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Canton LE109
The big speaker from Germany
By Michael Jones
October 2002
Say
the name Canton and you’ll receive one of two responses: “Who?”
or “is that a Chinese brand?”
Canton is not Chinese. Is it, in fact, a German company who have been manufacturing speakers for decades. Canton is one of the largest speaker manufacturers in Europe but is all but unknown here in New Zealand. (There are scores of quality hi-fi manufacturers in Europe who are unknown to us. Unless the brands get into the English-speaking hi-fi press, we never hear of them).
Like most larger speaker manufacturers Canton make a huge variety of speakers for different needs, markets and price points. The LE series is Canton’s newest, and ranges from the small LE101 bookshelf speaker at $649 to the model under review, the LE109 at $1899.
Unusually at this price point, the LE109 is a true three-way loudspeaker. Most speakers around this price are two- or two and a half ways (where all woofers handle the bass, but all but one roll off above that to leave the midrange to one drive unit).
The Canton has two 200mm (8”) polypropylene woofers working in tandem, with a dedicated 180mm (7”) midrange driver and a 25mm (1”) soft dome tweeter. Nominal crossover points are at 300 and 3200Hz. The tweeter is below the midrange driver in LE109, possibly to place it more at normal ear height for seated listeners.
Nominal impedance is rated at 4-8 ohms, which suggests that particularly wimpy AV receivers may struggle, but sensitivity is a reasonable 89dB. The frequency response is specified at a heroic 20Hz-26kHz, but with no limits specified.
Curiously, the LE109 has no provision for spikes. This normally has an effect on the sound of the speaker and, on carpet, also has ramifications for stability. One of my cats jumped - as cats do - from a windowsill onto the top of one of the LE109s. I thought that the speaker was going to topple over!
Canton have obviously put a bit of work into the appearance of the LE109. My samples are finished in Beech. The front of the speaker is silver, while the grill is made from perforated metal with a silver finish. From a distance the grill looks as if it is a semi-transparent fabric, showing a ghostly image of the drive units underneath. The speaker is also available in boring black for the colour challenged.
This is a big-hearted speaker, giving a large-scale sound with extended bass. Most people would be very happy with the bass power and solidity that this speaker reproduces, negating the need for a subwoofer.
I was suspicious of Canton’s claims for the 109 reaching down to 20Hz though. While AudioEnz Towers is hardly set up for measuring the performance of hi-fi components, I have found my trusty spl meter and various test CDs to be useful in exploring the bass performance of speakers.
In my lounge, the 109 did have extended bass. The 31.5Hz band on my test CD was still very strong, but died below that in the 25Hz band. This is still excellent performance for the size of the speaker.
This bass power and solidity came into its own with music containing extended bass. Saint-Saen’s 3rd Symphony, for example, has an organ underpinning to the orchestra. This could shake the room with the 109s.
Out from the walls there was a bit of thinness to the lower midrange, particularly noticeable on voices and the orchestral strings. Pushing the speaker back towards the rear wall (further back than Canton’s recommended 500mm) helped fill in this area slightly.
Some further experimentation using pink noise (which has equal energy per octave) showed that sitting very low also filled in this area.
This is a big-hearted, extended response loudspeaker that is also very well constructed. Add in the attractive appearance and the Canton 109 is a speaker well worth auditioning.
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