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The specs already reveal quite a lot. The Canton Reference 9 is not a skinny sounding bookshelf. Whether it effectively goes to 25Hz deep is doubtful but it does go nicely below 40Hz in our room. Most importantly, the mid-bass driver produces palpable bass that never gets clunky. Bass tones have real punch and linger on forever. The tweeter is possibly even better. It lets a lot of information through, but at the same time you can’t provoke it with any kind of music.
We can listen for hours without detecting even a hint of sharpness and at the same time, cliché alert, we hear new elements here and there in our test list. The interaction between the tweeter and mid-driver is first rate. Canton has done a really nice job here.
In the lab, with computer models but also through intensive listening sessions they managed to create something special. It is still a Canton but more refined and faster than before. There is plenty of control and plenty of dynamics but it is above all the overall balance that ensures that the Canton Reference 9 can be called a very complete two-way loudspeaker.
Listen
We got to play with the Reference 9 for almost two months and at no point in time did we want to replace them with our Revels. That’s saying al lot. We listened to all sorts of music so let’s try and specify some aspects of this monitor.
We start with the British Alice Zawadzki. This singer/violinist/composer is an amazing talent with a wonderful voice. Her 2020 album “Within You is a World of Spring” is an album that never gets old. And on the Canton Reference 9, the entire album is finished in no time. And that’s meant as a compliment. You keep listening. Sometimes your eye, pardon the ear, catches something special, but it is mainly the music itself, the whole message, that is convincingly told by the Reference 9. It’s not necessarily about the details but about the complete picture. It’s about the music. It’s a music maker, with plenty of audiophile credits, yet primarily for the Music First audiophile.
More female beauty with Icelandic Nanna, whom you may know as the lead singer of Of Monsters and Men. Her solo album “How to start a Garden” is definitely worth a listen as well. The title track is a quiet song with an underlying bass that rolls out of the Canton Reference 9 in a very controlled way. The background noise is easily audible but noticeable is the calmness that this speaker exudes. The inert cabinet is certainly in between for something but we really notice a silence between notes that we have not yet experienced in this class.
This blackness as it is sometimes called is even beter heard on “Echoes” by Søren Bebe Trio. It’s bizarre how much music you hear between notes. How much feeling there is in those intervals. Drummer Anders Mogensens cymbals, often supporting the songs, come through wonderfully and float through space. The piano is tightly centered and sounds like a real grand piano and not a facsimile. It is delightful to dwell in this hushed world. The Canton Reference 9 does this music full justice. Nice!
Unsurprisingly, this large monitor is also ideally suited for reproducing pop and dance music. Witness the popping beats by Channel Tres on his excellent EP “Black Moses.” There is depth and body in the bass but it still remains tight and fast. The balancing act that Canton achieves here with the Reference 9 is pure craftsmanship. It is also striking how large this monitor projects and how you get a lot of information and detail at the same time.