"Ceramic" tweeter - Canton Vento 820.2 vs Paradigm S2

[snakeeyes]

I tell you what. If I could find the Canton Reference Vento 9.2 DC in the tower version. I would be all set. The bookshelf I own is so good, I could only imagine what a full tower would sound like.

So what is the “DC technology” they refer to in the DC series?

 

[KEW]

So what is the “DC technology” they refer to in the DC series?

I forget what the DC stands for, but functionally it limits the woofer to avoid bottoming out.

 

[Beave]

Displacement Control, basically a high-pass filter to the woofers that keeps infrasonics (and possibly very low bass) from getting to the woofer(s). This prevents the woofer(s) from trying to reproduce frequencies below what they're capable of, thus reducing their movement and their subsequent distortion.

They do this, I think, by putting a large cap in series with the drivers.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/canton-reference-32-dc-loudspeaker-measurements

 

[snakeeyes]

I guess Florida is about as far away as I could have gone for speakers. It will take until Thursday night to get them to Seattle... I wonder if any “break in time” matters with these or if they will immediately shine.

 

[KEW]

I guess Florida is about as far away as I could have gone for speakers. It will take until Thursday night to get them to Seattle... I wonder if any “break in time” matters with these or if they will immediately shine.

There might be some subtle changes, but nothing great enough to really make much difference.
Mine sounded good straight out of the box and I knew they were keepers as soon as I switched to a known speaker for comparison.

 

[snakeeyes]

I decided the 681 Yammie will go to the living room. Amazon has the Yammie 770 on sale for $399 so snagged one for pairing with the Cantons and Rythmik L12 in the bedroom. It’s like a 681 with a 5th foot.

 

[snakeeyes]

They arrived today! I’m getting the 770 AVR later today so hooked them up to the 681 AVR for now. These Vento 820.2 are immediately a 1000x better than the QA 3020 speakers. I am very pleased so far. Lots of listening to do before I say too much, but very very nice so far.

 

[snakeeyes]

Cantons sound fantastic. Love mine.

Loving mine too. These are keepers.

 

[afterlife2]

They arrived today! I’m getting the 770 AVR later today so hooked them up to the 681 AVR for now. These Vento 820.2 are immediately a 1000x better than the QA 3020 speakers. I am very pleased so far. Lots of listening to do before I say too much, but very very nice so far.

Cantons are great aren't they? It will only get better.

 

[snakeeyes]

Cantons are great aren't they? It will only get better.

Listening to Bach - Brandenburg Concertos cd. (Kew recommended)

So sweet!

 

[KEW]

Listening to Bach - Brandenburg Concertos cd. (Kew recommended)

So sweet!

The Brandenburg Concertos have a great industrious energy for getting things done!
I largely wrote my Master's thesis to it!

 

[snakeeyes]

The Brandenburg Concertos have a great industrious energy for getting things done!
I largely wrote my Master's thesis to it!

I have a bachelors degree. Was probably listening to something calm like Simon and Garfunkel Concert in the Park while writing my senior thesis. Definitely wasn’t Nine inch Nails for sure. LOL.

 

[shadyJ]

The Brandenburg Concertos have a great industrious energy for getting things done!
I largely wrote my Master's thesis to it!

I wouldn't be able to write with Bach on. The melodies demand too much attention to try to focus on another task. Lately I have been using vaporwave for music while writing. It is like library music from the 80's and 90's became self-ware. It is clever, pleasant but deliberately soulless, sometimes funny but sometimes trying too hard to be ironically hip. I don't like all of it, and I am almost ashamed to enjoy something that is so hipsterish. But, by god, it is good background music for writing.

 

[KEW]

I wouldn't be able to write with Bach on. The melodies demand too much attention to try to focus on another task. Lately I have been using vaporwave for music while writing. It is like library music from the 80's and 90's became self-ware. It is clever, pleasant but deliberately soulless, sometimes funny but sometimes trying too hard to be ironically hip. I don't like all of it, and I am almost ashamed to enjoy something that is so hipsterish. But, by god, it is good background music for writing.

Conceptually, I get what you are saying; but for my thesis, by the time I was writing it, I already had figured out most of what I was going to say. Developing the mathematical models required real thought. After that, crunching the numbers is rote, interpreting the results and determining which resulting info was relevant required real thought, putting the result into graphs is rote, written description of graphics is mostly rote, Abstract, Introduction, and Conclusion required real thought.
I go quiet for the "real thought" portions, but Brandenberg covered (most of) the rest, including on-going editing! So, the music is inextricably linked to the process of generating my thesis, but there were more than enough hours to go around!
But I agree. Brandenberg is not a good medium for deep thought. I also like to use it for cleaning house!

 

[snakeeyes]

So far so good. These little Ventos really do everything well. They definitely pick up cymbals. Radiohead Creep sounds amazing on these. The cabinets are very nice and solid. All instruments sound right. All voices sound right. For the bedroom setup these are perfect. Diana Krall sounds better than ever.

These in a tower, like emathews was saying, would be heaven in a medium room, but in a bedroom it would have been difficult to choose a better pair of bookshelves for $720.

 

[KEW]

The Infinity version is what Floyd Toole used to use as they didn't have a break up resonance until above 30 khz. The ceramic layers served to dampen the inherent resonance of the aluminum diaphragm.

I was revisiting this thread and wanted to ask... when you say Floyd Toole used the tweeter from the Infinity speakers, what does that mean? Are you talking about his speakers at home? Or his preferred speaker in the test lab when evaluating certain aspects of human preferences?
I really don't know his history aside from the great body of research he has contributed.

 

[KEW]

@KEW
Seems similar to the Infinity CMMD technology to me. And, of course those have been praised for a long time too.

I am not sure I addressed this directly.
IMHO, while the technology may be similar, the Vento ceramic tweeter is a step above the Infinity CMMD tweeter.
The CMMD tweeter used in the Infinity Reference R162 is an outstanding tweeter especially considering it is in a speaker with a MSRP of $450/pr. (or <$200 when on sale, as it is now!).
https://www.harmanaudio.com/R162BK....suYgfF8XhJOpaSlnMxIz-9zj2xYXCrnwaAsaYEALw_wcB
It has extension beyond my experience of what is possible with a soft dome, but no indication of breakup (like the Paradigm Studio20 v.3 had - cymbals had a "bacon frying" sound to them that was subtle, but became apparent when directly A-B'ed against Paradigm Signature S-2 v.2 w/Be tweeter).
The difference between the Infinity CMMD tweeter and the Be tweeter shows up most obviously in the fullness of the harmonics of Orchestral chimes, where the S-2's Be tweeter simply outclasses the Infinity CMMD tweeter.

The Vento variant of ceramic-aluminium tweeter is marginally better than the S-2's Be tweeter, and marginally behind the Focal Solo6Be tweeter, so I would consider it in the same class as the Be tweeters!

 

[ematthews]

Love love my Cantons. Loved the Reference version. Love my A45 towers!

 

[KEW]

Love love my Cantons. Loved the Reference version. Love my A45 towers!

I thought you fell in love with some Focal towers!
Am I mixing you up with someone else, or did you go through another iteration, or do you have and love both?
I keep thinking about those A45's.
A4L should be getting the A55's this year or next, I won't charge you to drive up there and get those old A45's out of your way when the time comes!

 

[ematthews]

I have both. I purchased one last set of towers before I put a lid on my spending. They went down in price so I pulled the trigger and I am glad I did. They are more balanced than the Focals. Focals still have more bass in this room however. I fixed this however with a sub.