Okay, I got in some quality listening time. I already had the Canton Vento 830.2 (which I will refer to as 830.2) setup in my living room and added the Canton Chrono SL 536.2 (which I will refer to as 536.2). For those not familiar with Canton's product line, the 830.2 is an older model (maybe 6 to 8 years ago) while the 536.2 is a current model. The Vento is a more "premium" model as compared to the Chrono!
Importantly (and consistent with the title of this thread), both have the ceramic tweeter
TL/DR:
This is real quick - they do, indeed, sound the same as best I can tell! I can't say they actually are identical, but if there is a difference it is not something that I can hear and repeat. That is what I
hear, but using my eyes, the 830.2 sounds better!
Full narrative (more about my experience than an evaluation of the speakers):
This was not an easy comparison! I need to develop a checklist to make sure I do things in the right sequence and don't forget something. In this case I set up the second AVR with the Chrono and level matched the speakers. Of course to level match the speakers as close as the 0.5 dB volume increment on the AVR's allows, I am listening critically to the speakers and I naturally segue into the A-B comparison using two of a 4-way switch box like
this one. Instead of selecting among four sources, I use the box "backwards" to take the RCA output from my CD player and select which receiver to route it to! this allows for instant switching and level matching using separate AVRs (Denon 4400 & 3500).
The first thing I established after about 10 minutes was the 830.2 had just a little more depth & tighter bass. Not much, but it was repeatable. I was wondering if the curved cabinet of the Vento might account for this by eliminating reflections/resonance. That makes some sense for the tightness, but I could not see how it would effect how deep the speaker could play. After a few more minutes I also concluded that the 830.2 had just a little more air! ... it was then that I realized that I was listening to the 536 in Stereo mode and the 830.2 in Direct mode. I switched the 536.2 AVR to direct mode and went back to the places where I repeatably heard these differences and they were gone! So I need a checksheet to keep me from getting ahead of myself. On the other hand, I had never gone to this length to determine if there was an audible difference between plain Stereo and Pure Direct, so there is that!
I also had some difficulty with sighted bias. The 830.2 is a more sophisticated looking speaker! The curved cabinet is beautiful and while they are both white, the 536.2 is more of a pure white while the 830.2 is the color of a sun bleached bone (that may not sound attractive, but the little bit of gray adds a maturity to the color, IMHO). Having my eyes open, i do a better job of keeping straight which speaker was which and the 830.2 would consistently sound "just the tiniest bit better"!
However, I found that closing my eyes (which I often do anyways) and keeping them closed I could then hear an especially stellar sound that must be the 830.2 only to discover it was the 536.2 and I had lost track of which was which while just enjoying the music. Going back for repeatability, they sounded the same in that particular place; often it was just a singer (or instrument) hitting a note that just was simply a little sweeter than others around it (on either speaker) and it stood out as exceptional. In any case it took me quite a while to establish to a comfortable level that there was no audible difference between these speakers. Usually I will detect a difference due to location, but I did not even get that - I suspect that was because I had the speakers pretty much centered in the room (8' to the closest wall).
View attachment 36612
Vento 830.2 on left, Chrono 536.2 on right. My phone did a fair job of catching the color difference!
FWIW, the Vento 830.2 is made in Germany and the Chrono SL 536.2 is made in Czech Republic.
The 536.2 calls the woofer Aluminum with Titanium membrane just like the newer Vento models (the older 830.2 woofer is spec'ed as an Aluminum driver. Since they use the same crossover, I doubt this change is anything other than cosmetic. It may even just be a different anodization. Both tweeters are ceramic coated aluminum, but the 536.2 has the newer design with a trim ring (bolts hidden).
