Canton Reference Loudspeakers

Exotic tweeters made of incredibly hard aluminum oxide ceramic make Canton's latest speakers unique.

Speaker materials have come a long way from the days of paper cones and rubber surrounds. Nowadays, you’re as likely to find to polyester film, aluminum titanium and even beryllium used to construct high-end speakers. But the audiophile world hasn’t stopped innovating yet. Canton’s latest loudspeakers feature tweeters built from aluminum oxide ceramic – a material second only to diamond in terms of hardness.

Why use ultra-tough materials for parts that will probably never touch so much as a human finger? To make them smaller. According to the German outfit, the new cones can be made with an even tighter curvature than the old aluminum-manganese style, giving them more “off-axis response linearity.” In listening terms, Canton says that translates to even less distortion at high volumes.

Combine that with the company’s triple-curved-cone technology in the bass and midrange drivers, displacement control circuitry to limit uncontrolled driver excursions, and a knock-out cabinet built from five-layer pressure-laminated fiberboard, and you have speakers prepared to perform.

The aluminum-oxide-ceramic tweeters appear in three of the company’s latest models: the Reference 5.2 DC, Reference 7.2 DC, and Reference 9.2 DC, all of which are available in glossy cherry veneer, black, silver or white piano lacquer finish. They retail for $10,000, $7,000 and $4,000 per pair, respectively. More information can be found in Canton’s press release.

Canton Reference Loudspeakers