Canton Reference 5

Canton Announces New Reference Speakers

Bluebird Music, a distributor of high-performance audio products since 2000, has announced the availability of the new Canton Reference Series loudspeakers.

Canton has been a leader in loudspeaker audio technology for over 50 years and is the number one loudspeaker company in Germany. The new Reference Series speakers are Canton’s highest performing speaker series and replace the Reference K Series speakers originally brought to market in 2015.

Canton Reference 5 in black

The Reference Series consists of five floor standing speakers, one stand mount, one center channel and one sub-woofer. US retail prices range from $25,000 per pair for the largest Reference 1 to $8,000 for the Reference 7 smallest floor standing speaker. The stand mount speakers are $5,000/pair. The three-way center channel speaker is $4,000 and the 750-watt Reference subwoofer, rated down to 18 Hz, is $5,000.

All models are available in a high-gloss piano grade black or satin white finish. The Reference 2 and Reference 7 models are also available in a matt walnut finish. Reference Series speakers will begin shipping in USA and Canada on December 1, 2023.

Canton Reference 7 in walnut

The new Reference Series features entirely new cabinets that offer exceptional sound with a smaller footprint than their predecessors as well newly developed drivers utilizing proprietary composite materials developed in Canton’s own materials science lab.

At the heart of the Reference Series is the all-new rounded cabinet. The intricate cabinet structure of the new Reference speakers has been engineered to minimize unwanted resonance. 

To produce the desired rounded baffles the solid multi-layer cabinets are manufactured on a 5-axis CNC milling machine specially designed for this purpose. Careful design of the baffle shape – with no parallel surfaces (including top and bottom), computer-optimized internal bracing, and use of a special fleece, helps control the enormous forces inside the cabinets and prevent internal standing waves. The integration of a new bass guide contributes to more precise and even bass allowing for greater flexibility of in-room placement of the cabinets.

“Canton applies technology only in the service of music thus the new Reference Series delivers an astonishing, authentic musical experience that will delight even the most demanding audiophiles” commented Jay Rein, president of Bluebird Music,

Canton is well-known for their proprietary drive units and advanced materials and the new Reference Series further refines this technology. The new speakers feature new mid and bass drive units which have been optimized and refined with a new high-strength Black Ceramic Tungsten material, (BCT).

With the BCT cone, 25 percent of the molecular structure of an aluminum cone is converted into a ceramic structure and refined with tungsten and additional metal particles. As a result, the cones achieve a perfect stiffness-to-weight ratio. These highly stable drive units reduce unwanted resonances and deliver fast, precise, and distortion-free reproduction. 

The Reference high-frequency systems are attained using extremely light and rigid BC domes. The unique shape of the new asymmetrical wave guide optimizes radiation behavior both in the crossover range and in the high-frequency range above 15,000 Hz. The new drive units are extremely rigid and have excellent acoustic damping properties and good dimensional stability. 

An optimally designed new crossover featuring hand-selected minimal tolerance components ensures a balanced impedance curve and Canton’s unique Displacement Control technology controls the woofers and increases the bandwidth using the same cabinet size. All floor-standing speakers and the center channel speaker can be tailored to room acoustics and individual listening preferences.