Canton GL-260 bookshelf speakers

[Bratwurst7s]

Must be nice to live there!

It's very nice to live here. I love Bavaria. The only downside is that there are no thrift stores to speak of here. My only regular source of vintage audio gear is the 'bay. But if I'm careful I find some good deals. And Cantons keep showing up. Lately I've been collecting orphan/single cabs with the theory that eventually a mate will show up. And they do. There are a pair of Quinto 510's in walnut on the workbench right now getting slowly hand sanded. I'll post pics in my 510 thread when they're done.

And of course there is the good Bavarian beer and food. That's worth a lot!

Cheers,
James

 

[jadobbins77]

Second pair of GL-260's on the way from the bay. Going to team them up with the 1st set and complete a quad set-up in the kitchen.

 

[Grenadeslio]

Reviving an old thread for those looking in. The Canton Plus S has similar bass extension at 45hz as compared with the slightly larger GL260's 42hz but from a speaker closer to the size of a Minimus 7, quite remarkable really.

Designed to be partnered with the Canton Plus C passive sub they integrate a bit better as the sub being passive isn't adjustable for gain, low pass setting, etc. If looking for a schveet three piece sub/sat setup this can often be had for approximately $150.

 

[A400]

I bought a pair of these a while back and as usual I checked them with a DMM before trying them and was glad I did when I found that one had a shorted woofer. After reading such positive comments that was a disappointment but fortunately the seller was decent and refunded my money and also let me keep them.

This weekend I finally found time to dig into them and after seeing the cooked coil decided I had nothing to lose by trying a diy repair. I stripped off the old coil which was intact but shorted for almost the entire length, cleaned, rewound and 're-varnished' it



It turns out that my hand wound voice coil is not quite as neat as the factory coil

Anyway for now it works and they sound nice at low volumes on my computer desk. Once I'm happy that everything is cured I'll measure both speakers to see how the sound has been affected. I have no idea how long it will last so I'll keep an eye for a reasonably priced replacement, but that could be a while in my part of the world.

 

[Bratwurst7s]

Good work A400.
If you can't find a woofer down there let me know. I think that I have one here somewhere in the pile.

Cheers,
James

 

[Artie]

I am so psyched to find this thread. Even though I love audio and vintage audio, I've never heard of the Canton brand name before. I recently scored 4 GL-260's, a pair of Plus S's, and a Plus Alpha 1 active sub. All in white. I haven't had a chance to fire them up yet, but I'm going to find the time since finding this thread.

 

[KrautNotRice]

You guys remind me that I haven't updated this thread for a while.

Several more pairs of 260's have gone through my hands now and are being used by different friends.

I have found the values for the caps since my last post. I hope that this helps if you are planning to recap your speakers...
Tweeter - 3779 = 6.8µF/23v
Woofer - 1228 = 39µF/23v

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/canton-speaker-capacitor-reference-thread.740362/

My 260's that I used in my PC system have moved into the guest room paired with a small Yamaha AX-300 amp (recapped of course) and a Denon DCD-1290 cd player (modded). Wife gives them regular workouts when she does her fitness routine. Heh heh, the Yamaha A-520 amp that I used in the PC system has also been replaced. As good as the GL-260's are their replacements are even better - Canton Quinto 510's. And the replacement amp is a Yamaha AX-500, fully re-capped with upgraded filter caps (15000µF instead of 12000µF).

I've been using the series-pair of 260's in my home theatre system regularly for over a year now, they aren't going anywhere. I love 'em

If you ever need to replace a woofer the GL 300F uses the same 1368 as the GL 260, so that's a viable source of donor woofers.

The 2746 tweeters can be found in several different speakers, I'm still making a list of possible donor speakers, here are a few...
Plus S
Plus GX, Plus GX3,

Enjoy your Canton's,
James

Thank you for the info! I've got a pair coming and plan to recap it. Pics coming in a few days.

 

[Bratwurst7s]

Thank you for the info! I've got a pair coming and plan to recap it. Pics coming in a few days.

Happy to be of service. They are great little speakers. They aren't going to fill an auditorium with sound but what they can do they do quite well.

Cheers,
James

 

[KrautNotRice]

Happy to be of service. They are great little speakers. They aren't going to fill an auditorium with sound but what they can do they do quite well.

Cheers,
James

Received my pair today. Hooked them up and they sounded very thin, midrangey, not very good.
I opened them up and found a 1989 date code and the electrolytic caps, 39 and 6.8 uf. I figured they must be bad!
So I recapped with new Dayton electrolytics that I had on hand:
33 + 5.6 = 38.6 uf (midwoofer)
5.6 + 1.0 uf = 6.6 uf (tweeter)
Those are the closest values to stock that I had on hand. I figured recap immediately to play it safe, then order nicer caps.
Also installed new gold plated inputs for my banana plugs.

WOW what a difference afterwards! This is the single biggest difference I've ever had by just recapping a speaker. The old caps were BAD.
I actually did one speaker at a time, so I could listen to one old and one new side by side on the test bench. They didn't even sound like the same speakers haha.
Got both done now and playing nicely. They sound wonderful and that's even with the cheap, new electrolytics.
I'm looking at caps on Parts-Express, debating between Audyn Q4 6.8 or a Jantzen CrossCap. Open to suggestions.
Either way, I'll add a tiny 0.01 uf bypass cap.
I plan to leave the new Dayton electrolytics on the midwoofer.

 

[Bratwurst7s]

Received my pair today. Hooked them up and they sounded very thin, midrangey, not very good.
I opened them up and found a 1989 date code and the electrolytic caps, 39 and 6.8 uf. I figured they must be bad!
So I recapped with new Dayton electrolytics that I had on hand:
33 + 5.6 = 38.6 uf (midwoofer)
5.6 + 1.0 uf = 6.6 uf (tweeter)
...debating between Audyn Q4 6.8 or a Jantzen CrossCap. Open to suggestions.
Either way, I'll add a tiny 0.01 uf bypass cap.
I plan to leave the new Dayton electrolytics on the midwoofer.

Great news!

I've been using Jantzen CrossCaps for several years now, at first mainly because they are easily available here and reasonably priced, but I've been happy with the results so I just keep on buying them. I don't have any experience with Audyn yet so can't offer a useful opinion there. My guess is that both will be perfectly acceptable and I would probably choose based on price.

Cheers,
James

 

[HarvMarkey]

The 2746 tweeters can be found in several different speakers, I'm still making a list of possible donor speakers, here are a few...
Plus S
Plus GX, Plus GX3,

Enjoy your Canton's,
James

Great thread! Thanks for the valuable info. Curious if you found any other donor speakers beyond those mentioned above for the 2746 tweeter?

 

[Bratwurst7s]

Great thread! Thanks for the valuable info. Curious if you found any other donor speakers beyond those mentioned above for the 2746 tweeter?

Hi Harv, and welcome to AK. Sharing info is what we do best here, I'm just doing the same thing that others have done for me.

If you tied me down with cheap speaker wire and beat me with low-rent interconnects in an attempt to make me tell the truth, I'd probably have to admit that I haven't actually looked for more 2746 tweeter donors since my last post. I did find another pair of GL-260's. They are such useful little things that I just can't seem to pass them up.

If I was going to make a guess, it would be that probably some of the other Plus series will have the same tweeters.

Cheers,
James

 

[HarvMarkey]

Hi Harv, and welcome to AK. Sharing info is what we do best here, I'm just doing the same thing that others have done for me.

If you tied me down with cheap speaker wire and beat me with low-rent interconnects in an attempt to make me tell the truth, I'd probably have to admit that I haven't actually looked for more 2746 tweeter donors since my last post. I did find another pair of GL-260's. They are such useful little things that I just can't seem to pass them up.

If I was going to make a guess, it would be that probably some of the other Plus series will have the same tweeters.

Cheers,
James

Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah, I think the Plus D might have the 2746 too. I recently got a pair of the GL-260's but one of the tweeter magnets had fallen off. In a dumb newb maneuver, I stuck the magnet back on (no adhesive, just magnetic force) before researching the finer considerations of resetting a magnet. Tested it out and I can't really tell if the tweeter is working optimally. Thinking I'd like to try to re-cap and replace the tweeter as part of my learning experience.

 

[Bratwurst7s]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah, I think the Plus D might have the 2746 too. I recently got a pair of the GL-260's but one of the tweeter magnets had fallen off. In a dumb newb maneuver, I stuck the magnet back on (no adhesive, just magnetic force) before researching the finer considerations of resetting a magnet. Tested it out and I can't really tell if the tweeter is working optimally. Thinking I'd like to try to re-cap and replace the tweeter as part of my learning experience.

If you have a hard time finding one PM me and I can look for one for you over here.

Cheers,
James

 

[Thorsten R.]

James, where do you get the Jantzen caps from here in Germany? I have to rework a pair of Heco P4302 SL (another speaker from those developers).

By the way, you should try beer from Northern Germany....

 

[Bratwurst7s]

Hi Thorsten, I mainly order from Strassacker and HiFi Collective. They both have Jantzen film caps and Mundorf elkos (smooth and etched), and more of course. HFC also carries Jantzen elkos, but from their size I'm guessing that they are etched.

https://www.lautsprechershop.de/intro_en.htm
https://www.hificollective.co.uk/

I have ordered from both of them many times with no problems. Strassacker is a little faster but HCF ships by air and my order usually arrives in less than a week. Both are very good about contact and notifications.

,
James

 

[Thorsten R.]

Great, thanks!

 

[montrecott]

Reviving an old thread, since I found a pair of Canton GL-260 at the Salvation Army store today. The caps must still be in decent shape on mine, because the speakers sound very good hooked up to a Pioneer SA-7500 in the garage. I think I'll try them as desktop speakers in the office system, as the OP did--stay tuned. Fortunately, most of my amps can handle 4-ohm speakers, which these are.

 

[CovTunes]

Great find - Great Price

 

[Sgt Shultz]

The plan is to lay them on their sides with the tweeters in the middle and wire them in series. They are 4 ohm boxes so that'll give me an "8 ohm speaker" that's position expandable/flexable. Then I'll start experimenting with small position changes. I'll post my impressions of the results. Thanks for the suggestions and support everyone.

Cheers,
James

If using as a center use just one.

As for the Cantons having extraordinary bass for their size, you should hear their little brothers the Plus S, everything the Minimus 7 wishes it were.



Mated to their matching Plus C passive subwoofer and you have a killer speaker system, German engineering at its best.



They also came in white and a beautiful wood veneer, they weren't cheap.





I used a Canton center for yrs, I'll see if I can find the model number, should match very well with your setup.

The Canton AV-500, a very low profile design.