Phono Preamplifiers

Take A Seat
Changing from the ELAC Miracord 90 Anniversary to an EISA Award-winning Pro-Ject X2 B with MC9 cartridge, I was treated to more serious late-night vibes when spinning Songs For The Cosmic Sofa [Milan 19658870761], a collection of tunes created by Japanese jazz composer Yoko Kanno and played by ad hoc grouping The Seatbelts.

I will stress here that I hooked up the X2 B turntable single-ended to Canor’s phono preamp, selecting the unit’s MC1 mode and a load of 300ohm. First out of necessity, as the requisite cable to connect the 5-pin mini-XLR output (which Pro-Ject is now providing on most of its decks) to the XLR inputs on the Asterion V2 was missing in action.

This turned out to be fortuitous, as the result was excellent as it stood, and PM’s Lab Report [opposite] indicated the single-ended/lower gain route would be the better choice with this cartridge anyway. And when a replacement Pro-Ject Connect it Phono DS cable was eventually delivered, I still preferred the single-ended connection for its more fluid sound and natural high-frequency detail.

Anyway, the tunes on ...Cosmic Sofa were originally created for the milestone anime series Cowboy Bebop – not the derivative Netflix version – but Kanno re-recorded them last year for this vinyl release. ‘The Real Folk Blues’ made for especially satisfying listening, the Asterion V2 giving the carefully plucked guitar plenty of presence just as A-Sha Mai Yamane’s crooning was both gritty and packed with emotion. Yet what really stood out – and pardon the audiophile cliché – was the black background, testament to the vanishingly low noise of the Asterion V2 and to the Pick it MC9’s tracking prowess.

Success Story
When this rare vocal track segued to the dub-infused ‘Pot City’, the lazy, drugged-out feel of the song lay like a thick blanket over the room, proving the Asterion V2’s ability to switch seamlessly from one style to another, its inherent qualities of balance and detail shining through – with vinyl, success is down to the sum of the entire source-chain, so it’s reassuring to know that Canor’s phono amp will always be one of the strongest links in your system.

Hi-Fi News Verdict
Offering excellent build quality, extensive loading options and impressively low noise, the Asterion V2 is a phono preamplifier capable of delivering all of the detail and dynamics your vinyl and cartridge have on offer. In practice, it really comes into its own with moving-magnet cartridges and MC’s connected single-ended, illustrating why tubes are still the first choice of many demanding vinylistas.

Sound Quality: 84%