this is purely coincidental, but the dimensions of my TV stand are 56 cm wide x 30 cm deep, the Canton is 55 x 30 and it fits absolutely perfectly and blends seamlessly, almost like they were designed to work together. Add this to the weight factor mentioned earlier (the Canton can support tellies up to 40 kilos) and the only other competition was the Maxell SB3000, which looked like an absolute beast and would be far more dominant aesthetically.
My only other concern was about the Canton's downward-firing twin bass speakers. I have an Optimum TV stand with toughened 10mm glass shelves, it is very heavy and solid but I wanted to try and isolate the Canton as much as possible, to try and reduce any distortion or vibration. I bought a granite chopping board from Ebay (60 x 30 was the closest I could get, dimensions-wise) and thought about some squidgy isolation feet between the granite and the glass shelf, but the combined weight of everything on top would just squash them down so much as to render them virtually useless. I then found this:
Draper 30743 Vibration Absorber Mat: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools
Dimensions were 60 x 30 and a perfect match for the granite board! Maybe this was a bit of overkill, but better that than to try and change anything once the Kuro and Canton were in position. The current arrangement is:
TV
|
DM50
|
granite
|
absorber mat
and I have put my hand on top of the glass shelf whilst something was booming out and have felt no vibration at all.
Now, onto the Canton itself. It arrived last month and came packaged with:
1 x unit
1 x remote
1 x instruction manual
1 x power cable (note: the Canton is German and comes with a 2 pin plug as standard. Make sure you get or have a 2 into 3 pin Euro adapter available otherwise it won't work out of the box!)
1 x digital optical cable
1 x digital coaxial cable
1 x analogue stereo cable
Canton recommended that you connect to your TV via optical for best sound quality and to run the unit in for at least 15 hours, so I used my own QED optical cable rather than the cheap freebie supplied. This involved the relentless banality of 4Music (bass and treble) and QVC (midrange) for what seemed like an eternity. After this torture, I then cranked it up and sat back to watch "Match Of The Day" and was immediately completely underwhelmed - it sounded flat, thin, lifeless and worse than the Pioneer speakers I had before!
I don't have Cable or Satellite and only use Freeview. I know that sound quality can vary enormously between TV channels, but I wasn't expecting such a lacklustre performance, not after all the glowing professional reviews and adhering to the running in period. The Kuro doesn't have a coaxial connection, so that only left the analogue stereo connection (QED again) to try. What a transformation! It was like a thick, heavy blanket had been lifted off the unit and it could finally sing.
Treble is sweet and unobtrusive, midrange is fantastically clear and detailed - you can really hear the emotional expressiveness, subtlety and nuances of voices - and bass was truly stunning - fast, taut, propulsive, abundant (no real need for an external sub), tight and musical. The balance of abilities is simply outstanding and Canton have pitched the sound just right - it's warm and rich, clear and detailed, not overly analytical and clinical and certainly not fatiguing over extended listening periods.
Must also mention the dinky yet solid and chunky, metal-bodied remote. The main unit is beautifully built and finished and the remote matches that. It's also well laid out and has just half a dozen functions, so it's simplicity itself to use. The Canton offers a lipsynch function (which I've never had to use) and an EQ function during initial set up. This is basically: EQ1 (for having the DM50 on a shelf in free space with your telly on a wall), EQ2 (having your telly on top of the Canton) and EQ3 (having the DM50 inside a TV unit on a shelf). It's nice that Canton offers these options, but having flicked between them I could discern no noticeable difference whatsoever but still stuck with EQ2.
I also like the minimal sound options of the Canton - either Stereo (for music) or Surround (for TV and films). A great many AV amps offer a ton of sound modes, hardly any of which anyone uses, so its nice to just have as little to fiddle about with as possible. This pretty much describes setting up the DM50 in the first place - it's just two cables, one to your TV and one to the power socket. After that, the only thing you ever have to do is switch it on and adjust the volume up and down. I just leave mine in Surround mode and lose myself in whatever I'm watching.
Now, nothing in this life is perfect so here are the criticisms! Firstly, the unit itself has no external buttons or switches anywhere; to maintain its clean look, I suppose. However, this means that you are entirely dependent on the remote to operate the unit, so what happens if you lose it? Or it breaks? Or it just stops working? I always want any device to have at least an on/off switch and volume up/down as a back up. Secondly, the digital connection was not the best way to connect the unit at all, certainly not for my TV, and HDMI would have been a useful option to explore, especially as I understand that analogue connections are increasingly a rarity with modern flatscreens. Thirdly, though perhaps a little unfairly, the Canton produces a huge, room-filling wall of sound when it's cranked up, but it's ultimately a small-ish box right in front of your face (I'd recommend mounting it as high up as possible because of this, though still underneath your screen) and there's not much height or width projection of specific objects within a soundtrack. Panning left to right or front to back is almost non-existent too; it is a big, powerful sound field but there's not much sense of movement like you get with 5.1. And finally, though the Canton is rich and warm, it is also surprisingly accurate and if you feed it a bad signal it will sound terrible. Give it quality, though, and it is simply breathtaking.
But perhaps these sound quality criticisms are a little harsh. If all you've ever heard is your TV's thin, weedy and feeble speakers then upgrading to a soundbase is just a complete revelation. They certainly offer a neater, less obtrusive and more compact alternative to soundbars, though maybe at the expense of image width and panning sound effects (though you could always explore soundbases that have side firing speakers, I suppose). The current market seems to offer most models in the £2-300 price range, so the Canton stands alone at being £400 and nothing else priced above it.
Is it worth spending the extra? I would say yes, I certainly haven't regretted my decision and it's been a clear improvement over the Kuro's in-house external speakers. But I must also say that I do believe in the Law of Diminishing Returns and incremental improvements, also that I think the human ear adapts over time to whatever it is exposed to. If you feel that £400 is far too much to spend, then I'm sure you'll be more than happy with anything in the £2-400 price band below.
I must also say that it's worth checking on your telly's connection options as that can make a significant difference to the overall sound. And (and this is just a personal observation) your TV's internal amplification - the Kuro's manual states the sound output at a measly 36 watts, the Canton has a claimed rating of 200 watts! Am I really getting the best out of the unit here and using the analogue connections too?
To finish (finally!), buying and using the Canton has mostly been an absolute joy. I haven't had to artificially manipulate the sound to create a vast improvement on what I was using before. Aesthetically, it fits and blends in beautifully and seamlessly. The build and finish is top quality. It was a doddle to set up and is simplicity itself to use. And the sound is truly magnificent from something so small and discreet; it's not just about the quantity but the quality of sound that's been so hugely impressive.
Highly recommended, if your budget allows!
Last edited:
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