Canor Hyperion P1 Preamplifier Review by Stereophile

Just when I thought my equipment reviewing schedule was locked in for many months, an unavoidable last-minute cancellation sent me scrambling for an alternative.

Jim Austin to the rescue. To his query, “How would you like to review a tube preamp from Canor, of Slovakia?” I answered with an enthusiastic “yes!”

In addition to the exciting prospect of reviewing the first tubed preamplifier to come my way in a long time, hearing the Canor Hyperion P1 preamplifier ($12,500) in my system would enable me to get a handle on the sound of gear I’d only encountered once, at High End Munich 2024 (footnote 1). As is often the case at shows, I left without a clear sense of the preamp’s contribution to the system’s sound, let alone its ultimate potential.

The Canor Hyperion P1’s price is far lower than that of my two reference, solid state preamps, the Soulution 727 ($74,975) and the Dan D’Agostino Relentless ($150,000). Because of the huge price discrepancies, this was a review where it only made sense to explore the sound of the gear at hand without comparing it to gear with a heftier price tag.

A brief history

Canor was established in Slovakia in 1995, a mere two years after the separation of Czechoslovakia. Although Canor has designed its own equipment since day one, the Canor brand took a back seat to the company’s primary role as an OEM/ODM (Original Equipment Manufacturer/Original Design Manufacturer), anonymously designing and producing equipment for other brands (footnote 2). The company first began to seriously market equipment under the Canor name in 2020. Five years later, Canor products are distributed in at least 30 countries; US distribution is handled by Scott Bierfeldt’s New Jersey–based Verdant Audio.

Canor currently employs 80 people, including 15 engineers, and occupies a facility of more than 86,000ft2 that includes an anechoic chamber, CNC machines, and equipment for PCB assembly and for anodizing, sandblasting, and brushing metal. Canor launched an enhanced version of its first amplifier, as well as some new lower-level products, at High End Munich 2025.

To learn more, I scheduled a Teams chat with Bierfeldt, Sales and Marketing Director Ivan Bosnovic, and chief engineer/designer Zdenek Brezovjak. Brezovjak is one of the company’s three highly engaged owners (footnote 3), all of whom remain with the company after three decades in business.

Most Canor products use tubes. Abetted by their own Aladdin I and Aladdin II tube-testing devices, the company measures multiple tube parameters before assigning an individual ID number to each tube. All tubes are burned in, again on proprietary devices, for 200 hours; this allows them to stabilize before they are measured, selected, and paired. Canor stores all measurements and identifying parameters to enable precise tube matching down the road.

The company applies what they call “Canor PCB Milling Technology” (CMT) to the production of printed circuit boards (PCBs). Bosnovic said, “Our PCB methodology achieves excellent parameters that can be equaled by wire-to-wire connections only by using very expensive high-quality wires with Teflon insulation. However, our new technology has the advantage of repeatability in production, with a 100% identical geometric arrangement, which is not possible with wire-to-wire connections. In addition, our advantage is that the signal paths are several times shorter than it is possible to achieve wire-to-wire.”

What it is

The Hyperion P1 is Canor’s top-of-the-line, class-A reference tube preamp. Launched in December 2022, it’s the intended partner and a good match for the Canor Virtus M1 reference monoblocks ($30,000/pair). Among the Hyperion P1’s key selling points are a zero global feedback design that uses four 6922 and two 6H30PI tubes. Its 64-step balanced attenuator adjusts volume in 1dB increments and is galvanically separated from other parts of the preamp via an aluminum box with walls 10mm thick. Antivibration columns support the attenuator and the electronics.

With Bosnovic acting as translator, Brezovjak said that he is a violinist and wind player whose father taught and played cello and bass. His goal, he said, is to create equipment that reproduces the sound of real acoustic instruments making real music in a natural way.

Tube rolling is a popular activity among audiophiles, but Canor’s position on the subject is … nuanced. Bosnovic said that “customers are free to roll the tubes we select, which are predominantly from Electro-Harmonix.” He noted, however, that because Canor “precisely burns in, tests, selects, and pairs” the tubes in each unit, the advantages of tube rolling are likely to be “questionable. Ultimately, it’s very subjective.”

Bierfeldt elaborated. “I have a nice stockpile of expensive tubes, but I have not been able to beat Canor’s choices. I’ve had customers try the same thing. They typically return to the originals and are always a little dumbfounded” that the original tubes do as well as they do. “That’s because Canor’s tube matching is precise and done only after 200 hours of burn-in, which allows them to stabilize. A really narrow match makes a huge difference.”

Bierfeldt expects the tubes in the P1 to last for at least 4000 hours of playback. He’d used the Canor P1 I reviewed almost constantly for three years, and the tubes still measured at 85% of tube life.

How it looks, how it sat

I find the Canor Hyperion P1’s design aesthetic, which includes a large, centrally located front-panel volume knob distinguished by a yellow-illumined Canor logo and surrounded by yellow light, visually appealing. I appreciate the large LED input and volume readout on the right of the front panel, the bright horizontal strip that extends across its middle, and the visually balanced location of the push buttons that control power on/standby, input choice illumination, mute, and fixed or variable output. I also like the placement of the top’s five air holes and the attractively designed air slots. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but this beholder’s eyes were happy to gaze on the illumined P1 each time I entered the music room.

The rear panel is the epitome of neatness and clarity, with four pairs of XLR (balanced) inputs and five pairs of RCA (single-ended) inputs; one pair of each can be set to “FIX.OUT” via that front-panel button. For outputs, the P1 offers two pairs of XLR and one pair RCA. Twelve volt trigger outputs (which I did not use) and a three-prong IEC power inlet with fuse holder complete the picture.

Footnote 1: See. Julie Mullins encountered Canor at AXPONA 2022. Robert Schryer heard some of their equipment a month later at Montreal Audio Fest 2022.

Footnote 2: For an introduction to Canor, see youtube.com/watch?v=ibGUSenKbHA.

Footnote 3: Jan Kosco handles mechanical design and finances, and Jozef Curlik oversees production and machinery. All three men have been with the company since its inception.

The Hyperion P1 arrived with its four 6922 tubes already in place. To prepare it for use, I employed a special tool (included in the box) to remove the 10 screws that fasten its top to the rest of its chassis. After carefully removing the top, I inserted the two 6H30PI tubes into their prescribed sockets. To ensure correct positioning, Bierfeldt had labeled both the tube sockets and the protective bubble wrap surrounding those tubes “1” and “2.”

To replace the cover, I had to surmount two minor challenges: setting it in place without pinching fingers and lining up the screw holes. Most of us have been through such things before and survived unscathed. As long as you’re not fielding texts, watching YouTube videos, or struggling to keep your pet(s) or child(ren) quiet and at a distance, you, too, should make it through safely.

That chore complete, I placed the Hyperion P1 atop Wilson Audio Pedestals on the left top of my Grand Prix Monza double rack. To its right sat the Display and Core of the superb and far more expensive five-piece dCS Varèse Digital Music System, collectively a streaming DAC. The data source was files—either streamed through or stored on an Innuos Statement Next-Gen streamer-server outfitted with ultrarevealing upgraded umbilical cables. Speakers were the trusty Wilson Alexia Vs with LōKē subwoofers. The two XLR outputs allowed me to send the P1’s output to the monoblocks (then on to the main speakers) and the subwoofers.

All front-end components received regulated battery power from a Stromtank S-4000 MKII XT power generator; the D’Agostino Momentum M400 MxV monoblocks got their kick direct from the wall. Cabling, which included XLRs to the balanced D’Agostinos, was a mix of Nordost Odin II and Valhalla II, AudioQuest Dragon and Firebird.

Most Canor Hyperion P1 preamplifier owners will pair it with less pricey equipment. My reference setup is not an obvious match, but it allowed me to hear and determine the best that the Canor Hyperion P1 is capable of.

How it sounded

The Canor Hyperion P1 performed flawlessly during the review period, with no buzz or hum. What did not operate flawlessly was this reviewer. During one of my listening sessions with a friend, I inadvertently buried the small remote under the triple layer of plywood slab, cushioning, and special back support that prevents me from sinking into our vintage couches. Before I even discovered it missing, I had sat on it. By the time a replacement arrived via expedited shipping, I’d grown accustomed to adjusting volume by hand.

In almost the same amount of time it took my tuchus to wreck the remote control, the Hyperion P1 distinguished itself with one of the airiest and widest soundstages that any preamp has delivered in my music room. I listened to Kristian Bezuidenhout and Freiburger Barockorchester’s period instrument recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos.19 and 23 (24/96 WAV download, Harmonia Mundi) and Isabelle Faust and Les Siècles’ extremely detailed recording of the Ligeti Violin Concerto, conducted by François-Xavier Roth on Ligeti: Violin, Piano & Românesc Concertos (24/96 WAV download, Harmonia Mundi). On both recordings, both the solo instruments and orchestra were set back and spread deliciously wide, with significant air around solo instruments. The effect was captivating. The openness and depth made me want to listen more.

There’s a mystery to the Hyperion P1’s sound that will draw many listeners in. If you want to hear what it can do with a recording whose spaciousness is superb to begin with, marvel at any track on Morten Lindberg’s recently released Stjernebru with The Norwegian Girls Choir (Det Norske Jentekor) (24/352.8 FLAC download, 2L). For another airy goodie, listen to Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, & Harp, recorded in the remarkably spacious, deep, and resonant Salle Colonne in Paris, on Debussy: Sonates & Trio (24/96 WAV download, Erato). Emmanuel Pahud, Gérard Caussé, and Marie-Pierre Langlamet wonderfully perform this masterpiece, composed three years before Debussy’s death.

Timbres were neutral and true, and the midrange was quite beautiful, albeit with colors less bold than with some gear. Given that my room is prone to brightness, I enjoyed the fact that the P1 takes a soft and gentle approach to the top octaves. This treble reticence will prove a benefit in many systems.

This is a fine place to acknowledge that although I made no direct comparisons in this review, my ears have been conditioned by a reference system featuring expensive, solid state preamplifiers. This should be kept in mind in considering this review of a much less expensive (though hardly inexpensive) preamplifier that uses tubes.

I spent quite some time using the Hyperion P1 to review Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith’s boundary-challenging new recording Defiant Life (24/96 WAV, ECM/download). The sense of space was marvelous, the air tremendous. The Hyperion P1 wasn’t the fastest preamp—its “snap” is of the gentle sort—but it’s certainly one of the most listenable and nonfatiguing I’ve enjoyed in my music room.

I also used the Hyperion P1 to review baritone Benjamin Appl’s fascinating Lines of Life: Schubert and Kurtág (24/96 WAV, Alpha/ download). Initial attacks were a bit blunted, and the cores of tones were a mite blanched. Bottom octaves were extended but less than precisely focused. On two of my friend Scott Campbell’s favorites, The Modern Jazz Quartet’s rendition of John Lewis’s “Place Vendôme,” from the remastered version of their album Pyramid (16/44.1 FLAC, RevOla/Tidal), and the title track from the Remastered 2007/Rudy Van Gelder Edition of Ike Quebec’s Blue & Sentimental (24/192 FLAC, Blue Note Records/Qobuz), bass pitch was a mite hard to discern.

This characteristic affected the low notes of the piano on another reference, the title track on Grant Green’s Idle Moments (24/192 FLAC, Blue Note Records/Qobuz). But while edges were a bit blunted, the Hyperion P1’s airy, laid-back quality ultimately enhanced the realization of Green’s musical intentions.

This effect, which to me seemed paradoxical, worked to the advantage of other recordings as well. Returning to Kristian Bezuidenhout and Freiburger Barockorchester’s tangy, period-instrument renditions on Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos.19 & 23, the copious delight of No.19’s first movement came through in spades. Ultimately, the music’s joyful warmth was enhanced by the P1’s gift of air and space. The Hyperion P1 may not have conveyed dynamic contrasts in big pieces recorded in high resolution, such as a superbly recorded Mahler symphony, or the subtle changes in volume and nuance on a close-miked recording of a chanteuse, but its marvelous sense of air and space and its ease on top frequently trumped other concerns.

Conclusion

Every piece of gear—like every artist and every performance—offers a different window on truth. We rarely get to have it all. Yet if we choose carefully, we can end up so satisfied that, instead of searching and searching some more, we can sit back in our easy chairs, survey the beauty that’s before us, and rest, content to breathe it all in.

Such was my experience with the Canor Hyperion P1. Time and again, I sat still in my listening room and marveled at how easy it was to enjoy music. Highs were smooth, and music was graced with such a profound sense of air and spaciousness that it elicited smile after smile. My auditions took place in early spring, but Gershwin’s line, “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy,” perfectly describes the Hyperion P1’s many gifts.