Cantata:

A two way ported speaker created through extensive modeling and voicing to produce a musical, open and coherent reproduction of all recorded material. Tone and timber are carefully managed to allow the most complex and demanding jazz, popular and classical music to be reproduced faithfully to the artists performance. Whether its a drum, violin, horn or piano, the voice is clear, musical and well paced. The musicality is a tribute to manufacturing control, innovation, computer aided design, as well as measuring equipment and a good bit of old fashioned persistence. Off axis response is excellent

Poorly recorded recordings will sound harsh, with all the flaws exposed, well recorded work is a joy to hear, whether its orchestral work, jazz, acoustic guitar or voice, all will appear life like, alive, with the energy and excitement we all seek from music. Bach, Stravinsky, Diana Krall, all will appear on the Cantata stage.

Cantata the details:

Woofers: stiff, light carbon impregnated paper cones. The driver motor’s low induction voice coil operates in a massive magnetic field.The ports are tuned to 34 Hz, producing an articulate bass output that delivers more than enough high quality bass.

Tweeters: metal domes under diffusers creating a complex stage with great separation of voices, details such as room decay, ambient noise, instrument action, voice detail, all the energy of the recording environment are reproduced with ease.

The cabinets: hand made, all architectural grade veneers are pressure laminated on well braced inert heavy wall composite flat stock. The finishing system is a sprayed high build hand rubbed varnish creating a tough low sheen that will last for years. The general quality of the woodwork is not unlike that seen on instruments. We are able to veneer the cabinets to order, as seen in Sapele or any number of dramatic woods we have access to. Pricing on application.

The crossover: The heart of a speaker is its crossover, time domain, phase, detail, integration all take place here. The coils are hand made from heavy gauge wire, low tension, then deep sealed to cancel coil noise. The resistors are high power military grade wire wound. Much better sounding then any we have tested. Capacitors are film / foil with bypassing. All mounted and soldered together then mounted on vibration insulation. Every element has been tirelessly explored from wire gauge, winding configurations, coupling and coatings.

Birdseye maple, finished with one of the finest paint systems in use: Conversion varnish, a tough, long lasting low luster or as seen here a hand rubbed finish. The black is a dull version of the same paint.

Amplification: The speaker can be driven by small tube amps as above, 10 watts will produce more than ample sound levels, above 90 db. With a solid state amp of 50 watts the sound level, bass and general volume will be more than would be safe to hear. The Heathkit above dates to the early 60’s, sold as a kit, with EL84 / 6BQ5 tube set.

History: The Cantata development has taken years, well over 10 If one figures in the 100’s of designs that proceeded it. Designing a good speaker is rather easy with today’s engineering software, but creating a speaker as good as the Cantata is more than that, more than a linear response, more than the bass or the high range output. Getting the timber and tone properly rooted in the real world, getting a piano to sound like one is much harder to do than one would think. Time domain is probably the toughest part of any design and the Cantata succeeds well in this regard. Off access response is a joy.

The most interesting part of the speaker is its ability to transform recordings that sounded good to ones that are superb. Nielsens 4th symphony is a towering work, with all the musical voices spread out, it is transformed into what the composer meant: the transportation through a sound world,

Cantata monitor: same sound, in a smaller package. Measuring 10-3/4” wide, 14-1/2” deep and 20-1/2” high. Designed to offer everything the tower version offers at a lower price. Only advantage of course is the tower comes with it’s own stand.