This is a review written by Terry Ellis August 2026.

For my video review please see my YouTube channel link here

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What it takes to be a BEST SELLER

I was told the speakers I am reviewing from Canton are a new and improved version of one of the best selling towers speakers in the whole of Europe. Let that sink in for a second, there are a lot of top speaker brands available in Europe. That means many of you might be familiar with the Canton GLE speakers, but they were new to me and this is one I have been looking forward to doing all year.

A closer look

This is just my second time spent with speakers from Canton who are Germany’s largest speaker manufacturer with a history dating back to the 1980’s. My first exposure to Canton was earlier this year with one of their best and most expensive speakers the Reference 2.  I thought they were fantastic and looked really lovely in my room with all their curves, but with an around £20k price tag they are a very exclusive speaker for the lucky few only.

I wanted to also spend time with a Canton speaker that I thought most people could afford because I wanted to know how much of the great reference sonic experience do we get for real world money. The new GLE 90 S2 speakers are, kind of the equivalent of the Reference 2 but from the GLE range. This is Cantons entry level speaker range and the GLE 90 S2 cost 699 euros for each speaker. So they are still a chunk of money for speakers of course but far from crazy expensive especially considering just how much speaker we get for that money. Do they deliver a lot of sound quality is of course the biggest question?

Taking a closer look at the speakers, they are a 90.5db sensitivity, 4 ohm nominal impedance three way bass reflex speaker. Their driver compliment starting from the top is a 174mm or 6.5 inch in old money mid range driver, so that is a large mid range driver using an ATB cone material. ATB stands for aluminium titanium black which needed some explanation. I asked Canton about this and they told me they make all their own drivers in house and they are always looking for the golden ratio between stiffness and damping, they use specific chemical processes and mixtures of materials to achieve it. You also get trickle down technology here from the more expensive Vento speakers for the drivers membrane and spider and some other parts I beleive so that is cool to know.

You can see that the Vento speakers trickle down tech is continued with the dual 192mm or 7.5 inch bass drivers, so that is a lot of ATB bass woofer cone surface area for this compact form factor or compact of speaker. I think this gives you a good indication for how these speakers might sound. They are rear ported and the port is pretty substantial in its girth so you can tell these speakers are designed to move some air and you notice that about them very quickly for their sound, their bass is my favourite thing about this speaker.

Highs and lows

The 25mm aluminium black tweeter, uses the diaphragm from the former Reference K and Vento speakers so much more expensive speakers. It has a double weave surround ring and a more hemispherical shaped dome with a single voice coil configuration, all of which which was nearly impossible for me to get on camera for you. I could just about make out the dome behind the protective cage and the waveguide I assume sat in front of it. Canton say the tweeter will play up to 40Khz even off axis with the intention for it to sound finely detailed and dynamic but relaxed too. That pretty much sums up the treble from this speaker perfectly.

The cabinet is made from MDF with a vinyl finish to the sides and rear, with a slightly different look and finish to the baffle. In all black it is a very stealthy looking speaker that I know will be a popular finish in the UK and will be great in a home cinema environment for obvious reasons.

I have to be honest I don’t love this type of finish on a speaker, especially when you can see the cabinet joins as you can on the rear. I appreciate there has to be some give for a speaker at this price and I think this finish is about on par with Bowers 603 s3 and they cost a lot more. I think I preferred the finish on the Wharfedale EVO 5.4 and Revival Audio Sprint 4 I had here earlier this year and they cost about the same.

I was however very impressed with the build quality of the Canton, they have a more inert cabinet than I expected based on the old school tap test. This test does not tell you very much but I could sense there is a good amount of bracing in the construction and they are reasonably heavy as a result, so it seems more money has been spent on what matters for sound quality than making them fancy on the outside.

Sound quality

This has been an interesting review for me as I really pushed the extremes with the equipment I used. I tested the Canton with super affordable small amplifiers to something pretty crazy high end relative to the speakers cost making sure I heard them at their best. I am really glad I did both as comparing the experiences has helped me to understand what this speaker is all about.

To me these are speakers designed to make music a real occasion to sit and listen to. They make music sound big, energetic, tonally warm and a lot of fun, they do it by being very flexible across all styles of music and different qualities of HiFi system. They take it easy in some regards to allow for this and there are some obvious big pros to this approach but some cons too.

I think we have to start with the bass from these speakers that I think has been exceptional in the main for this price of speaker, but its definitely what I would call a big bass for a speaker of this size and price. Regulars will know I am all about this so that has been great for me and there some distinct advantages to this. There are the obvious ones, big bass means a big scale of sound in the room. A big deeper bass means you get a subwoofer like experience without the subwoofer. A full bass means you always get a nice warm pleasing sound and I like that. Having all three means listening to music can be a tactile physical experience, one you feel on your body not just listen to.

There are more advantages with the only downside being you might need to think a little more about the placement of the speakers in your room. I am not sure right up against the wall or in a corner is a good idea. I found if I positioned speakers with too much room gain, that means too close to wall and corner behind them bass was softening and smothering the more delicate mid and high details a touch too much. Moving the speakers forward just enough balanced that about right so it was not hard to set them up but I did have to think about this.  For toe in I preferred not too much toe in, that seemed to give the sound stage as much space as possible to form between and behind the speakers in my smaller room.

One of the other big advantages of a speaker designed like this is their flexibility with electronics and amplifier quality. Yes they sounded best from my biggest and best amplifier the Esoteric S03, but they still sounded full, warm and dynamic from my smallest amplifiers the Fosi Audio V3 monoblock’s.

I noticed I didn’t need to crank the volume either to the get the big full warm sound from them and this speaker sound approach helps to balance leaner sounding 80s music.  I did still crank the volume to the “max” pushing the speakers to their limit to see how they handled dynamic electronic music. One track in particular Uncharted by Joris Delacroix sounded very big, full, punchy and pleasing in my room leaving me wanting for not much more. Now the bass was not all perfect but it was surprisingly fast to stop considering the quantity and that is why it works so well from this speaker. Occasionally in the bass transitions it was just a touch heavy, just a smidgen too much of a good thing but that is me being really ultra fussy here for the smallest of details.

It’s in the details

To speak about the mid range, vocals and treble it’s easiest with a speaker comparison and for me that meant comparing to the Mission 770. This is not an ideal like for like comparison but it was good enough to show me the weaker points of the Cantons sound. I really enjoyed vocals from the Canton because they sound big in the room, full in tonality and always with a great sense of occasion. The tonality from these speakers in general is very pleasing because they sound full and warm in the main, even with an edgy track like Daisy Greys cover of Wicked Game.

I would have said something similar about the Mission too except they were quite different, the Mission bring about a greater sense of focus clarity and speed to how vocals and highs are delivered. They sound more open, clear and precise in the middle of the sound stage, more studio monitor speaker like. The Cantons are not as good in that regard, they seem to trade off some specificity to the music here in favour of the bigger, warmer more full sounding whole.

This is not something you really notice when listening to the Canton in isolation because their whole sound is very encapsulating and nicely balanced from top to bottom. There is a fantastic smooth integration between the drivers that part of this speaker is really well done, but in a side by side with a much more expensive speaker like the Mission that less good part of their sound is character was revealed.

I also think their treble is definitely darker than you expect, it’s a treble that goes about its business without ever drawing attention to itself. There is plenty of detail there and you still get plenty of height to the sound stage, but its definitely on the play it safe side rather than being stand out sparkly, crisp or attacking. I think the intention of this is voicing of the speaker is for them to still sound pleasing in a more reverberant sparsely furnished modern lounge room, more so than being using in a fully acoustically treated rooms like I have, this super rare for normal humans to have. I think it’s these two sonic traits that go hand in hand that make this speaker so flexible with the HiFi system you can use with them.

Sounding more full and warm as a speaker means you can use leaner more analytical sounding HiFi with them and there is a lot of modern, especially more affordable HiFi with that kind of sound character. I tested a couple of the most popular super affordable options in the Eversolo Play CD and the WiiM Ultra with Fosi V3 mono block amplifiers and I enjoyed the music and speakers sound a lot. I did not feel short changed in the sound staging department with this level of equipment but my room size only allows for so much in this regard. Using a better system brought out the better sound staging from the Canton showing they are speakers capable of scaling up their sound and I like that. I also cant help but appreciate these are speaker where you do not have to spend a fortune on gear to get a good result, but you still reap the benefits when you do.

Critical comparison

Coming back to the Mission 770 comparison, these are a chalk and cheese looking speaker, however I think they both designed to make music enjoyable to listen to, not something to analyse to the nth degree. Both took up about the same amount of floor space and like or loathe the white baffle of the Mission they definitely have the higher quality more furniture grade finish, but they cost more.

The reason this comparison is important is because it showed to me the potential value in the Cantons. They did sound bigger in my room, their bass gives them a greater sense of occasion compared to the Mission and makes them a little more fun to listen to with some music. The Mission is the better sounding speaker in other ways but still there is no denying the overall value proposition in what a good tower speaker like this offers and I can see why this kind of speaker is very popular at it’s price.

I know there will be people that want to know how they compare to the Wharfedale EVO 5.4 and the Revival Audio Sprint 4 but without having them all here at the same time it’s impossible for me to be exacting. All three speakers impressed me for the money, so much it’s hard for me to pick a favourite from them. I think the Sprints are the fastest and clearest sounding of the three, but sacrifice some of the scale and size of sound compared to the Canton. The Wharfedale probably go in the middle of the two, they are easy going with a very good bass but I don’t remember them having quite the same scale of sound and impact as the Canton. The Canton do sound really big and energetic but maybe don’t open up the sound stage as clear and wide as the Sprint. They are all very enjoyable to listen to in their own right and I cannot pick a favourite and that is not me being diplomatic or sitting on the fence I genuinely cannot pick one

Final Thoughts

In summary then it seems to me like the GLE 90 S2 share a lot of the same recipe as the Reference 2 speakers I had here earlier in the year and that left me with an important question. Were Canton’s Reference speakers stand out different to their others or do all Canton speakers give us the same kind of music listening experience

I still cannot fully answer this question but if the entry level speakers give us something like it, then it’s a good sign the others will too I think. I have ended this review feeling in a very similar place to when I finished the Reference review. These are speakers that appeal to me and my personal taste in a lot of ways. I have found them very easy to enjoy, they have made getting great sound in my room easy, this time without breaking the bank or my back and there is a lot to be said for that

A Serious Bang for Buck Award is granted in recognition of a products stand out high performance being significantly greater than its perceived price point

For the full specification see the Canton website here