$4000 Canton Vento Reference 9 DC bookshelf Speakers. Anyone know anything about them???

[audiomagnate]

VMPS - meh- have you heard them? They make Vandersteens, to me, sound amazing and I really dislike Vandersteens. Not impressed with VMPS at all - the cabinets also have too much flex. Big - that is all VMPS are - just big.

I don't think there's a whole lot of "flex" going on in my 325 pound (each) VMPS cabinets. They're built like brick sh**houses.

 

[biscuithead]

I am buying new speakers and doing a ton of research. I came across these today and they look pretty legit. They retail for $4000 but I can get a pair for $1600.

https://www.canton.de/en/archive/vento-reference-9-dc

I think the take away (before it gets away) is this:

1. no matter how much money you spend, you should hear speakers before you buy them. This is the real research.
2. there are many, many choices out there
3. When you buy new, you suffer the "drive it off the lot" loss. So, considering the "wear" of speakers, used seems to be a better value.
4. Buying online might get you a better price, but how do you form your own opinion on something so opinion centric?

 

[SoundsAlike]

I had a pair of Canton Vento 809 DC floorstanding speakers ... they retailed for $2,500 each. I paid $500 for them -- but I got other equipment during the same deal that I flipped and paid for the Cantons. They looked real pretty. But when I A/B tested them against some JBL 4412 studio monitors the JBL's blew them out of the water with much more luscious sound. The JBLs had the X factor, the Canton's did not.

I tested both pairs of speakers against each other in the same stereo system for a few months before making a decision on which pair to keep.

 

[audiomagnate]

A friend had VMPS and you could feel vibrations in the cabinet. It makes my Rogers LS2's, which were designed with vibrations in mind (to help with bass), look bloody stiff in comparison. Just because they weigh a lot, does not mean they are built well. That is 2 different things.

What model VMPS did your friend have? There is a huge difference between the earlier stuff and his last TOTL designs which were all out assaults on the state of the art. My front baffles are three layers and three inches thick. Did your friends speakers weigh 325 pounds each? I seriously doubt it. Blanket statements about a brand with disregard to model are meaningless, especially from a brand like VMPS, which was in business for decades, with constantly improving quality as time went on. That would be like deciding all JBLs are junk when all you have experience with is the Northridge series.