Kanto isn’t messing around when it comes to broadcasting exactly who and what its latest powered speaker system, the Ren ($599.99, all prices USD), is designed for. Although the packaging and official nomenclature refer to it as simply a powered speaker system, a quick DuckDuckGo search reveals the SEO description for the system to be “REN Powered Speaker System with HDMI for Home Theater.”
In other words, it’s not aiming to draw in the old-school audiophile, but rather—I think—to grab the attention of the shopper who might be looking for a soundbar and convince them instead to take a chance on a 2- or 2.1-channel system that offers more flexibility in terms of setup, more accommodations for mid- or nearfield listening, better imaging, hopefully less cabinet resonance, and other benefits that the average normie might not know they care about, but can definitely hear and appreciate.
The Ren system is also available in a range of décor-friendly matte finishes, including black, white, a very KEF-esque blue, orange, and the cool gray my review system came clad in. Each cabinet measures 10.9″H × 7″W × 8.5″D. Respectively, the primary and secondary speakers weigh in at 9.9 and 8.6 pounds. Each enclosure houses a 5.25″ aluminum-cone midrange–woofer and a 1″ silk-dome tweeter. Power comes from a stereo class-D amp in the primary speaker rated to output 50Wpc RMS and 100Wpc peak. Frequency response is specified by the company as 50Hz to 22kHz (no deviation is specified).
Inputs include HDMI with ARC and CEC, USB-C (with support for PCM up to 24/96), TosLink, stereo RCA, stereo 3.5mm, and Bluetooth with AAC. Sadly, there’s no phono stage built-in, so you’ll need to add your own, or use a turntable with a built-in phono preamp. For outputs the system offers a subwoofer connection and a charge-only USB-A port with 5V/1A power.
Setting up and dialing in the Kanto Ren speakers
That subwoofer out, by the way, auto-senses an RCA cable connected to it and automatically engages an 80Hz crossover, not merely a low-pass filter on the sub output but also a high-pass filter for the mains.
Mind you, not every aspect of setting up the Ren system is quite so transparent, although it’s all pretty straightforward once you figure it out. As I indicated in my unboxing blog, there are no markings to indicate which speaker is the left and which is the right, and the quick-start guide doesn’t spell it out, either. Turns out, the speaker with the amp built in is designated as the left channel by default, but if you need to flip them, holding the next-track button on the remote will change the “active” speaker, as Kanto describes it, to the right channel. Changing it back to the left simply involves holding the previous-track button for five seconds. A quick double-flash of the front-panel LED indicates that the channel-swap was successful. Of course, before you can do that, you’ll need to insert a pair of AAA cells into the remote, and it doesn’t come with any, so keep that in mind when you’re shopping.
As it turns out, I did have to swap the channels in my review system, as my subwoofer cable wouldn’t reach all the way to the left speaker. I just wish Kanto did a better job of putting this information and these capabilities front and center in the pack-in literature.
As for the particulars of my review setup, I installed the Ren speakers on my Monoprice 42838 stands, starting in the same position where my reference Paradigm tower speakers normally sit. I did find that the Rens wanted to be a little closer to the wall, but didn’t need anything out of the ordinary in terms of left/right positioning or toe-in. They’re generally forgiving of any reasonable speaker placement, which is nice.
The package comes with a speaker cable about 5m in length for connecting the powered speaker-level output from one speaker to the other. If that’s not enough, you can bring any speaker cable to the party, should you so choose, although if you use anything thicker than, say, 14AWG, I’d suggest you should probably terminate the cables with banana plugs, because the binding posts are pretty itty-bitty.
I auditioned the Ren system with and without my SVS PB-1000 Pro subwoofer in the signal chain, and sources included my reference iFi Zen One Signature DAC connected to the RCA inputs, my Maingear Vybe PC connected via USB-C, and my iPhone 12 Pro Max paired via Bluetooth.
How does the Kanto Ren system perform?
I’ve had requests recently from readers asking me to be a little more explicit about my testing methodology, and I’m happy to oblige. It’s always nice to hear what sorts of information people actually want to read. So, with that in mind, what was the first thing I did once I had the Kanto Ren system installed and dialed in? Well, firstly, I spent a few days with the speaker sans subwoofer, just to wrap my brain as fully as possible around what they could do in my room on their own.
Once I had the front-back placement tweaked to my satisfaction, I started by cueing up some pink noise (thrilling, right?) and doing my best Stevie Wonder impersonation from my seat, listening for egregious shifts in tonality or amplitude depending on the position of my head. Standing up and sitting back down, and rocking my head from side to side, I didn’t hear any concerning vertical or horizontal dispersion issues in any of my calisthenics, nor any profound tonal or amplitude fluctuations, so I switched over from test tones to the album I’ve been listening to most in recent months: Aurora’s brilliant 2016 debut album, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend (16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC, Glassnote – VMG / Qobuz).
With the first track, “Runaway,” I was immediately drawn in by the Ren system’s sweetly but subtly tweaked tonality. The chorus of multitracked “ahhs” sounded ever-so-slightly smiley between, say, 500Hz and 5kHz, but in a way I quite enjoyed. Overall, tonal balance was close enough to neutral not to be off-putting, but it colored just enough outside the lines to give the Kanto speakers their own distinctive voice, however unobtrusive and difficult to pin down. Granted, the deep bass hits that punctuate this otherwise gentle track demonstrated quite quickly why Kanto’s claim of 50Hz bass extension isn’t accompanied by a deviation spec (e.g., ±3dB or -6dB). There just isn’t much usable bass down that deep unless you’re within three feet or so of the speakers.
There’s also what sounds to my ears like a bit of juiced output somewhere between 150 and 200Hz, but let’s put a pin in that observation and get back to it when we’re done listening to the Aurora album.
Listening to “Runaway” and the subsequent tracks, I quickly realized that in my setup, with me and the speakers forming an equilateral triangle measuring around 5.5′ per side, that I was going to keep the volume of the system absolutely pegged while still wanting a weensy bit more output.
It really does seem to come down to a limiter designed to keep the system linear throughout its entire operating range, and I say that for two reasons. Firstly, even with the volume absolutely maxed, I never did hear a bit of stress or strain or cabinet resonance or anything of the sort. The Ren system plays strikingly cleanly. Secondly, when I plugged in my sub, I suddenly got exactly as much output as I wanted from the system. That also toned down that bump I was hearing in the upper bass. Put simply, a subwoofer transforms this system, elevating it from “quite good for the price” to “gyatt!”
With the PB-1000 Pro handling the bottom end and the volume tuned to my satisfaction, I skipped forward to my favorite song from the album, “I Went Too Far,” and quickly fell out of critical-listening mode and into pure enjoyment listening. Here, too, any and all perceived colorations were exceedingly slight and euphonic, with the exception, perhaps, of what I think I heard as a bit of lost energy in a narrow band somewhere between 2 and 4kHz. And that didn’t really register as a coloration so much as a diminishment of the sense of space and directionality during the chorus.
The multitracked refrain of “Gimme some love, gimme some love and hold me / Gimme some love and hold me . . . tight” just didn’t seem to reach out into the room as much as I’m used to hearing from my reference system. Mind you, my reference system comprises of a pair Paradigm floorstanding speakers that, when new, sold for $1800 each, and a rocking NAD integrated amp.
More calisthenics performed while listening to “I Went Too Far”—as well as the next track, the heartbreakingly gorgeous “Through the Eyes of a Child”—led me to the conclusion that the Kanto Ren speakers exhibit good vertical dispersion characteristics and really smooth horizontal dispersion that’s perhaps not as wide as I’d normally prefer, but that should be a good thing for rooms that aren’t as well treated, which I imagine is exactly the sort of room Kanto was designing for here. Absolutely no complaints on that front.
Once I felt like I had my impressions of the system fairly well pinned down, I unplugged the sub for some deeper listening to the speakers themselves without additional bass support. As I’ve said before, when I hear anything at all that sounds like sonic colorations, I go on a hunt for songs that spotlight those colorations and sound bad as a result. “Radio Ga Ga” by Queen is a dependable go-to for me, as it can sound awful on anything that’s not dead-on-balls accurate on-axis. It sounded quite good through the Kanto Ren system, though.
And on and on it went, until I casually cued up the Allman Brothers Band’s “Blue Sky” (Eat a Peach, 24/44.1 ALAC, Mercury Records / Apple Music) via the Ren’s Bluetooth AAC connection, which was intended more for casual enjoyment than critical listening. The work day was done, the oven was preheating for supper, and for whatever reason I just needed this song in my life right then. But although I wasn’t intending to scrutinize it, something stood out to me: without the sub in place, Berry Oakley’s bass guitar just didn’t sound right. At all. A lot of his playing in this song meanders around the spectrum between 180 and 200Hz, and through just the Ren speakers, it sounded as if producer Tom Dowd had a sneezing fit while his finger still rested on the fader of Oakley’s channel during the mixing of the track. The fluctuations in loudness from note to note were simply impossible to miss.
And that’s really the only major complaint I had about the performance of the system. Which, when you consider that it’s a just-add-source sound system for $600 (plus however much you want to spend on a sub), is actually high praise.
Overall, I simply had a hoot with these speakers, and I think most people will, too. And that’s true whether you’re eyeing them as a mostly self-contained music system, or as the home-theater alternative they’re positioned as. With David Attenborough’s latest nature documentary series, Asia, streamed via AMC+ but through the Apple TV app, not only was the narration crystal-clear and wholly intelligible, but the music and action also had oodles of impact, especially with the sub engaged.
The Kanto Ren system also proved great for gaming, although these days I’m in such an obsessive state with No Man’s Sky that I found it impossible to devote my limited gaming time to anything else. The sparse procedural soundtrack, cobbled together on the fly from elements recorded by post-rock ambient band 65daysofstatic, was delivered with all the sonic qualities described above—in other words, slightly sweetened neutrality—and the high-impact sound effects, such as landing my ship in the docking bay of my recently acquired S-class freighter, had all the dynamic punch I could hope for, although I might have liked a bit more in terms of pure SPLs.
What other similar powered speakers should you consider?
The only other powered speaker systems I have on-hand for direct comparison against the Kanto Ren system either got their butts handed to them in A/B comparisons (the Fluance Ai41 system, for example, which sells for significantly less at $250) or cost so much more that the comparison was hardly fair (the SVS Prime Wireless, for example).
That said, the system I’d most want to compare directly against the Kantos is the PSB Alpha AM3 powered loudspeaker system, which sells for $579. The Alpha AM3 system looks to be similar in terms of on-paper specs, although based on Gordon’s review over on Simplifi, I’m thinking the PSBs deliver better-behaved bass, but still need a sub to truly shine.
TL;DR: Should you buy the Kanto Ren Powered Speaker System?
As I was writing all of the above, there was some corner of my brain cranking away on different ways to frame the Kanto Ren system in the conclusion, because there are several ways to look at it. The thought that kept running through my mind was, “Have I ever auditioned a $600 soundbar that came close to delivering this level of fidelity and tonal balance this nearly neutral, with this level of soundstaging and imaging?” And the answer, of course, was no.
But I think the value proposition of the Ren system goes farther than that. Could I build a two-channel component system that goes toe-to-toe with the Ren for the same amount of money? It would be tough. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done, of course, but it would take some thinking.
The Kanto Ren system doesn’t require much thought. It’s practically plug-and-play once you grok a few minor, poorly documented features, it’s well-equipped in terms of inputs, it sounds really great, and it’s forgiving in terms of setup. No, it’s not going to blow you out of the room with pants-flapping SPLs, and it needs a sub to really sound its best. But that’s not so much a criticism as it is a recognition of what’s required to value-engineer a system like this that sells for what it sells for.
. . . Dennis Burger
dennisb@soundstagenetwork.com
Associated Equipment
- Sources: Maingear Vybe PC; Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
- Digital-to-analog converter: iFi Audio Zen One Signature
- Subwoofer: SVS PB-1000 Pro
- Power conditioner: SurgeX XR115.
Kanto Audio Ren powered loudspeaker system
Price: $599.99
Warranty: Two years, limited
Kanto Distribution Inc.
110-2440 Canoe Ave.
Coquitlam, BC V3K 6C2
Canada
Phone: 1-888-848-2643
Website: www.kantoaudio.com
