Speakers & Subwoofers
Canton CD200 Speakers
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There are surprisingly few lifestyle speakers that not only look great but also deliver the goods in the sound department where it matters. The CD200's are real lookers and just begging to be offered the prime location in your TV room. Tall, elegant, slim, curvacious and beautifully finished, the swathe of shiny aluminium complements the modern home perfectly especially if you stick with the silver theme and add a sliver of glass. The Canton's are finished in a brushed aluminium matt silver that is luxurious to the touch but is prone to scratching so you'll want to ensure that you look after these beauties and give them due care and attention.
It's not just the beautifully slender aluminium cabinets that bring a dash of style and elegance to the contemporary living environment, it's also the exceptional sonic performance that makes the CD200 a perfect partner for flat screen home theatre rigs or 2-channel stereo systems. Make no mistake, the CD200's can really sing where required with a 25mm treble unit, two 110mm midrange drivers and two 110mm woofers. The base of each speaker contains the speaker terminals and although they can be used with banana plugs, the spring loaded mechanism is top notch and far better than conventional spring clips found on other kit. There is no facility for bi-wiring but having the cabling at the bottom of the speaker means no messy trailing wires.
The Canton's are not fussy about which amp they are paired with and are relatively easy to drive. However, those aluminium drivers will require a serious amount of running-in time until they perform to their best. The treble is silky smooth and out-of-the-box bass performance is satisfactory, eventually capable of reaching a nice low 50Hz after suitable running-in. Unlike the CD100 and CD300 series, the CD200 series are elliptical in shape with nary a right angle in sight. This just adds to the overall softer look of the speakers and together with the exquisite silver finish, it means that you get beauty but without the brawn that's associated with more conventional floorstanders.
Available in silver aluminium or a high gloss black finish, the Canton CD200's are superb speakers for the money and if looks are as important to you as sound quality these come highly recommended for both home theatre and music setups.
Mission M74 Speakers
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Award winning, big, bassy, 150 Watt shielded, heavyweight floorstanding speakers that look as good as they sound. Two 16cm bonded woven glass composite units sort out the bass with a 25mm sheer micro fibre dome tweeter taking care of the higher frequencies. Round the back, you have twin sets of gold plated inputs for biwiring whilst a high sensitivity ensures the M74's provide an easy load that integrates well with a variety of amplifiers.
I've also used the M74's for home cinema and they can really shake the room where necessary. Out-of-the-box bass response is phenomenal with a rich, deep sound, yet after a few weeks of running in, the Mission's really excel at hitting the low notes whilst retaining clarity across the mid-range. You can tighten up the bass and eliminate boom where necessary by blocking the rear firing bass ports with the supplied foam bungs but if not, make sure you give those bass ports space to breath. Putting them in a corner against a wall isn't recommended by any means unless you like boom.
Available in black or wood finish, the M74's (or the smaller yet equally impressive M73's) are unbeatable at the price and highly recommended for bass-heads and anyone else who wants a set of trouser flapping floorstanders.
BK Gemini Subwoofer
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The BK Gemini subwoofer is one of the best small budget subs you can buy. The laws of physics specify that the greater the volume of air to shift, the better the bass response yet the BK Gemini defies these rules by managing to plunge to a staggering 10Hz at 70dB (corner loaded) in my 20" x 19" room providing good quality deep bass from a mere 12" cube. Forget the cheap boom boxes sold by retailers for anything from 40 quid to over 200 notes, with subwoofers it's most definitely a case of you get what you pay for and the Gemini at 200 quid is clearly top of a very crowded list and by a huge margin.
The Gemini excels with home cinema and provides independent high (hifi) and low (home cinema) level inputs and volumes along with twin frequency displays and a power meter. With a 150W (RMS) amp, the Gemini is big enough to make an impact with both hifi and DVD's yet compact enough to be hidden away out of sight. Not that you'd necessarily want to, with several finishes available and a downward firing 8" woofer, the Gemini could easily be mistaken for a piece of furniture.
Subs are notoriously fickle to integrate well with an existing system yet the Gemini does an admirable job providing plenty of controls for tuning the bass to your liking. A Neutrik Speakon connection is provided for high level inputs and the unit also has automatic speaker protection circuitry through a separate power-on switch with a relay. The crossover starts from 40Hz and with both music and movies the sub is both controlled and nimble enough to produce deep bass with minimal distortion. BK Electronics provide a 2 year return-to-base warranty as standard and this is a truly phenomenal sub at the bargain price of 200 notes considering that it also includes accessories and that similar subs cost almost twice as much. For medium to large rooms where modest levels of output are required, the Gemini is perfectly adequate and in a crowded market full of one-trick subs and budget offerings, the Gemini stands head and shoulders above anything else available in its price range.
Mission M70 Speakers
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The M70's are the babies in the Mission M7 speaker range. These diminutive 75 Watts (RMS) bookshelf cuties are perfect for both music and home cinema duties. Delivering great performance from an 11cm bonded woven glass composite cone with twin forward firing bass ports and a 21mm micro fibre soft dome tweeter, the M70's employ the usual Mission inverted driver that reveals exceptional clarity and detail across the entire frequency range for such a small speaker. A pair of gold plated binding posts allow both banana plugs and speaker cable to be hooked in and although there's no facility for biwiring, the M70's defy the notion that full range baby speakers aren't articulate or versatile. Small enough to be wall mounted, the M70's can also be shelf or stand mounted with the specially designed complementary Mission Stancette speaker stands available.
I've used the M70's as rears for home cinema where they provide a nice spatial surround sound field that's neither intrusive, direct nor offensive. Mission also offer a complete home cinema speaker package comprising five M70's and a subwoofer that's great for those who want a very competent out-of-the-box solution that'll blow away anything at a comparable price. Available in either beech, black or silver, the M70's are versatile enough to be used with any source you care to throw at it and have a warm sound that lends itself well for neutral or brighter sounding amps.
BK XLS200 Subwoofer
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BK Electronics is a well established firm with an enviable pedigree having made subs for other companies for more than 10 years. They now sell direct to the public offering massive savings of up to 50% off comparable subs. The XLS200 is by far and away the finest compact sub you can buy for the money and comes in different versions and finishes. With a quality 10" driver squeezed into a 12" cube, the bass response is simply staggering for such a small box and hugely detailed being very capable of outputting sub-sonic bass that you can feel. Best of all, this is a very musical sub that avoids the one-note boom of lesser models and will really add depth, not only your DVD collection but also your CD's. Both down-firing and forward firing versions are available with the forward firing version having the advantage of being slightly easier to integrate since it can be rotated and fired towards your seating position. A 275 Watts (RMS) amplifier provides the juice that can fill a large room with clean, deep sub-sonic low frequencies and if required, blow out the windows with enough spare to take the roof if required.
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Independent low and high level connections are provided along with a variable phase, gain control and a low frequency bypass for controlling the crossover from your amp. All the dials have a lovely high quality dampened feel to them that reinforces the view that you're dealing with some serious kit and at 20kg in weight, this isn't a sub you'll be wanting to pick up and move around often. Using the XLS200 with home cinema installations with all bass output directed to the sub will yield superlative results and immediately reveal those low frequencies you previously weren't able to hear whilst also improving the performance of your speakers by reducing the power hungry bass load on them. You'll find yourself wanting to watch your whole DVD collection again just so you can catch those special bass moments over and over again. Check out War Of The Worlds, Finding Nemo (when Darla taps the tank near the end), any of the Star Wars movies or even something like Phone Booth to see just how much low frequency material is encoded that lesser subs can't pick up.
Yet it's when you switch to CD's and stereo sources that the XLS200 really steps up the pace and shows it's pedigree. Bass is fast, controlled and massively detailed with plenty of power on tap to ensure it won't bottom out. Soundtracks are cleaner, more revealing and the XLS200 can really step up and keep pace with fast dance tracks or drum and bass. As with DVD's, you'll be surprised by just how much bass is contained in certain tracks that wasn't previously audible or detailed enough.
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The XLS200 is an excellent compact sub that is agile, tight, controlled, fast and provides mighty impressive bass that will bring your source material to life. It's superior to its peers and younger sibling, the Gemini, in 2 key areas: it offers noticeably deeper bass through a bigger and better driver and has a more powerful amp offering louder output and cleaner bass. When both of these are combined, the net result is a package that offers a sub that can play long and loud in a large room and crucially, sing like a canary for stereo sources when required. For the price point of 300 quid, it sounds like it should cost twice as much and the added advantage of being available in different versions and finishes really does mean that it can slot in pretty much anywhere and integrate well with existing kit. The XLS200 offers noticeably cleaner and deeper bass with more detail that is a modest increase on the Gemini and audiences demanding reference levels of output are well served by the larger and more powerful amp. For anyone with a budget of 300 quid, it comes recommended without any reservation.