[Review] CDPs - Cyrus vs Unico vs Minimax

CDPs - Cyrus vs Unico vs Minimax

I managed to get hold of a Unison Research Unico CD (list £1495) and a Eastern Electric Minimax CDP (list £879) to compare against my Cyrus CD8x + PSX-R ( (list £1000+£350) external power supply.

Based on my personal preferences (who elses?) I can rank them as follows:

1) Cyrus
2) Minimax
3) Unico

The Cyrus sounds warm and detailed although without tubes. Can sound a little bright with certain kinds of music. reason I am lokking to change is I want a sound closer to vinly but from redbook playback. I should mention that the Cyrus is sitting on three wooden discs with crystals inside (provided by 3Dsonics on launch of AMR kit). My subjective feeling is the player sounds warmer with them.

The Minimax was close but has a thinner sound. Very listenable though especially considering the price compared to the other two. The Minimax also has a warm sound but seems to lack some "body" or "weight" (apologies for not having right audiophile vocabulary)

The Unico was not a million miles away but is a bit "wolly" on the edges in a unpleasant way. I could not live with this level of mush.

So the Minimax and Unico go back to the suppliers and my quest continues. For information, other equipment used is Pathos TT amp and LSA2 floorstanders.

Next stop could be Lector 7T or similar. Open to suggestions but don't want to exceed circa £1800 s/h or ex-dem

 

I've heard the same Lector cd player partnered with Cyrus pre x + psxr and a pair of mono x's - not an extensive listen, but it certainly showed up the Cyrus 6 cd player we had been using before the swap. Very nice player, I suspect I could live with one myself quite happily.

 

Cross reference with technobear's advert on this very forum: Audionet ART V2 for sale.
Stunning cdp! Far outperforms my previous Cyrus cd7q+psx (regarded by many as Cyrus' finest cdp).

Well worth a listen.

 

How about Esoteric X-03 or Resolution Audio Opus 21 - Hype or real vinyl like Cd playback?

 

Why don't you try Lyngdorf CD-1:banana:

 

Been using a Lector 7T CDP for some time now. Basically a vnyl man, so CD is second on my list. All I can say is I never listened to Cd as much since the Lector entered. IMO the Mk 1 sounds BETTER than the latest rendition. A smoth and dynamic presentation. Killer bass and Mids to melt your senses. BTW it requires a good isolation platform to sound its best. If not the midbass may be a tad overblown. I use Soundfusion footers with good results.

rollo

 

Put better tubes in the minimax, a world of difference, you will hear:MILD:

 

Circumstances dictate that this little project must wait....for now the status quo