Calling all Cyrus Owners....what should I spend, and on what?

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Cyrus experts.

If you owned a DAC XP, Mono x (2), CDXTSE, 2 PSXR-S....How much would you spend on interconnects, cables and Speakers?, and which ones would you get?

Can this set up justify 3k speakers or more? and if so which ones?

I like the look of mains cables, Clearer Audio copper line. Townshend cables and interconnects. Do these suit Cyrus and if so what speakers?

Cheers for your help
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
It also depends on how big your room is, the furnishings in there (acoustics), what you like listening to and whether you like you music very detailed (as the Cyrus kit above would produce)....

Anyway, some food for thought:

Speakers - fairly "neutral" speakers - Spendors (A6?) and PMC (FB1i?) partner Cyrus kit very well, you can easily spend at least £2K here, demo some. Spendors and PMC are not too fussy about placement and are fairly easy to place especially if you do not have a big space.

Interconnects - depending on the sound you like - Chord (Chameleon Silver Plus upwards), Missing Link (Cryo Reference £££!!). Budget of say £400 to £600?

Speaker cables - again depending on the sound you like - Chord Odyssey 4 upwards, Kimber 8TC. Budget of about £400 to £500?depending on cable length

I tried Cyrus's own interconnects and speaker cable but didn't like them.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Thanks for the info, just one other question when spending £6500 on amplification, CD, Powers supply's - is 2k enough to make full use of this?

Or should you spend more to make use?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
If I split your DAC XP as £1300 for the DAC and £1000 for the Preampo stage, then your source is CDXTSE + DAC = about £2.3K

Amplification is Preamp + 2 x Mono Xs = about £3.5K

Power supplies are set aside.

So spending about £2K on speakers and possibly another £1K on lovely interconnects + speaker cables would give you a balanced system if you want to check it by amounts of £££ spent. Speakers will only sing if you have a good source (which you definitely have) and you feed the speakers by using good interconnects and cables. But the crucial part is listening to what suits you.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Also consider what active loudspeakers could be bought for the £3k budget plus value of MonoX and cables, giving you almost £6k.

ADAM Audio? ATC?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
stew31:

Can this set up justify 3k speakers or more? and if so which ones?

Certainly I would have thought, since it contains a state of the art CD transport and superb DAC and amps.

Try the Spendor A6 first as this may be enough. The the Dynaudios - maybe the largest Focus model.

I've been very impressed with Merlin interconnects which seem to provide Chord levels of performance at a lot less cost.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I think those electronics could justify these sort of speakers:

http://whathifi.com/Review/Dynaudio-Confidence-C1/

http://whathifi.com/Review/Neat-Ultimatum-MFS/

Demo in the shop... choose which you like best.

When you get them home run them in for at least 72 hours with cables the dealer has lent you. Then start fine tuning by trying different speaker cables depending on you room and ears, i'd be thinking along the lines of Chord Epic & Kimber 8TC.

jules.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I can highly recommend Dynaudio and Townshend Isolda speaker cable. Personally I don't like Chord cables in my set up. As others have mentioned take a look at Spendor, PMC and also look into ATC speakers. You might also want to check out the cyrusunofficial.co.uk forums, plenty of knowledgeable Cyrus folk on there.

Forgot to mention look into Missing Link cables for your interconnects, very highly recommended by many Cyrus users.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Cheers Ian,

Just the info I was looking for, the Isolda speaker cable looks to be good but also expensive for bi-amping with the Mono x's it will cost nearly a grand for 4 x 3m lengths....is it worth this price when setting up with 2k speakers , I think Spendor A6, pmc FB1i, Dynaudio Exite X32? - Do you think this cable will suit Cyrus with all 3 of these?

I have been looking at Missing Link this morning, and they seem to have good reviews, I think I will end up with either Missing Link interconnects or stay with Townshend with all cabling, the DCT300 Interconnect looks particularly good...
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Sorry didn't realise you had 4 mono X which is what you'll need to bi amp mono X. Depending on the speakers you choose you may not be able to bi amp/bi wire and those that can be may not benefit much from doing so. If you just want to bi wire and not bi amp you could speak to Townshend and ask them to make you some Isolda jumpers. Going the jumper route will work out much cheaper and probably give you a similar/better effect to bi wiring.

It might be worth considering a second hand pair of Isoldas, I recently paid £250 for a 3m pair. Compared to the Chord Rumour 4 I was using the Isolda are much better suited to Cyrus IMO, much better controlled deeper bass and much smoother mid/top end but with no loss of detail.

I'm tempted in trying the DCT300 myself but for now I'm sticking with my missing link interconnects. If I do try the DCT's I'd go for the balanced version as this apparently extracts a little more performance from the Cyrus kit.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Ian,

Just got back in the game and am a bit thick.....thought you could bi-amp with 2 mono-x. Each mono x has 2 black & 2 red at the back therefore each amp can drive the bass for one speaker, and the same for the mid-range & treble on each speaker. Is this not bi-amping?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
If you are using 2 Mono Xs only, then you are doing what some people call "mono-biwiring" - with each amp driving each speaker's high and low frequenices. To properly "bi-amp" a speaker using Mono Xs, you will need two amps per speaker to drive the high and low frequencies separately. Hence Ian thought you had 4 Mono Xs. Hope this clears things up.

To confuse matters more, the Spendor A6s only have two binding posts per speaker as the manufacture does not believe bi-wiring is necessary due to "excellent" cross over circuit therein.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Glad both yourself and Ian are online today,

Do you both "Mono Bi-wire" since you both have 2 Mono x's ?. Can you tell me if the PMC FB1's will be " mono bi-wirable "?.

Is this the best way run run the mono x's in tandem?, or is there an alternative way?.

Thanks

Stew
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
You are welcome Stew, always glad to help a fellow Cyrus user. The PMC FB1i is biwirable/biampable (is there just a word?), see here http://www.pmc-speakers.com/productCats.php?mode=productCats&cid=4

I like the PMCs when I demo them - very neutral and big sound stage, but liked the Spendors S6e better - just sounds letter to my ears. Neither is bass heavy, and you may or may not like them, that is why I asked you earlier what music you listen to and size of room etc.

I have two X Powers (switched to mono mode) and I have them in mono-biwiring configuration. I have also tried vertical bi-amping and horizontal biamping but prefer them in mono biwire mode! Different configurations give different "sounds" and suit different types of music..... Too complicated to explain in a post but suggest you do a search on http://www.cyrusunofficial.co.uk/ and search for my user name (akl) which should lead you to some posts about amp configurations etc.

I do not believe you can run 2 Mono-Xs any other way except by driving one speaker each, hence I prefer my X-Powers because I can switch them to stereo mode and try other configurations as the mood takes me.
 

Gerrardasnails

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Sep 6, 2007
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AKL:
You are welcome Stew, always glad to help a fellow Cyrus user. The PMC FB1i is biwirable/biampable (is there just a word?), see here http://www.pmc-speakers.com/productCats.php?mode=productCats&cid=4

I like the PMCs when I demo them - very neutral and big sound stage, but liked the Spendors S6e better - just sounds letter to my ears. Neither is bass heavy, and you may or may not like them, that is why I asked you earlier what music you listen to and size of room etc.

I have two X Powers (switched to mono mode) and I have them in mono-biwiring configuration. I have also tried vertical bi-amping and horizontal biamping but prefer them in mono biwire mode! Different configurations give different "sounds" and suit different types of music..... Too complicated to explain in a post but suggest you do a search on http://www.cyrusunofficial.co.uk/ and search for my user name (akl) which should lead you to some posts about amp configurations etc.

I do not believe you can run 2 Mono-Xs any other way except by driving one speaker each, hence I prefer my X-Powers because I can switch them to stereo mode and try other configurations as the mood takes me.

AKL, just seen your set up - do you use a cd player or do you stream to the DM only? Are you happy with the little box of tricks?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Thanks for the links,

I'm into Indie, Dance & Rock. Like a big soundstage with a tight bass, but love to hear the detail come through aswell which I hope will be helped by the DCT300, and Isolda. Room is still undecided, either 18ftx13ft or 27ftx11ft.

This will sound strange to all hi fi lovers but try and bare with me. I like to do all my research online and not demo....WHAT???????, because at the moment I am picking up piece by piece and the various components are sat on my dining room floor...The reason for this is for pure excitement and newness ( a word ?), and the surprise element on the first listen...

If I know people have similar set ups and are pleased then it should be ok..... I know the cyrus sound as I have heard it before and wanted it 10 years ago when I had the Roksan, Copland, Sonus set up...

Crazy?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Gerrardasnails: AKL, just seen your set up - do you use a cd player or do you stream to the DM only? Are you happy with the little box of tricks?

Not with my Cyrus kit, I compared a mate's CD6SE (£900?) with my laptop/AE/DACMagic and neither of us could really say which is better so no more CDP for me!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
stew31:Thanks for the links, I'm into Indie, Dance & Rock. Like a big soundstage with a tight bass, but love to hear the detail come through aswell which I hope will be helped by the DCT300, and Isolda. Room is still undecided, either 18ftx13ft or 27ftx11ft. This will sound strange to all hi fi lovers but try and bare with me. I like to do all my research online and not demo....WHAT???????, because at the moment I am picking up piece by piece and the various components are sat on my dining room floor...The reason for this is for pure excitement and newness ( a word ?), and the surprise element on the first listen... If I know people have similar set ups and are pleased then it should be ok..... I know the cyrus sound as I have heard it before and wanted it 10 years ago when I had the Roksan, Copland, Sonus set up... Crazy?

Not crazy at all, I spent £4,000 on my Audiolab system and various cables and accessories 10 years ago on nothing more than What Hi Fi's reviews!! I bet you are looking forward to the completion of the system, early birthday/Easter/Christmas all rolled into one
emotion-5.gif
. I have no doubt you will end up with a fabulous system and you may well be surprised (pleasantly or otherwise!!) by the amount of detail that comes through.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Few people seem to bi-wire with the mono-xs and even fewer bi-amp. The amps should be pwerful enough to drive all but the most extravagant speakers.

Also as far as I know the spendor A6 only allows for single wiring.

This is all good news as it means you can spend more on better cables.

Btw, I enjoy the Isolda speaker cable and interconnects in my setup. Its possible to save a fortune if buying on ebay or from a forum (50%) and it means that if you are not happy with the sound you should be able to swap for something different without huge depreciation.
 

Gerrardasnails

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Sep 6, 2007
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AKL:
Gerrardasnails: AKL, just seen your set up - do you use a cd player or do you stream to the DM only? Are you happy with the little box of tricks?

Not with my Cyrus kit, I compared a mate's CD6SE (£900?) with my laptop/AE/DACMagic and neither of us could really say which is better so no more CDP for me!

I do think that when used with lossless files, the DacMagic can live with some very good equipment - your system is testament to that.
 

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