Speakers and Radios.com

Canton Movie 80 CX Home Theater Speaker System

Short Take Review By Nick Katsafanas (Original photographs coming soon)

5 piece Sub-Sat System 

MSRP: $699

Pros

• Excellent sound from truly tiny satellite speakers
• Two-way satellites with coaxial tweeters for superior treble reproduction
• Wall brackets included
• Easy to set up
• Premium construction and finish, top-of-the-line in its class
• Luxury touches like you would expect if buying a Rolex or BMW
• Blows Bose away at the exact same $699 price!

Canton makes a very broad range of speakers. From their $30,000+ “Reference” to the CD series selling for less than $300, the 36 year-old company produces pretty much every imaginable consumer speaker in between. They are a major proponent of “trickle-down” technology, and their great product offerings show it. The 80CX hails from Canton’s bang-for-the-buck “Movie” series of magnetically shielded systems.

At $699 the 80CX costs exactly as much as Bose’s Acoustimass 6 system, but the Canton system boasts superior technology and build quality. Canton chooses to use a 3” wide-range driver, with an coaxially mounted .6” dome tweeter to fill out the audio band, as opposed to the competition’s single small driver. With sensitivities of 85db/1w/1m and a nominal impedance not dipping below 4 ohms, the satellites should work fine with any standard receiver, with at least 50 watts per channel.

The satellites are also very easy to set up. The tiny, 3.5” wide by 3.5” high by 4” deep satellites need little in the way of placement; just put them at ear-level, or near it. Be careful not to spread the front satellites more than 5’ apart, or you’ll lose depth in the sound. Canton provides wall mounting brackets with the system, and the speakers have built-in mounting pates for Canton’s own matching stands, which must be bought separately.

80 CX center channel- small but good!

The center channel is basically the same as the satellites, with one more 3” driver. Also, it’s tweeter, .6”, is not coaxially mounted. The center is meant to sit sideways, as is popular. At 7.7” wide by 3.5” high by 4” deep, the center is simple to place, just try to keep it at the same level as the main satellites. Under-TV placement will work as well, as the center has a sensitivity of 87db/1w/1m, which helps compensate for often hard-to-discern dialogue scenes.

The bandpass-loaded subwoofer uses a single 6” Cellulose/Graphite driver with a 100-watt on-board plate amplifier. It features an adjustable 80-140hz crossover, a level dial and phase adjustment options. It can be switched to On, Off or Auto modes; with Auto keeping the subwoofer in standby until it detects a signal. At 9” by 14” by 6.5” the front-ported subwoofer is easy to blend into you room’s décor. It sits on stylish rubber feet and is a relative lightweight at less than 23 pounds.

Speakers have a jewel-like finish that is tops in its class.

Hooking up the system is both simple and elegant. The satellites use gold plated push-button binding posts, sunk into a mounting cub on the rear of each tiny speaker. The bandpass subwoofer unit has the standard left, and right RCA connections. It does not have a dedicated LFE input; but because the amplifier sums the inputs to a mono signal, you can hook up your LFE line to either input. You may find the subwoofer overpowering in it’s standard level configuration. I ended up crossing it to the satellites at roughly 130hz and had the level set at roughly -3db.

In keeping with the German engineering tradition, the fit and finish is excellent; so much so that it far surpasses their price range. The satellites are finished in an absolutely gorgeous metallic black. They show a deep gloss, and have matching black-metal grilles on the 3.5” square front. The subwoofer boasts a neutral, light-black finish, with a slight texture to it. It’s simple finish will help you blend it into your household. The system comes packed in a rigid box, with form-fitting packing materials. Each speaker comes in, not a plastic bag, but a tightly fitted cloth bag, to protect the finish. This is just another luxury touch that is just not seen in this price range. The sub comes tightly braced in Styrofoam and it’s bagged in plastic. Canton even provides the brackets needed for wall-mounting the speakers; most companies would make you buy them separately. Canton also provides a very thorough, and easy to understand owner’s manual.

For $699, and having the limitation of such small speakers, the system sounds great! The bass is pleasingly deep and carries into the lower-midrange with surprising control. The satellites sound much larger, with a deep soundstage and astonishing clarity. On the whole, the system is very coherent, with easy-to-hear dialogues and lifelike effects. It acts much like larger systems in that the satellites produce a creamy rich midrange, which is rarely, if ever, found in such tiny speakers. The system also works admirably as a music-listening system. If you’re buying the 80 CX for a dedicated home theater, think about listening to your music using the “5 Channel Stereo” setting. I was surprised to find that the little speakers, and simple subwoofer held their own on tough musical transients. The system makes for a formidable budget home theater, a real “giant-killer” the tiny speakers and subwoofer sound much better than similarly-priced offerings from the likes of Bose and others.