Kanto YU
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Rerouting and Address Changes
We cannot make ANY address changes once an order is placed. If you are unable to accept delivery of your package as ordered, we will need to cancel your order, return the package to sender and have you replace your order through our website.
Keep the Box
We suggest you keep the shipping box or boxes for at least 30 days. It is actually a great idea to keep boxes for audio products for the life of the product. Having the box and all packing will increase the trade-in value should you decide to move up and they are handy to have should you ever need to send the unit in for repair.
How To Receive a Motor Freight Order
The trucking company will contact you to schedule a convenient time to deliver the order. Please note that you must be present for delivery.
Visually inspect the box to make sure you see no signs of damage. If you notice any damage at all, take some pictures with your phone and make a note of them on the delivery receipt the driver will ask you to sign. If it is obvious that the product is damaged, please refuse the order and contact us immediately at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com.
Open your box as soon as possible and inspect the product for damage and contact us if you find anything wrong.
uShip In-Home Delivery
Due to current concerns surrounding COVID-19, uShip is able to offer THRESHOLD SERVICE ONLY at this time. To ensure everyone’s safety, uShip is advising carriers to refrain from making room-of-choice deliveries. Threshold service consists of the shipment being brought into the first door of the address or the lobby of an apartment/condo, and does not include set-up, installation, assembly or debris removal.
What to Expect: Most oversized items will be delivered within 2-3 weeks. Your carrier will place your item inside the first door of the address or the lobby of an apartment/condo.
Appointment Scheduling: Your delivery partner will call 24-48 hours prior to delivery to arrange an appointment window.
How to prepare for in-home delivery:
- Determine the clearest path from the street to your home
- Measure entrances and hallways to ensure your item will fit
- Remove any wall hangings or clutter to ensure a clear path and to prevent damages
- Remove old furnishings to allow placement for your new piece
Check your furniture for damages: We rarely expect damaged furniture, but in the instance it does happen, we have you covered. Once your item’s packaging is removed, check for any damages that may have occurred in transit. Take pictures of any damages and notate appropriately on the delivery receipt. Keep possession of the damaged piece and contact us via phone or email and we’ll start the process to repair/replace your new piece of furniture. For uShip customer support, please call 800-698-7447.
At Audio Advice, we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction. We'll bend over backward to make sure you're 100% satisfied and we won't accept anything less. We offer 30-day hassle-free returns and personalized service from real, live people.
If an item doesn't meet your expectations, you may return or exchange it in its original condition and packaging within 30 days for a full refund, minus shipping fees. Items shipped back in like new condition through standard shipping carriers will only incur a flat fee of $15 to return. If the items were initially shipped through free scheduled delivery via motor freight (commonly referred to as LTL), returning them will result in return shipping fees starting at $150. These items include but are not limited to, oversized items such as TVs, certain subwoofers, floorstanding speakers, furniture, and most items weighing over 75 pounds. Return fees will also apply for exchanges. We want to treat your system as if it is our own and want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase.
Please see the instructions below. We only accept returns for any product purchased directly from our website. If merchandise is not returned in its original condition or is missing packaging, manuals, accessories or other parts, or the resale value of the product has been impaired, a partial refund will be given and calculated on a case-by-case basis.
Non-Returnable Items
The following items cannot be returned or cancelled:
- Special/Custom Order Items
- Open Box Products
- Gift Cards
- In-ear headphones cannot be returned once the packaging has been opened due to personal hygiene reasons. Please contact our customer care team if you'd like help choosing.
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Turntables With a Broken Stylus: All turntables ship out with the stylus intact. If you return a turntable or phono cartridge with a broken or missing stylus you will be subject to a return fee. Please be careful when setting up your turntable and contact us with any questions.
Is It Easy To Return An Item?
Yes, simply give us a call at 888.899.8776 or you can email our support team at support@audioadvice.com. Many times our team of experts can help figure out why the product might not be working like you expected and get things fixed over the phone, so don’t be surprised if we ask a few questions, we love troubleshooting!
If our tech help can not make you happy, we will email over a return shipping label with a Return Number.
Hopefully, you saved all of the original item’s box and packaging inserts. You will want to pack back up your return or exchange in the same way it came out of the original box. Once you have everything packaged correctly, tape the box on the top and bottom to assure it stays together. If Audio Advice shipped the item to you inside a second box, it's a good idea to use that same extra box to help prevent damage on its way back to us. To avoid it accidentally coming back to you, use a magic marker to cross out the old shipping label or just tear it off.
The return shipping label we send you will have our address on it, just make sure you take the box to the right shipper (UPS, FEDEX, or USPS) as per the label.
If you are close to one of our stores, please let us know if it is more convenient for you to return it to us directly. You will still need to get a return number by contacting us and shipping and/or restocking charges may apply.
When Will I See My Refund?
It usually takes around 7-14 days for the refund to show up on the payment method you used. We do inspect all returns for damage and accuracy of the item inside the box before issuing a refund. Some items may be subject to shipping and restocking fees.
Can I Exchange My Purchase For Something Different?
Sometimes those big speakers just don’t fit in the room or you might have bought a small subwoofer and later found out you’d love a bigger one. If you would like to make an exchange within 30 days of receiving your item, just give us a call at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com and we will help work out the details. Additional shipping charges and return costs may apply.
How Do I Cancel An Order?
If the item has already shipped out or is a special order item, it is not possible to cancel the order. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com to start the return process.
What If I Find Shipping Damage?
We need to know right away about any shipping damage. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com within 48 hours of your delivery so we can get the ball rolling on making things right. It’s very helpful to take some pictures and email them to us if possible.
Can I Refuse A Shipment?
You can, but unless the item is damaged, shipping and restocking fees will be deducted from your refund. If your item arrives damaged and you are lucky enough to be there, snap some quick pics and refuse the order. Then contact us so we can get a replacement on the way.
What Happens If My Order Is Defective?
This is actually pretty rare, most consumer electronics work fine out of the box 99.9% of the time. We’d like for you to contact us first by calling 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com so we can help get to the bottom of things. If your item is indeed defective during the first 30 days, we can usually exchange it for a new, replacement unit.
What About Service After 30 Days?
Audio Advice has a great relationship with all of our brands and can help you with warranty service by the brand after our 30-day guarantee period. Even after the warranty expires, we can arrange for service by the brand on products purchased from Audio Advice. Just call 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com.
How Do You Determine A Restocking Fee?
You may not believe it, but sometimes we receive items back that were put in the box with zero packaging and are completely destroyed or are missing many of the pieces that came with the item. We also track serial numbers and will get back different serial numbers. We’ve even seen different items than what we shipped out be returned. However, it’s very important to package your return properly so that nothing goes missing or gets damaged in shipping, which will result in a restocking fee or even no refund at all. If a product is opened and the market value of the product is reduced, then a restocking fee may be applied to the cost of restocking and the reduced market value of the product. The bottom line is if you treat us fairly, we will do the same.
Audio Advice strives to provide industry-leading support and service while also maintaining the lowest prices available on products for our customers. We work hard with our vendors to bring our customers the best products at each price point. As a part of that process, we work with our vendors to provide the lowest pricing in our stores and on our website.
Our prices should always be the same as any other authorized dealer, including big-box retailers and major online retailers.
If you believe that you have found a lower advertised price from a legitimate authorized seller, call us and let us know so we can make sure we can correct any inadvertent error on our side. As a matter of policy, we update our prices automatically if a vendor changes its authorized pricing policies, so we generally have the best prices all the time. Increasingly, there are knock-off copies of products online, usually sold by non-authorized dealers.
Please be sure that the item meets the following conditions:
- The item is brand new, in stock, and available for purchase
- The item has the identical model number, color, etc as the item on our site.
- The seller is an authorized dealer
As always, our goal is to provide a terrific customer experience, including industry low prices. We appreciate your support.
Overview
The High Notes
Great Sound for a Budget
Quality Drivers
Nice Controls
Company & Product Overview
The Audio Advice team was wandering the halls of CES back in 2016 on the lookout for great-sounding audio products we might not be aware of. We glanced in a small room and saw all of these brightly colored speakers and almost kept walking. But those colors drew us in and boy are we glad we went in for a listen. The Kanto speakers we heard were their new YU series which had a very warm and musical sound to our ears, plus the fact they had a built-in phono preamp made our vinyl loving side smile.
David Reid founded Kanto and came to market in 2007 with a pretty cool docking station for the iPod. Growing up, David was always around music as his father was a pretty hardcore audiophile. He experienced what it was like to be on the quest for great sound which led him to become an audio hobbyist and tinkerer as well.
After Kanto won several awards for their dock, David followed his passion for audio and came out with a line of affordable powered speakers. One really smart move on their part was recognizing the market for small, powered speakers span all kinds of customers, so rather than offering only a couple of finishes like most companies, they came out with a huge variety of vibrant colors that could fit into many different environments.
Kanto’s YU2, YU4, and YU6 have been extremely popular at Audio Advice with their multiple input choices and great sound. In mid-2019, Kanto had the idea of taking their very popular YU4 model and offering what we like to call a “Henry Ford” version. They felt not everyone needed all of the inputs and color choices, so why not make something more basic to let music lovers on a tight budget get into really great sound. The Kanto YU is the new model that fulfills their goal and is the subject of today’s review.
Design & Build Quality
Like the YU4, the YU is a compact speaker. It is designed to be an all-in-one speaker where the only thing you’ll need is an audio source to start playing some tunes.
Physically the YU is about 9” tall, 5 ½” wide, and 7 ½’ deep. While not tiny, the YU will easily fit on a bookcase or desktop. Unlike the other Kanto’s, the YU is available in one finish, basic black.
All Kanto speakers are designed in Canada and made in China to pretty exacting standards. Build quality is first-rate and especially good considering their budget price. And with Kanto being a Canadian company, they have not been it with any tariffs, so the YU is a very good value at its price of $249/pr.
Features & Technology
On the front of the YU, you’ll find a round knob that serves as a source selector and volume control. You just click it to flip between Bluetooth and the analog inputs, turn it for volume, or push and hold to power the speaker on/off. In addition to this, the YU comes with a full-function remote control. We really like the fact it has bass, treble, and balance settings on it in addition to what you would normally expect. Kanto even gives you a reset button for each setting to take it back to neutral.
The amplifier and inputs are housed in one speaker that you’ll connect up to the other one using the supplied speaker cable. To meet Kanto’s goal of a budget YU4, they eliminated the digital inputs and phono preamp. You do get an analog input, a subwoofer output, and most importantly for the majority of people, they come with Bluetooth® 4.2 with Qualcomm® aptX™. This is a high-resolution type of Bluetooth that will give you the best sound when streaming from your smartphone.
The speaker components used in the YU are one reason it sounds so good for the money. You’ll get speaker drivers typical of high-performance speakers. The tweeter is a 1” silk dome type and the 4” woofer is made of Kevlar.
To increase efficiency, the YU, like all of the Kanto YU models, has a rear-firing port. This is pretty common on most powered speakers. It does mean that where you place them can impact the sound a bit. We would not recommend putting any rear-ported speaker right against a wall or in a corner as they will get a little boomy. Move them a bit out into the room and you’ll be pleased with the sound.
The YU has an internal amplifier to power the speaker components. This type of design has a huge advantage in that the designer of the amp knows precisely what type of load the amp is going to be seeing. With this knowledge, the amplifier can be made to be a perfect match for the speakers. Every penny spent on the amp design goes into driving the speakers well rather than planning for any type of speaker situation on the market.
To us, it looks like Kanto did a great job of trimming down the YU4 to give people its same great sound with just the loss of the phono and optical inputs (and of course the multitude of color choices too).
Performance
We tried the YU on both some desktop stands and on some speaker stands for a more serious evaluation. For most people, they will probably wind up flat on a tabletop or on the stands. We do recommend (and this holds true for any desktop speaker) that you invest a bit more in a nice pair of desk stands. They will angle the speaker up, but more importantly reduce the interaction of the speaker and your desk, which in our opinion, opens up the midrange. You may wonder why this happens. Flat on a desktop the bass gets a little boomy, which to our ears, muddies up the midrange.
Bluetooth connection was quick and easy for us, so we had music playing in a matter of seconds. If you have been doing the audio hobby as long as we have, you may remember a popular speaker from about 4 decades ago. This little speaker turned the audio world on its ear for how good it sounded for so little money. That speaker was the Radio Shack Minimus 7. It was just such a good value. Sitting and listening to the YU reminded us of that speaker! The YU4, which sounds identical to the YU has always been one of our favorite little powered speakers, but when you get that sound for under $250/pr you are really getting something special.
The silk dome tweeter Kanto uses is just that, silky smooth. For its small cabinet size, the YU also produces pretty decent bass, although it is by no means the amount of bass energy you will get out of a larger cabinet with a bigger woofer. If you push the YU hard, the bass does get a little boomy compared to bigger speakers, but every speaker of this size we have heard does this.
What the YU does very well is present a big soundstage that allows you to separate out all the individual instruments and performers. They do this especially well on floor stands. Another thing that struck us is how pleasant they are to listen to at low volume levels. For a lot of people, we see them being used this way for background music while working at your desk. The sound is very smooth and sweet so you’ll be able to play them for hours without getting any fatigue.
If you do get a recording with accented bass that may be too much or one lacking in bass, this is where the tone controls on the remote will come in really handy. The fact you can fine-tune the YU to your music and/or room is pretty amazing in the price range.
It sounds to us that Kanto made the decision to go for a pure, smooth sound, rather than create something capable of filling a big room with loud sound that might not be as pure. Within their limits, these are great-sounding little speakers.
Overall Recommendation
It is hard to find a decent bookshelf speaker these days for under $250/pr, much less one that has amplifiers built-in. Don’t get us wrong, the YU is not the end-all to speakers, but for the money, it is one heck of a performer. If you are just starting to put together your first audio system and are on a budget, these must be on your list. Or if you want to improve your computer sound, they will be great there as well. Also, if you need a phono preamp and/or optical inputs, the YU4 will give you these options for a few more dollars.
