Bookshelf Speakers — Kanto Audio TUK

The TUK is a powered bookshelf speaker pair from Kanto Audio of Coquitlam, British Columbia, launched in August 2019 at USD 799.99 per pair. It gathers the amplifier, a USB DAC, a phono preamp and a headphone amplifier into the active cabinet, so a turntable, a computer, a TV and a phone can all connect without extra boxes. Two finishes are offered - matte white with gray grilles and matte black with black grilles.

Key specs that matter

Each cabinet pairs an Air Motion Transformer tweeter of roughly 28 x 35 mm with a 5.25-inch woofer on an aluminium cone. Its Class D amplification delivers 130 W RMS in total, or 65 W per channel, with 260 W quoted as peak power. Frequency response is 50 Hz to 20 kHz. The DAC accepts up to 24-bit/96 kHz, and Bluetooth 4.2 supports Qualcomm aptX HD and AAC. Inputs are phono on RCA with a ground post, RCA line, USB, optical TOSLINK and Bluetooth, while outputs are an RCA subwoofer jack, a 3.5 mm headphone socket and the terminals feeding the passive speaker. Each speaker measures 17.8 x 21.5 x 27.6 cm (W x D x H), the powered unit weighs 5.0 kg and the passive one 4.5 kg. Kanto covers the pair with a two-year limited warranty.

Engineering and use context

The drivers are tuned with onboard DSP, and the matte-finished cabinets are made of MDF. When a subwoofer is used, an 80 Hz crossover can be switched on from the remote - a high-pass filter removes the deepest bass from the aluminium woofers, and a low-pass filter sends that band to the sub. Thanks to the integrated phono preamp, a record deck lacking its own stage can be wired straight to the speaker, and the ground post takes the earth lead of the turntable. The headphone output has its own amplifier, so late listening needs no separate unit. The supplied remote covers volume, input selection, tone controls, mute, Bluetooth functions and LED brightness, and it can be programmed into a Harmony universal remote.

Pairing

A record player connects directly to the phono input, a TV or disc player to the optical port, and a laptop to USB. Phones and tablets stream over Bluetooth with aptX HD or AAC, and wired headphones connect to the powered cabinet for private listening. Any powered subwoofer with an RCA line input can be linked to the sub jack, which then works with the switchable crossover.

Alternatives

The Kanto REN is a powered pair with 5.25-inch aluminium concave-cone woofers, 100 W RMS and an HDMI ARC input.