Mark Fleischmann

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Canton Ergo 620 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Dec 07, 2009
Price: $5,550 At A Glance: Distinctive round-edged Cantons are easy to live with • Monitors deliver superb all-around performance • Adjustable sub delivers deep bass without bloat

Brilliant at Making Things

Last year I spent my vacation in Munich, Stuttgart, and Nuremberg. Afterward I sent e-mails and pictures to friends, raving about Germany’s high-speed trains and pedestrianized shopping districts. One friend wrote back and said that I made him sad because I spent all that time in Munich without visiting BMW, and in Stuttgart without visiting Mercedes-Benz. Let’s face it, the Germans are brilliant at making things: cities, cars, trains, eyewear, clothing, sausages, and beer—all the little things that enhance our quality of life. Wouldn’t you like your loudspeakers to measure up to that standard?

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Canton GLE 403 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 16, 2007  |  Published: Jun 16, 2007
Fussy in the front; pragmatic in the back.

Three identical stand-mounted speakers in front, two on-wall speakers in back—that's the unusual configuration I used in this review of the Canton GLE Series. Now I've got some explaining to do.

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CEDIA 2013
Canton Has a Cool Pad
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 26, 2013
The Canton DM 50 sound pad (yes, we love the name too) is just about wide enough for the pedestal of a large flat panel TV. While the driver complement remained something of a mystery due to the nondetachable grille, it does have two 3.5-inch woofers firing out of the bottom. Dolby Digital and DTS decoding are present. Total power is 200 watts, Class D. Like any respectable bar nowadays, it also has Bluetooth. Price $599.
Canton Is Fruitful and Multiplies
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 08, 2007
Is it possible to get all the goodness of the Canton exhibit into one photo? We'll die trying. At left is the revamped Vento, with a rounder gloss enclosure, new midrange and tweeter and crossover, and smoother mids and highs (we're told). Available in a month or so. At right is the Karat, revised from 3-way to 3.5-way to eliminate lobing. A 5.1-channel set will go for $4500. Not pictured: the new Chrono line, positioned between the GLE and Ergo lines, about $5000 for a 5.1 set, and the rather stylish looking DSS 303 iPod docking system, also with USB for non-Apple players, for $499, available in a few months and so new it hasn't even been announced till now.
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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Canton Movie LE 125 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 01, 2003
Speaker System Small sats, a big sub, and visions of hops and sausages.

My sociological spiel about the French in my JMlab Digital Home Cinema System review (April 2003) inadvertently hit newsstands around the start of the war with Iraq, so I'll limit my wantonly idiotic cultural commentary on the Germans to food and drink references. Have you ever tried their smoked beer? I'm not joking. It's called Rauchbier, and it's delicious. I should note that, although my byline is German, my ethnic makeup is German, English, Scots, and Irish, and they all make good beer. My oft-misspelled name literally translates as "meat man" (no jokes, please), and my great-grandfather was the last in a long line of sausage-makers. After he emigrated from Germany, he continued to practice his craft in New Jersey. According to my father, his sausages were so rich that you had to wash them down with a quart of milk.

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Canton Refines and Adds Speaker Lines
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 06, 2008
The new Canton Reference 3.2DC is a second-generation implementation with ceramic-aluminum tweeter and aluminum mid and woofers, with the mid on top. It and the new GLE line have rounder contours surrounding the baffle to improve dispersion. The Ergo has gone from black to silver cones and the Vento has added a very handsome curved center. Wood veneers on the glossy Reference and not-so-glossy Vento are furniture grade and would not mar even the nicest home decor. Canton is nailing the in-a-box crowd with the DM 2, a 2.1-channel system that will also be available in a 5.1-channel version with a wireless surround option. The bidirectional RF LCD remote looks pretty spiffy.
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CES 2012
Cardas: Best Buds Forever?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 12, 2012
Cardas is best known for bleeding-edge cables but is moving into earbuds with the EM 5813 Ear Speakers. Their heavy and lustrous metal casings are brass in the $425 model and steel in the $325 model. Despite their weight, they fit well and don't fall out easily if you pick the right cushion size (took me a couple of tries). Cardas went to a lot of trouble to make the tube mimic the shape of the cochlea, in proportions that adhere to the Golden Ratio, a longtime Cardas design obsession. (It seems to have resulted in a long string of great-sounding products.) The diaphragm is about the size of the eardrum.
Audio Video News
Cartoon Net Offers Custom DVDs
Mark Fleischmann  |  Nov 17, 2009
Would you like to build a custom DVD with specific episodes from your favorite Cartoon Network shows? You can, thanks to a joint venture of Cartoon Network and its late-night program division Adult Swim.
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CEDIA 2011
Carver Is Back
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 08, 2011
Carver's assets have been bought from their previous owner by the Carver Holding Group and many of the company's world-beating products will be reintroduced in early 2012. That will include amps of seven, five, and two channels, not to mention mono-blocks. What caught our eye was a new product, the CSB-601 2.1-channel soundbar. In development is a surround pre-pro. Welcome back.
Ears On
CD Quality Is Not High-Res Audio
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 06, 2013
It's official. The future of audio hardware and software now has an acronym. It's HRA, or high-resolution audio, trumpets a press release from the Consumer Electronics Association. HRA may well emerge as a key theme of CEA's 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show. So this would be a good time to discuss what is, and is not, high-resolution audio.

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