Quest for a better place...

I have a Cyrus CD8x CD player and a Cyrus 8vs Amp +PSX-R power supply. These are connected by Chord SIlver IC. speakers are a pair of Monitor Audi Silver 9i's bi-wired with QED Silver Anniversary.

I want better sound - more detail and better soundstage

Any advice on what equipment I should be looking at?

There are so many brands listed here that I havn't even heard of.

Any advice gratefully received.

 

Try the Monitor Audio Gold series. They are a large step ahead of the Silver IMO.

 

a choice: do more Cyrus vs get out of Cryus.

what's you budget, and are you prepared to do the not-Cyrus route?

 

On what basis did you buy the kit you've got?

 

Am prepared to get out of Cyrus as I believe the Cyrus upgrades do not give significant improvements having auditioned them (DAC XP + 2 mono x power amps)

Questions I really need to answer are
1) are the speakers limiting the Cyrus set-up
2) is the Cyreus equipement the limiting factor
3) are they both a load of c**p

Budget for new hi-fi would be in the 2k to 3k range

 

are you prepared to go s/h?

 

I auditioned them using the speakers I already had ( Monitor audio silver 9i). ALso auditioned the Musical Fidelity A3 series CD player and Amp and Arcam FMJ series.

With the speakers the Cyrus stuff sounded the best but I have this nagging feeling that I could have done much better for the money (Cyrus CD player £1000, amp £800, PSX-R £400).

Am prepared to shift the Cyrus stuff on ebay or other means.

 

Yep.

 

I declare this arena open!!

 

I think the Cyrus stuff is pretty good. Not the best for the money but not at all bad. Have an audition of speakers first.

 

Any idea what speakers go well with the Cyrus kit - I've heard Spendor, Dynaaudio and Monitor Audio are usually mentioned in this context.

If the speakers are the issue it would be a less painful to fix - wouldn't have to carry speakers to demo rooms!!

 

Budget?

 

Between 1200-1500

 

Hmm..

Well you could take a look at the MA Gold Reference stuff as I said earlier. Dali are very good. LSA 2 spekaers have a very differnt sound but are also nice.

Or, why don't you sell off the Cyrus amp and buy my PMC AML1 active speakers? I had them for sale but took them off due to, mainly chickening out of selling them lol! All you would need is a good pre-amp. I was using a Django passive pre to very good effect. I was selling them for £2.2K why not come and have a listen? They will poop on most things, even a lot of floorstanders in the bass department.

 

amp next IMO, and then speakers.

taste is subjective.

I would buy a big valve amp.
my second choice would be a big class 'A' solid state amp
my third choice a big digital amp.

In all 3 cases a lot more current will really get your speakers moving.

Then, when you get new speakers one day, you will have something with enough welly to show what they can do.

a nice valve amp like this:
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstube&1146374499

a big class 'a' amp like this:
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1146917787

a digital amp like this:
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1146548671


you'd need a pre-amp
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0503/easternelectric.htm

 

personally, I tackled the front end first, with focus on the dac for detail, then the amp, avoiding valve (for no good reasons) lusting after class A heaters (which at this lattitude may have been understanable) and settling on a digital amp much like that in the URL above. my choice of dac meant that I didn't need a pre-amp.

I have never owned Cyrus though I have listened in shops and decided that they were too 'hifi'

 

What do you mean by "too hi-fi"?

 

its a taste thing. I like to be seduced by music, and I came away from the demo feeling as though I had been assaulted by a system rather than having 'been there'. When you speak of wanting more detail and soundstage, perhaps you are also hankering after something similar. IMO, I looked to the dac for that first, and then wanted an amp with the power& neutrality to play/grip the speakers. So when that horn sounds, and the double bass is plucked, I can make believe it has come from right back - which is odd sometimes as I know that the particular musician may now be dead - but that's time travel for you ;-)

 

I agree getting a dac with a built in volume control is a good way of bypassing the need for a pre-amp if you only have CD as a source.

 

I had an all cyrus system fully PSX-r'd up, with JMLab Electra 907Be speakers. It was quite good. My father in law then bought a Creek CD/Sugden A21a/JMLab Electra 906 setup for about 3/5 the cost of mine and it blew it away, the music was so much more involving it was untrue. I sold all the Cyrus stuff and got Accuphase eventually, although I still have a CD6 in the bedroom.
IMO, sell the Cyrus boxes (I got more for the PSX-R on E-Bay than I paid 12 months earlier!!) and have a look at a second hand Creek/Sugden combo.