Canton Quinto 530

Bratwurst7s

Bratwurst7s

In The Frying Pan
Subscriber
A friend bought a pair of Canto Quinto 530 speakers and asked me to add binding posts and re-cap them. I thought that I'd make use of it to make a data dump here for the benefit of anyone else that comes across a pair of these speakers.

First some specs copied from HiFi Wiki...

General
  • Manufacturer: Canton
  • Model: Quinto 530
  • Production year: 1981
  • Produced in: Germany
  • Color/Finish: Black, White, Walnut
  • Measurements: 285 x 460 x 270 mm (WxHxD)
  • Weight:
  • New Price ca.: 1100,- DM /Pair

Technical Data
  • Cabinet Style: 3-Way Closed, Bookshelf Speaker
  • Drivers:
    • Woofer: 26 cm
    • Midrange: 2,8 cm Dome (Nr. 1086)
    • Tweeter: 2 cm Dome (Nr. 1087)
  • Load Carrying Ability: 80/120 W (RMS-/Peak)
  • Sensitivity:
  • Frequency Range: 25 - 30.000 Hz
  • Crossover Points: 1000 / 5000 Hz
  • Impedence: 4 Ohm

Weight isn't included above but I just weighed a cab and got 10.2 kilos.

The tweeter and midrange are the same 1087 and 1086 (respectively) drivers found in the Quinto 510 and 520. The 1087 tweeter can also be found in the Canton GL 300F. The woofer is a 3157.

I measured the DCR of the drivers and got 4.0 ohms for the tweeter, 3.7 ohms for the mid, and 3.4 ohms for the woofer.

I measured cabinet wall thickness and got 19mm for the front, sides, back and top walls. But I was surprised to see that the base is 25mm thick. Measured that 3 times to make sure that I hadn't gotten it wrong but it really is that thick.

Some pics...
DSC03196.jpg DSC03197.jpg DSC03199.jpg

Cheers,
James
 
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The cabinet finish on these is fairly well scratched in places and has some dents, but the guy who owns them is a carpenter and will have to refinish them himself if he chooses. They are certainly worth a few hours of sanding and oiling.

As with the other Canton's that I've looked into the cab filling is fibreglass, I'd guess at roughly 3/4 fill. Interestingly the inside side, top and bottom walls are also veneered. This is not the case with my 520's but is the same in my 510's. Go figure. The back inside wall is painted white in all 3 models that I've seen.

DSC03169.jpg DSC03171.jpg DSC03173.jpg

Cheers,
James
 
The crossovers are the usual Canton PCB, mounted with a threaded brass stud through the ferrite woofer inductor, with a foam washer under the pcb and hard fibre washer above with a brass nut.

The capacitors are all electrolytics, and have the usual Canton lack of µF value markings. The values are as follows...
1104 (tweeter) = 5.6µF
2379 (midrange) = 15µF
3098 (midrange) = 18µF
1170 (woofer) = 68µF

In this case I used all Jantzen caps, MKT on the tweeters and electrolytic for the rest. These were pretty inexpensive and considering I was able to order caps for 7 different pairs of speakers from HiFi Collective in the UK with one shipping charge, and Jantzen as some unusual values, like 39µF and 120µF that I needed for some GL 260's and CT 80's.

I didn't realize until I closed up the cabs that I forgot to take pics of the re-capped crossovers, so the before pics are all that I have to offer at the moment. The Jantzen caps are all equal to or smaller than the OEM Wego caps, so I didn't steal any cabinet volume either. Total cost for the caps was €13.65 + shipping. The Jantzen elcos and MKT's are all 5% tolerance.

The inductors are as follows (with values measured [out of circuit] by me so be aware that the values might not be perfect)...
2531 (tweeter) = 0.16mH, 0.7ohms
1168 (mid) = 0.25mH, 0.6ohms (corrected actual Canton value rather than measured)
2603 (mid) = 0.40mH, 1.3ohms
2274 (bass) = 1.31mH, 0.2ohms

edit 14-May-2020: It was pointed out to me that I made a typo concerning the smaller midrange coil, which I wrote as 1186. It should be a 1168. Corrected.
Also, I was looking through the schematics for the Karat 30 and found that the K-30/2 uses the 1168 coil and shows it as "Drossel 2-025-06". Which translates to Coil, 0.25mH, 0.6 mm". Earlier I had measured 0.23mH, 0.7 ohms. Corrected.

Curiously there is a position silkscreened on the pcb for a 100ohm resistor on what appears to be the midrange. There are leads soldered to the board but the resistors on both boards have been cut off. This appears to be a factory mod as there is no other sign that someone has been inside these cabs before me.

DSC03175.jpg DSC03180.jpg DSC03183.jpg DSC03184.jpg DSC03185.jpg

Cheers,
James
 
Last edited:
For the binding posts I used some that I've bought before under the name Dynavox, but I've seen the same thing marketed inder several different names, as well as no name ones out of China. These cost €14 for 2 pair when I bought them from Strassacker, half that when bought from Amazon and coming out of China.

I used stink normal 1.5mm² OFC wire for the new connectors, 33cm long. I did not cut off the wires to the old spring connectors as I didn't want to remove the option that someone in the future might want have to return the speakers to their original condition (even though those spring connectors suck). So after de-soldering them from the crossovers I put shrink wrap on the ends and taped them out of the way to the bottom of the cabs.

The posts were located 106mm from the (outside) bottom of the cab, centered with 5cm between them. That worked out to a position 11.8cm in from each side. Bore hole is 8mm. As the mount bushing fro the posts is 10mm dia I used a 10mm countersink about 5mm deep to allow for them. DSC03177.jpg DSC03178.jpg DSC03179.jpg DSC03191.jpg DSC03193.jpg

Cheers,
James
 
The speakers sound really nice. They've got that typical Canton signature sound, clean and clear with very decent bass for the cabinet size.

DSC03187.jpg DSC03188.jpg

You can just see my as yet unrestored Quinto 510 speakers behind the 530's. When I get the time to work on them I'll post a thread. But before that happens I'll be finished with my Quinto 520's, they are about 2/3 finished.

Cheers,
James
 
Hi James
first I want to say thank you for this and other great threads you have written in this forum :-). I found a lot of helpful information!
I also have the Quinto 530. But the midranges of both boxes don´t work since many years and now I want to fix it.
When I bridge the capacitor 3098 and the coil 2531 the midrange works. So I think the problem must be on the crossover.

I already changed all capacitors:
1104 --> new: Audaphon MKT
2379 --> new: Audaphon MKT
3098 --> new: Arcotronics MKT
1170 --> new: Mundorf Elko

But the midranges still don´t work :(

Now I want to change the coil 1186 and 2603. I saw that you measured them. But do you also have original values?
I wrote a message to Canton 3 weeks ago, but didn´t get an answer until now.
May you could help me? Or do you have any idea where the problem could be?

Many greetings
Alex
 
Hi Alex. Thanks for the kind words and welcome to Audiokarma.

Do you have a multimeter to measure resistance?

I didn't sketch a schematic of the crossover when I had it here but looking at the photos we can see that coil 2603 and cap 2379 are in parallel to ground. So if they were open it would mess up the crossover point but the mid would still be able to make sound.

Coil 1168 and cap 3098 are in series between the mid and the binding post. Since you have replaced the cap and if both mids do make sound when bridged to the tweeter coil as you did, then the only thing that remains is that coil or a bad solder connection. I would lift 1 coil connection and measure it for resistance. You should get something around 0.7 ohms.

I do not have a schematic. So far I haven't been able to get a schematic for any Quinto speaker. I had to measure the coils with an LCR meter. So my measurements are probably not exactly what a schematic will show, but are probably reasonably close. If the coils do turn out to be bad we can find something that will work at HiFi Collective. They carry Jantzen air-core coils and they can easily be made to a customer stated value.

You should also de-solder 1 mid lead from the pcb and then measure the mids for resistance. They should measure around 3.7 to 3.9 ohms.

Aside from that you should de-solder, clean (with acetone) and re-solder each and every connection on the boards.

Cheers,
James
 
I was looking through the schematics for the Karat 30 and found that the K-30/2 uses the 1168 coil and shows it as "Drossel 2-025-06". Which translates to Coil, 0.25mH, 0.6 ohms".

So I will be editing my earlier post to show that info for the coil.

Cheers,
James
 
Hi James,

sorry I was very busy the last weeks. Thank you for your answers.
I measured the resistance of the coils 1168 and 2603 (both around 0.6 ohms).
The resistance of the de-soldered mid is around 4.2 ohms.
I also followed your suggestion and have re-soldered each and every connection on the board.
When I put my ear very close to the mid I can hear a very silent sound. But it´s barely hearable.
I´m not sure if this also was the case before I changed the caps and re-soldered the connections.
Compared to the tweeter and the bass the mid is in my opinion way too silent.

All in all the sound of the Quintos is good but I think if I could fix the problem the sound would be better :-)
Do you have any other ideas what I can do next?

Many greetings and thanks for your help.
Alex
 
I finally got around to the rebuild & here are some photos. Only the bass cap was way out of spec. What was 68, measured 110mf. All caps were replaced & the biggest difference was in the bass. I also reversed one mid so that the speakers are now mirror image. Sadly, these speakers sound great.:crazy:20200725_132422.jpg 20200725_141852.jpg 20200726_121431.jpg 20200726_121438.jpg
 
Hello,

I need some advice ;-)

I recently bought a Quinto 530 speakerset and as it had not been used for 15 years according the seller i ordered new capacitors to replace the old ones.
In the meantime i opened up the speaker to have a look inside and i noticed that there was yellow damping material inside but is was not covering the backside where the crossover is mounted.
Is this normal or should i place some damping material over the crossover / backside?

I also noticed that some people use a kind of glue to stick the capacitors to the board, is this neccessary? If yes can it be done with hot glue?

More observations ;-) why do people switch the tweeter and mid to mirror the other speaker? Does this sound better? And if yes, do the tweeters have to be on the in- or outside when placed in the room?
 
Last edited:
Matheus said:
Hello,

I need some advice ;-)

I recently bought a Quinto 530 speakerset and as it had not been used for 15 years according the seller i ordered new capacitors to replace the old ones.
In the meantime i opened up the speaker to have a look inside and i noticed that there was yellow damping material inside but is was not covering the backside where the crossover is mounted.
Is this normal or should i place some damping material over the crossover / backside?

I also noticed that some people use a kind of glue to stick the capacitors to the board, is this neccessary? If yes can it be done with hot glue?

More observations ;-) why do people switch the tweeter and mid to mirror the other speaker? Does this sound better? And if yes, do the tweeters have to be on the in- or outside when placed in the room?
Click to expand...

Hello Matheus, I am very sorry that I did not see this when you posted it. If it is not too late I willy try to answer your questions now.

There should be a sheet of fiberglass damping material on the back side of the cabinet as shown in the first photo of post #2. If that sheet is missing then I would say yes, it should be replaced with a piece of 40mm fiberglass that fits the full size of the back panel.

You do not need to glue the caps to the board. You can, and yes some hot glue would be ok, but you do not need to.

Mirroring the mids and tweeters. It slightly improves the imaging of the speakers. Normally, in a room, I place the tweeters to the outside. But near field, for instance on my desk where I have the speakers on their sides less than a meter from where I sit I found that they sounded better with the small drivers towards the center, with the tweeters up. You will have to experiment with them and find what sounds best for you.

:beerchug:,
James
 
Today I started working on a pair of 530's for a friend for his house down in Croatia.

I got the first cabinet stripped today. Other than that someone has used one of them as a plant stand they are in pretty good shape for 44 year old speakers.
DSC02670.JPGDSC02671.JPG

I have heard here in the forums that people have used Oxolic acid to remove such water stains. I am more than a bit reluctant to use a water based chem on this thin vernier but might try it. Experienced comments are welcome here.
DSC02672.JPG

:beerchug:,
James
 
I bought the caps in September of last year and managed to get some of the last of the 68µF Mundorf smooth electrolytics. Sad that the smooth surface caps are NLA but it is my understanding that nobody can buy that raw material any more.

Jantzen Z-Standard MKP in the tweeter and Jantzen MKT on the mids.

DSC02679.JPGDSC02680.JPGDSC02681.JPGDSC02682.JPG

:beerchug:,
James
 
Bratwurst7s said:
Hello Matheus, I am very sorry that I did not see this when you posted it. If it is not too late I willy try to answer your questions now.

There should be a sheet of fiberglass damping material on the back side of the cabinet as shown in the first photo of post #2. If that sheet is missing then I would say yes, it should be replaced with a piece of 40mm fiberglass that fits the full size of the back panel.

You do not need to glue the caps to the board. You can, and yes some hot glue would be ok, but you do not need to.

Mirroring the mids and tweeters. It slightly improves the imaging of the speakers. Normally, in a room, I place the tweeters to the outside. But near field, for instance on my desk where I have the speakers on their sides less than a meter from where I sit I found that they sounded better with the small drivers towards the center, with the tweeters up. You will have to experiment with them and find what sounds best for you.

:beerchug:,
James
Click to expand...
Hello James,

I sold these speakers a time ago but thanks for your answer ! I replaced them with a pair of CT 1000 which i still have.
 
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