A question to Cyrus amp users...

[Vladimir]

...leaked electrolyte has been cleaned off of the PCB / tracks and the sound has come back to normal.

But what about the fact that one set of parallel terminals only, had the faulty sound

Electrolyte is conductive. Probably had a weak low current short circuit on those terminals.

 

[stereoman]

And it seems now that the culprit has been found. I have yesterday turned the amp over to take a look inside a bit - in general crystal clean...but wait a sec, what have I found ? On both sides slight electrolyte leaking has stained both circuit board printings symetrically ! Took out my freshly bought 96% Isopropyl out and gave it a clean so almost no leakage stains are left now - and sound came back to life , came back to what it should have been like. I wonder why these good caps (made for Audio) leaked a bit...I mean no so gross nasty gunk but it seems like a tiny leakage from two caps spread evenly alongside printings, dried and left this nasty residues (brown layers) but untouched anything else in surround. Nonetheless electrolyte touched anothers two small capacitors. So Cyrus 8 users you can check this out too, just in case - if your machines are spotless clean inside or some caps are playing up a bit.

Are you certain it's electrolite and not old glue that's gone conductive? I'm thinking it's likely the former since it cleaned off with alcohol and no hard scraping. Glue doesn't come off that easy.

The caps will need to be replaced, otherwise the amp is technically faulty, might get worse. If I had an amp with leaky caps I would definitely NOT use it untill fixed.

No, it's not the glue. Not the paste. As written it is a slight electrolyte leakage that went down the print routes. The caps look ok. No explosion, just a very slight staining on the circuits after the cleaning. Sound is more bassy and gained proper bias. But as said, faulty caps might explode...

 

[Gray]

...leaked electrolyte has been cleaned off of the PCB / tracks and the sound has come back to normal.

But what about the fact that one set of parallel terminals only, had the faulty sound

Electrolyte is conductive. Probably had a weak low current short circuit on those terminals.

In which case both upper and lower (parallel connected) sockets would have been equally electrically affected.

Stereoman's point all along has been that the upper and lower (parallel) sockets sounded different and now they don't? (Because he cleaned contamination off the dodgy pair?)

I reckon the discovery of leaky caps is an unrelated coincidence - but he should be glad he found them and, as you say Vlad, definitely replace them.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Whatever, it’s not a hunt to get to the absolute truth, but to try and help the original question, and I’m sure the original question was more than met with constructive help.

 

[stereoman]

Thank you guys a lot. Of course hunting for the gist is sometimes terribly hard.It is indeed capacitor leakage that changed the tone bias and sound. Works prefect now with much more balanced bassy sound, hard edgy tone is gone but as said, do not know for how long the caps will survive

 

[Gray]

Whatever, it’s not a hunt to get to the absolute truth, but to try and help the original question, and I’m sure the original question was more than met with constructive help.

The original question was, in a nutshell: My (parallel) sockets sound different. Why?

You say that the original question was more than met with constructive help.

I agree with you.

However, Stereoman seems to believe that the residue from leaky capacitors was the cause of the problem he originally described.

All I'm saying is that it is absolutely impossibe for that leakage to have caused the symptom he originally described.

Sorry if that comes accross to you as a 'hunt' to get to the absolute truth, but I quite like the truth and it's my guess that, when most people (if not you) ask a question, the truth is probably preferable to them than any alternative form of answer.

 

[nopiano]

Cyrus has these very specific hidden terminals.

That's the BFA for you, a type of touchproof terminal. In fairness to Cyrus, there's not much room to use anything else.

Your problem remains a bit of a mystery though.

Many ppl are staggered what improvement in clarity a new cable upgrade makes. The real upgrade sometimes actually is cleaning an oxidized connection by swapping the cables.

+1

 

[Vladimir]

Whatever, it’s not a hunt to get to the absolute truth, but to try and help the original question, and I’m sure the original question was more than met with constructive help.

The original question was, in a nutshell: My (parallel) sockets sound different. Why?

You say that the original question was more than met with constructive help.

I agree with you.

However, Stereoman seems to believe that the residue from leaky capacitors was the cause of the problem he originally described.

All I'm saying is that it is absolutely impossibe for that leakage to have caused the symptom he originally described.

Sorry if that comes accross to you as a 'hunt' to get to the absolute truth, but I quite like the truth and it's my guess that, when most people (if not you) ask a question, the truth is probably preferable to them than any alternative form of answer.

He said after cleaning the leaky electrolyte all terminals now sound the same, so by logic of deduction we conclude that was the issue.

I personally don't care how what sounds on a broken amplifier, let alone keep using it further and risk destroying my speakers. The capacitor is no longer filtering, its now a resistor, potentially flamable. It's only by chance it was a cap going bad that didn't throw the amp into oscilation and self destruction. Now the followup component in the circuit is taking a beating due to the faulty cap. How long before that one fails and how will this manifest?

 

[Vladimir]

Thank you guys a lot. Of course hunting for the gist is sometimes terribly hard.It is indeed capacitor leakage that changed the tone bias and sound. Works prefect now with much more balanced bassy sound, hard edgy tone is gone but as said, do not know for how long the caps will survive

The caps are dead. Están muertos. You're now waiting for fire, dead amp, dead speakers etc.

 

[stereoman]

@ the OP

You could just sell on as it is still working though morally its not a good call. You could sell on and declare the potential issue. You'd probably still get around 150 to 200 quid or you could stomp up the 300 and get it repaired, cleaned, calibrated and re-boxed at Cyrus. They will change anything else that may compromise performance including changing older parts for better performing ones plus you'll get a warranty.

Then there are third party repairers. Probably around £150 for a couple of bits if straight forward.

I guess you have to ask yourself if you want to keep or look around elsewhere.

Me, I'd go the Cyrus way if you can't repair it yourself.

It's still a good amplifier and you won't get much better (new) below a grand even today imho, though s/h the choice is larger.

I absolutely agree it's the best under a grand. I love Cyrus sound but also I know that mine simply doesn't sound right.I think I'll try to sell it on as you say and focus on searching another ones...

 

[Gray]

Whatever, it’s not a hunt to get to the absolute truth, but to try and help the original question, and I’m sure the original question was more than met with constructive help.

The original question was, in a nutshell: My (parallel) sockets sound different. Why?

You say that the original question was more than met with constructive help.

I agree with you.

However, Stereoman seems to believe that the residue from leaky capacitors was the cause of the problem he originally described.

All I'm saying is that it is absolutely impossibe for that leakage to have caused the symptom he originally described.

Sorry if that comes accross to you as a 'hunt' to get to the absolute truth, but I quite like the truth and it's my guess that, when most people (if not you) ask a question, the truth is probably preferable to them than any alternative form of answer.

He said after cleaning the leaky electrolyte all terminals now sound the same, so by logic of deduction we conclude that was the issue.

You can conclude what you like Vlad. Same goes for OP, he's happy that's the main thing.

 

[Vladimir]

You can conclude what you like Vlad. Same goes for OP, he's happy that's the main thing.

He has a broken amp. Oh the joy. *sad*

 

[drummerman]

@ the OP

You could just sell on as it is still working though morally its not a good call. You could sell on and declare the potential issue. You'd probably still get around 150 to 200 quid or you could stomp up the 300 and get it repaired, cleaned, calibrated and re-boxed at Cyrus. They will change anything else that may compromise performance including changing older parts for better performing ones plus you'll get a warranty.

Then there are third party repairers. Probably around £150 for a couple of bits if straight forward.

I guess you have to ask yourself if you want to keep or look around elsewhere.

Me, I'd go the Cyrus way if you can't repair it yourself.

It's still a good amplifier and you won't get much better (new) below a grand even today imho, though s/h the choice is larger.

 

[drummerman]

@ the OP

You could just selul on as it is still working though morally its not a good call. You could sell on and declare the potential issue. You'd probably still get around 150 to 200 quid or you could stomp up the 300 and get it repaired, cleaned, calibrated and re-boxed at Cyrus. They will change anything else that may compromise performance including changing older parts for better performing ones plus you'll get a warranty.

Then there are third party repairers. Probably around £150 for a couple of bits if straight forward.

I guess you have to ask yourself if you want to keep or look around elsewhere.

Me, I'd go the Cyrus way if you can't repair it yourself.

It's still a good amplifier and you won't get much better (new) below a grand even today imho, though s/h the choice is larger.

I absolutely agree it's the best under a grand. I love Cyrus sound but also I know that mine simply doesn't sound right.I think I'll try to sell it on as you say and focus on searching another ones...

If I was you I'd go down the Cyrus repair route. Email them saying you want all electrolytes, including the main power supply ones changed for £300. - See what they say.

Not that many in there and parts cost to them is minimal, a few quid.

That way you'll get it back nearly as new.

Let us know what they say if you choose to do it.

If you don't ask ...

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Get yourself a pre dac and stereo 200 stereoman. It’s a good combo. Check out my unofficial cyrus Facebook group if you are interested.

 

[drummerman]

Get yourself a pre dac and stereo 200 stereoman. It’s a good combo. Check out my unofficial cyrus Facebook group if you are interested. 

That's at least £2k + no?