Audiophilepure

https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2025/3/3/canor-asterion-v2-tube-phono-preamplifier

In collaboration with the wonderful and relatively inexpensive Synthesis Roma 96DC + 25W Pure Class A Integrated Amplifier (reviewed next month ), its Class A tube topology only added to the smoothness of the Canor’s sound, almost luxurious. With both pieces of kit using tubes, they did not “gild the lily”. There was power and detail aplenty. High-end tube pre, power and phono for about CAD 8000.

One recording where this tube pair shone very brightly was the 2011 Speakers Corner double album reissue of the 1963 Philips original of the Sonatas for Piano and Cello by Beethoven with Mstislav Rostropovich and Sviatoslav Richter. Notice the piano receiving top billing. It’s the same with the Beethoven Violin Sonatas. The piano part, often just an accompaniment, is an equal musical partner to the melodic line of the cello. And the performance, with two artists of equal stature, bears that out. The superior imaging and soundstage of this remastering puts the listener in an expensive stalls seat—my wife and I during late-night listening were enthralled with Rostropovich’s beautiful tone highlighted by the Canor’s ability to replicate natural timbres.

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