curus x power/ pre dac or 8 dac?

lpv

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Mar 14, 2013
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hi all...

i have a chance to upgrade my fairly new system.. thinking about cyrus, open to other suggestions... budget around £2000

is there's audible difference between x power and pre dac compared to 8 dac? there's defo difference in price..

with amp/ pre amp combo i'm able to add another x power in the future.. but if 8 dac sounds good enough why spend more?

i will run cyrus on my current speakers kef q300 but have in mind ( as future upgrade) atc scm 19...

my main and only source of music is macbook

i understand that audition is a must but how different cyrus sounds compared to quite cheap marantz amp/ arcam rdac combo?
 

paudra

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Mar 21, 2010
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I have just been through very similar quandary.

I had the 8DAC with a CD-T first running test KEF R900's and MA GX300's and it was good but not great. I then demo'ed a X Power with the 8DAC - thus bi-amping and bi-wiring (X Power LF & 8DAC HF) this improved the sound but was not quite enough. I then moved to the Mono X 200's running from the 8DAC and this was great and once I down sized the speakers to the R700's I was a happy man.

In my opinion, the Cyrus and KEF combo is a good match but I had an 8DAC as a starting point and will look to upgrade this in time with the Qx DAC Module. I did not get to trail 2 X Power in Mono mode so cannot comment on this.

To answer your dilema, the 8DAC is great starting point for a Cyrus system and personally, I would start with this and put the remainder into a fund for the upgrade for the Mono's in the future as this is what I have done and love it.

In reagrds to other options, check out the Leema Elements Intergrated Amp.
 

BronC

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Jun 26, 2010
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I would strongly recommend looking at the 2nd hand market and getting a DAC-XP+ (Cyrus top DAC & Pre-amp) and an X-power. This should come to under £2k.

When you can afford to sell the x-power (which does keep its value if you bought it second hand) and buy a used pair of Mono-X's. The Mono-X is a huge step up from the x-power and will see you OK for a long while
 

kmlav

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Jun 28, 2009
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There is defiantly a huge difference between the x power and pre dac over the 8 dac, get down to your local store and I'm sure you will be able to get a home demo.

In my experience it is fairly easy to get 10% off in a good hi fi store which would bring the pre dac and x power into your budget, or just go second had road as someone else has suggested.

When you get your x power you will probably want to save up for some new speakers but after that you can add in a second x power which will give you an awesome set up. I ended up adding power supplies to the xpowers which give them added power and in the interst of avoiding what hi fi cliches makes them sound better. You could of course ultimately sell them and get mono x but I loved the sound so much and they gave me so much enjoyment I could not bear to see them go. My plan is to move the x powers to power the rear L&R speakers and add in mono 300 for the front L&R and centre but there is a fair bit of saving up that needs to take place first!

Also it's easy to get carried away with hi fi but in my view the pre dac QX is well worth the £250 over the pre dac. You could of course add this latter but I think you will end up wishing you had got it from the beginning.
 

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