Hailing from the village of Neiderlauken in the idyllic Weil Valley in Hesse, Germany, Canton has been in business manufacturing loudspeakers since 1972. The brand has had a presence in the US market for many years but always seems to hover just outside the audiophile establishment. Canton does receive consistent accolades for its high-end Reference series so one can hope their under-the-radar presence is due to a focus on engineering over advertising.

Always drawn to high-value, attainable audio equipment, I was intrigued by the more modestly priced Vento series. To fulfill my curiosity, I specifically sought out the Vento 20, the smallest model in the line for this review. A hearty thanks are due to distributor Bluebird Music for tracking me down a pair of these petite Ventos even though some larger (and surely awesome) models were in stock.

The Vento 20 retails for $1695/pair in gloss white and gloss black finishes while walnut like my sample pair is $1795/pair. It seems that pricing has stayed consistent since the Vento line was refreshed in 2022. With all the pandemic price grabs and subsequent fire sales I've seen in the audio industry lately it’s reassuring to see that Canton has maintained a steady course on pricing.

Features & Specifications

The Vento 20s are a riff on the classic mini monitor formula, utilizing a two-way bass reflex configuration with a crossover at 3000 Hz. Sweetening the deal are the aluminum titanium graphite composite woofer and ceramic tweeter which are designed and built by Canton. Curiously, the nominally 6-inch woofer has a cone diameter of just 3-¾ inches (5 inches including the surround). Canton is hardly the first manufacturer I’ve seen rounding up their driver size but it’s worth calling out specifically because understanding the driver size helps contextualize the overall cabinet size. I could not reconcile how the cabinets could be less than 12 inches tall and 8 inches wide until I received and unboxed the Vento 20s.

The cabinets have sleek curved side walls to maximize interior volume and inertness. Given the compact cabinet size and woofer diameter achieving a very workable impedance of 86 dB is impressive. Nominal impedance is an ambiguous “4…8 ohms” so I checked in with Canton to confirm the minimum impedance is 3.5 ohms at 1500 Hz.

On the rear, we have a bass reflex port and a simple binding post assembly. These are the first speakers I’ve had in-house (including speakers I’ve owned) that omitted dual-binding posts for bi-wiring. Some audiophiles swear by bi-wiring but I don’t have the time, patience or extra cables and I suspect many potential Vento owners don’t either. The smart way to shave a few bucks off the build.

Full specifications are available on Canton’s Vento 20 webpage.

Design & Build

When I pulled the Ventos out of their packaging the super deep gloss finish had me grinning. Upon close inspection, the walnut veneer underneath is incredibly well executed, too. The pair I received appears to have proper book-matched veneers which was totally unexpected for the $1795 MSRP. The walnut appears ever so slightly orange in the press photos but it’s a richer, more neutral brown in person. Totally stunning.

The speakers feel solid for their 13 lb mass. The ubiquitous knuckle rap test left me confident that I could give the Vento 20s a proper workout without hearing the cabinet.

The magnetic grilles seem built to last as well. With some speakers, I prefer to listen with the grilles on to minimize visual distraction. The faces of the Vento 20s are so clean, especially with the smooth-looking woofer, that I preferred the look with the grilles off.

This fact did not sink in until I had the Ventos in-house for a few weeks: these are the least expensive speakers I've reviewed so far and in many ways, they are the most beautiful.

Daily Use & Setup

The setup and positioning of the Vento 20s were stress-free. Although their performance can be tuned slightly by placement relative to wall boundaries, toe-in angle and by removing the grilles, I found it to be a season-to-taste affair rather than a quest for the correct setup. The only hard ‘no’ would be placing them on a bookshelf. They need room to breathe to accommodate the rear bass reflex port and to achieve the best possible imaging. On stands, they worked fine with their rear end about six inches from the rear wall but one to three feet would be ideal.

The grilles can be used to modulate the high frequency a bit. I also found that playing with toe-in was extremely effective at locking in the imaging and moderating any brightness. Removing the grilles and angling the speakers right at the listening position resulted in a laser-focused soundstage and ample microdetail from the tweeter. Pointing the speakers straight out and replacing the grilles effectively mellowed things out.

Review System

Digital: Wiim Mini Streamer, Ferrum ERCO DAC

Analog: SOTA Escape Turntable w/ Ortofon 2M Blue, Project Debut Carbon w/ Ortofon 2M Red, Sota Pyxi Phono Stage, iFi Zen Phono

Amplification: Cambridge EVO 150 All-in-One, Musical Fidelity M3si Integrated, Parasound HINT 6 Integrated

Analog Cables: Audio Art Classic Series

Speakers: PSB B600, Wharfedale Diamond 10.2

Listening

I’ll get the easy stuff out of the way first and confirm these Ventos dominate in the areas of imaging and soundstage as any audiophile mini monitor should. Where they separate themselves from the crowd is with a massive dose of resolution.

Dropping the needle on Bill Evans Trio At Shelly’s Manne Hole (OJC 2018, Orig Riverside 1963) I instantly heard that “in the club” experience. In just the first couple bars of “Isn’t It Romantic” I was in tune with Evan’s perfectly mellow touch on the keys, goosebump-inducing brushes on skins and ripe bass strings popping. It became clear from the first spin that the Vento 20s don't leave any information behind in the groove. I could almost smell the smoke in the club.

While the Vento 20s made quick work of my jazz LPs, as they should, they did not flatter all recordings equally. Some rock and pop music, generally the more dynamically compressed records, could get a bit messy.

Spinning The Great Destroyer by slowcore trio Low (Sub Pop, 2005) was an informative test. It’s a mildly compressed record, heavier and more energetic than the shoegaze style they're known for. Plenty of distorted guitar with atmospheric vocals. It was technically fine at modest volumes but I didn’t have as much room to crank it up. The soundstage could get jumbled and the tone a bit harsh when pushed. This was just one example though, and I never found an easy generalization for a ‘type’ of recording that was susceptible to this. The Vento 20s are revealing enough that they just tell the truth so every album is its own experience. Uncompressed, lower-fidelity recordings could be just great. Primitively recorded New Orleans blues from singer-guitarist Snooks Eaglin for instance was immediate and tactile but never harsh. 60’s garage rock on the classic Nuggets compilation (Elektra, 1972) of mostly lo-fi tracks was hit or miss. Noteworthy but hardly a deal breaker—do the Vento 20s look like garage rock speakers? Not really.

For a definitive impression of how the Vento 20s handle scale, I streamed the legendary recording of Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic playing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 (Deutsche Grammophon, 1976). When fed with a high-quality recording the Ventos did not flinch. The rollicking energy and rhythmic drive were readily communicated just as well as the nuances. Positioning the Ventos out in the room and pairing them with a high-quality amplifier certainly helps give them headroom. With this essential repertoire, I was able to achieve uncomfortably loud listening levels before things got sloppy.

Let’s talk about bass. While the Vento 20s don’t defy the laws of physics, they come pretty close. This is, like other aspects of their performance, amplifier and placement dependent. Subwoofer people will always need a sub, but for most, the Vento 20s can easily serve as a complete speaker system.

I played a lot of reggae and dub to experiment with bass output. Streaming Gregory Isaac’s Night Nurse (Island Records, 1982) with the Ventos about a foot from the rear wall of my office, driven by the authoritative Musical Fidelity M3si (review forthcoming) the bass output was not just present but taut and under control. Placed a few feet out into my living room driven by the relatively neutral Cambridge EVO 150, the output was still plenty nuanced but nowhere near as immense. Anything in between is possible with some experimentation. Again, season to taste.

Thus far, I’ve separated my thoughts on equipment matching from my musical impression of the Vento 20. My listening remarks above stand on their own but I would be remiss not to include some impressions gathered throughout my listening that, in summary, do indicate something about the personality of the Vento 20 that I have not covered yet.

On the tonal spectrum, which is pretty narrow for truly high-performance speakers in the grand scheme of things, the Vento 20s can be a bit cool in the midrange and enthusiastic in the treble. I can’t say they are lean given their ample bass prowess. They are certainly not warm and romantic like the popular Wharfedale heritage models or some BBC monitors. The implication is equipment matching becomes important to overall system voicing. It’s my recommendation that they would be best paired with a neutral to warm leaning amplifier. Additionally, the electronics I had on hand for this review were comparably priced but I suspect the Vento 20s would scale nicely with higher-end amplifiers given their uncanny ability to reveal the musical truth in any recording. Are the Vento 20s going to be a good fit for your system? Just take a moment and reflect. Know thy system, know thy music.

Conclusion

The Canton Vento 20s ($1795/pair) are impeccably designed and constructed loudspeakers packed with high-end materials. Achieving impressive performance from the Vento 20s in any system is all but guaranteed. However, they are revealing speakers and achieving a balanced performance that is satisfying over the long term will require a bit of reflection and thoughtful amplifier matching. Nonetheless, the Vento 20s are incredible speakers and an absolute bargain given their MSRP. Well worth seeking out and sure to hold their own in competition with the usual suspects in their segment.

Further information: Canton