I first tried out the speakers with some sci-fi movies, Will Smith’s iRobot and I Am Legend. While these aren’t exactly dialog-driven movies, the CD 360 produced clear-accurate sounding dialog from the center of the screen. The towers and surrounds filled my room with the movie action. Positioning the speakers can affect the soundstage, so it took a bit of experimenting to get the right full feel I was looking for. I was impressed with the clarity of the action sequences—sound was focused when it was supposed to be, more diffuse when that was called for. In one particular scene in Legend, when the infected humans were pounding on Smith’s transparent lab door, I could practically feel the effect slamming off the screen and onto my sofa. That was fun.
One more subtle material, like the fantastic Sony release Across the Universe, the Cantons allowed Evan Rachael Woods’ lovely voice to fill the space then turn gritty and down-to-earth with Eddie Izzard’s take on The Beatles’ Mr. Kite. The speakers performed equally well on plain-old CD material and gave depth of compressed music from XM Radio.
There are lots of products on the market that try to balance looks and performance. Some pull it off better than others, and this Canton CD system is clearly in the latter group. If you like the up-front performance of tower speakers, but want something that doesn’t look like a small casket in your living room, then give these a listen. yy
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