"The tint in modern headlights comes from high-intensity discharge xenon gas and LED technologies operating at 5'000-6'500 Kelvin. They produce a crisp white light that appears blueish to the eye due to the spectral output of xenon gas or blue LED chips unlike the warmer yellow light of older halogen bulbs operating at 3'000 Kelvin." That was key to my €5K GoldNote integrated vs €5.3K Canor stack offset; how Dazzle diverged from Virtus. The Italian amp ran virtual xenon headlights for that signature bluish cooler tint. My Mosfet rides emitted yellow halogen. Dazzle's just ran higher Kelvin for more across-the-board brightness. As soon as our I4S profiling shifts from tonal balance to virtual lighting, I happily sign on the dotted line of 'warmth'. When Google can call yellow light warm, so can I. You appreciate the difference against my earlier litany of tubular misgivings. None of them figured. Given Dazzle's tariff, what did was Canor's attractively slim € figure. Dimming Dazzle's lights of very high resolution a bit to save nearly €5K whilst a smaller engine won't accelerate quite as hard on dynamic crests is a fine bargain. It's the same flavor, just not as concentrated.
As a brand buttressed by busy OEM building which does its own numbers without internal sales & marketing yet keeps a vertical infrastructure humming, Canor's own gear strikes me as being unusually loaded for genuine EU production and dealer not direct sales. 'Loaded' means advanced engineering/finishing which elsewhere ask more because they don't run parallel production for other marques to co-fund operational expenses. I also suspect that it affords them lengthier R&D cycles for their own products. It would explain why it drops this finely formed from packaging to user manuals, custom remote, materials, execution, features and sound. Whilst it's nearly cliché to call China's FiiO a high-value house, with their EU providence and higher league, Canor too strike me as offering great value: for luxury in the mid sector. Maturity of design and execution extends to the sonic profile of these first two Foundation Series models. It isn't flashy to clinch a quickie audition on the sales floor. It doesn't hype resolution or its opposite—what Danes call hygge, Germans Gemütlichkeit. It sits in the middle slightly to the latter side. This caters to immersion with high not extreme insight. It completely sidesteps the hunt for easily outed demerits. There aren't any. The core tuning is warmer yellow lighting. That's no heat of fireside romance; just a far friendlier approach than oncoming nocturnal xenon headlights causing retina sear and curses.
Of these two, the Virtus I4S strikes me as primus inter pares—first amongst equals. Blame Gertrude Stein's infamous rose? Perhaps. A single-pair push/pull Mosfet amp without degeneration resistors is simply rarer than yet another Sabre DAC no matter how well implemented. A ball-bearing master controller with integral touch screen, flexible HT function and RCA pre-outs to a subwoofer are the chocolate shavings on our makovník. Whilst a Parisian éclair seems ritzier, a classic Slovak poppy-seed roll is more nutritious and filling. That strikes me as a solid stand-in for today's duo: honest full-featured classics in suitably modern dress code; quiet luxury in upscale hifi's lower mid sector. For many, this kit should go well beyond foundational if the term implies that which one begins with. I could happily stop with it and positively loved the understated lowrider concept. Compliments to team Canor for kicking off their new range this nicely!
What about headfi? -36dB on incoming 5Vrms XLR rocketed HifiMan's HE1000 Unveiled into orbit. With banger reserves to spare, the Virtus I4S will do justice to all but the most verkackte loads. Anyone owning such already has a posh standalone headphone amp of at least 6 watts into 32Ω. My FangSound Dionysus does 40wpc. That's splurging. For normal not special ops, this Canor has the requisite drive and sophistication. As I said—nicely done.
