GLE 30

This review first appeared in December 2024 on fairaudio.de. By permission of the author, it is hereby syndicated from the German original to reach a broader English audience. Ed.

Reviewer: Jörg Dames
Digital sources: D/A converter: Canever Audio ZeroUno SSD, Norma HS-DA1 PRE, Keces S3; Music server: Melco N50-S38, SOtM sMS-200 ultra & SOtM sPS-500, Volumio Primo
Preamplifiers: High level: Radio MTX Monitor V3b-4.3.1, Radio MTX Monitor V3b-4.2.1 (upgrade from V3b), Radio LAP-2.V3 (upgrade from Lap-2.V2)
Integrated amplifier: Abacus Ampino
Power amplifiers: Bryston 7B³, Norma Revo PA 150
Speakers: Wilson Audio SabrinaX, Sehring 903 Series 2, Abacus C-Box 3
Cables: Speaker cable: Kimber Carbon 16, HMS Armonia, WSS Platin Line LS4, Real Cable BW OFC 400, HMS Fortissimo NF cable: AudioQuest Pegasus (RCA and XLR), Supra Cables Sword Excalibur (RCA), Straight Wire Virtuoso (RCA and XLR) Digital cable: USB cable: AudioQuest Carbon and Diamond, Boaacoustic Silver Digital Xeno, BMC Pure USB1 Power cable: Kondo KSL-ACc Persimmon, HMS Energia Suprema, Supra Cables LoRad 2.5 CS-EU Mk2, Tellurium Q Black, Quantum-Powerchords, Swisscables Reference, Audioquest NRG-Z2 Power strip: HMS Energia MkII, AudioQuest Niagara 5000
Rack: Lovan Classic II
Power filter: HMS Energia MkII, AudioQuest Niagara 5000
Other: SOtM Snh-10G switch, AudioQuest Jitterbug
Size of the listening room: 29m², 3.3m ceiling
Review component retail: €598/pr

A little star. The size of two shoeboxes placed one behind the other. A clean but simple housing. A rear bass reflex port. A classic two-way with two metal drivers. At first glance the Canton GLE 30 doesn't seem particularly unusual or exciting. Nevertheless, it's among the most successful models in the current Canton catalogue and generally among the most popular passive speakers in their pleasantly down-to-earth price 'hood. On the phone chief developer Frank Göbl gushed over his little ones so extensively and lovingly that I was surprised then curious. He and his crew at Weilrod HQ in Hessia take the GLE 30 most serious indeed. That increased the likelihood that the well-known saying would invert and seriousness turn fun. Before that hopeful occurrence, we should take a closer look. Frank Göbl stresses that their small models—how could it be otherwise—are not sanctified by the same parts quality as the dear models. Nonetheless, research transfer from the top to the lower level is deliberately generous. "The target functions are the same for all our speakers." Of course the variable unit costs don't really increase as a result as the early business graduate in me remembers but not all manufacturers think so.

Tough guys. The GLE 30's 174mm mid/woofer sports a titanium membrane, the 1" tweeter dome goes aluminium-manganese. Canton are fans of hard membranes across all their models and diaphragms hardened with a ceramic aluminium-oxide skin on more expensive Canton speakers should be familiar to many readers. The crossover separating the two drivers sits at 3.1kHz, standard for such a system but here quite steep. On the high-pass side, the electrical 18dB/octave function joins the driver's acoustical roll-off of 6dB/octave and the mid/woofer too works at 12+12dB so another 4th-order function. Loudspeakers trained for time accuracy are associated with far shallower slopes but optimizing group delay thus phase coherence was an important development goal for the GLE 30, says Frank Göbl. I'm getting ahead of myself but you can hear that not least in the spatiality of the playback. The Canton-typical pleated 'wave' surround is partly responsible for the mid/woofer working as a clean pistonic oscillator beyond it bandwidth. A good horse sometimes jumps higher than it must and regardless of filter frequency and slope, this cone remains pistonic past 5kHz. In addition to the hard membrane, Canton's surround profile is a trickle-down from the developments of higher-priced models. Fundamentally lower distortion and higher stability with potentially larger stroke are said to be the audible advantages. We'll check on that later.

Nerdy? The Hessians also demonstrate audiophile detail in such apparent trivialities like the centering spider so the inner suspension. A special fabric ensures quick-acting restorative force where the impregnation agent of the corrugated material affects the memory effect. The mechanical properties of the spider should behave as consistently as possible during operation and over time. If you automatically associate 'quick' with 'jagged dynamics', you are right. That's my final uninvited spoiler and appetizer before the actual sound check. With 89dB/2.83V/m, the Canton GLE 30 puts no unusual obstacles in the way of the amplifier by way of efficiency. The 25mm dome too is fine-tuned for audiophiles: in action, the black circle facing the membrane behind the protective metal grille so familiar from other Canton speakers creates a mechanical air cushion. According to Canton, the lens not only increases tweeter efficiency but damps the inevitable breakup of the dome which in the GLE 30 reaches 40kHz -6dB. The horn funnel of 7cm Ø controls radiation, improves inter-driver transition and reduces excursion needs. Canton attach great importance to the fact that their tweeters use a minimum of adhesives and their magnetic gap is kept as small as possible to lower field strength and therefore iron which ultimately keeps distortion-causing eddy currents under control. However, the latter trick requires manual centering during production. Vertical integration or outsourcing? Hand labour. You might expect that speakers in this price range roll off a high-volume automated production line somewhere in the Far East but Canton build the GLE 30 in the Czech Republic, in their own factory. So all adhesives, magnets, crossovers and voice coils are their own. Other electronic components are largely sourced from Germany whilst the cabinetry is Polish then shipped to Czechia for final assembly. Minimizing production variation is high priority, says Frank Göbl. It means that even individual parts must qualify in advance by using Klippel measurements.

First impressions and the reversal of expectations. I unpack the Canton GLE 30 from its two-bed box, place it on a sturdy Lovan stand anywhere with a good metre of clearance on all sides, aim it almost on axis and park my bum in a cosy couch at 2.5 metres. My first quick listen calls the sound pretty good but still a bit reluctant. So the guests from the Taunus shake off their travel fatigue to let the somewhat stiff mechanics hit their groove over a long weekend. 70 hours later, gone are all signs of stiff hips. Instead there are certain traits I did not expect from a speaker in this class. On the other hand, there's almost no cause for reservations about a model designed for mass production and more casual buyers. It's almost as if I had multiplied myself—what was that called at school?—by the reciprocal. Okay, let's break out the calculation in detail. Touchingly spatial. When it comes to imaging, with compact two-ways we can generally hope for the best. However, underlying parameters such as pair matching, phase coherence and radiation behaviour are not a given even with monitors, certainly not at €600/pr. I find it almost sensational that switching to the Canton GLE 30 from my beloved Wilson SabrinaX and Sehring 903 in price spheres that actually prohibit comparison leaves me with so little to be desired. The burst air bubbles sampled as percussion in Coil's "Where are you" (Musick To Play In The Dark 2) float so precisely through the stereo panorama and noticeably beyond the actual base width on the left and right that I can only give the GLE 30 full marks. The same applies to the image of the steel drum, guitar and cornet in Robert Wyatt's "On the Town Square" (Comic Opera). The instruments positioned on the left, middle and right clearly and vividly mark the basic cornerstones of a soundscape in which even the most spoiled audiophile immediately feels inside especially since the images decorrelate nicely from the actual boxes. The unmistakably brittle rough voice of Mark Oliver Everett aka Eels mumbles so convincingly from the middle in the beautifully touching "That's not her Way" (Tomorrow Morning) that I quickly have to follow with a brain-massaging metal track by Behold… the Arctopus to avoid drowning in melancholy during dreary December. In short, the GLE 30 are true imaging talents and despite their friendly sticker deliver truly high-end performance. They also appear to have good off-axis characteristics so the qualities described aren't limited to the sofa's central seat.