Cyrus 8XPd - Headphone connection is Terrible!

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So, my brand new Cyrus 8XPd amp arrived yesterday. I have not yet purchased the speakers for the hi-fi system, so in their absence I connected my Bose headphones to the amp...

... and the sound was terrible. There was a very noticeable hum or interference when listening at low volumes. It is similar to the sound you get if you connect headphones to a very poor/noisy headphone connection on an old cheap computer. This was the same for a range of input components. I tested it with a Tacima CS929 so it is not the mains power supply that is causing the issue.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is this a fault with my amp or is the Cyrus 8XPd headphone amp generally just poor!?? I get a cleaner sound when connecting my headphones to my ipod, computer, squeezebox and cheap sony hi-fi system.

I know what hi-fi have reviewed this amp so any comments with those involved would be great!

Thanks for your advice
 
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Anonymous

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Andrew Everard:Your description of the sound suggests there's a fault in the headphone stage of the amp you have.

Must be. Thanks for the reply. As there are no local Cyrus dealers I had to get the amp posted over. This just makes the whole return process a bit more painful. I'll let you know how I get on.
 
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Anonymous

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I contacted Cyrus and two weeks later a brand new Cyrus 8 XPd QX arrives. with the same problem!

When you use the headphones with any digital source there is a very noticeable amount of noise ( a hissing sound both low and high pitched) .
This happens regardless of the digital source or cable used or even if the cable is in/out. For example if you have input 7 optical selected and turn on the headphone amp you hear the noise. This remains the same when you plug in the cable. It remains the same when you press play and is the same if the amp is on mute or very loud. Obviously if the volume is right the way up the noise is not very noticeable but if you are listening to a quiet piano piece it is extremely irritating. I have tried using the same headphones to listen to the same music plugged directly into my ipod and squeezebox and the noise is not present. Even the laptop sounds cleaner!

Is this a fault or is the headphone amp just rubbish?

There does not seem to be as much noise with the analogue inputs so maybe there is something wrong with the £800+ DAC?

I don't have speakers yet to test this with, but hopefully I will get to demo some tomorrow to see if the same problem is audible through the speakers.

If anyone here has the same amp I would really like to know if you have experienced such problems!?

Thanks very much for your advice.
Regards,
Conor
 

matengawhat

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you have not mentioned the exact model of headphones you are using - are you using a headphone jack to make the connection.

There can be some major issues when using 3.5mm to 6.35mm plugs that either go in to far or not far enough leaving noisy connections?
 

matengawhat

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re reading you said you use them with your ipod and competer so i am guessing you do use an adaptor - try plugging in and pulling the adaptor out a tiny bit but maintain pressure so still connected and see if the sounds corrects if so its def your adaptor - seems strange to have two faulty amps - some of those adaptors are really really poor quality and out of spec with some top quality kit

I have had this problem more than once with the cheap adaptors
 
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Anonymous

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Hi,
Thanks for the reply.

They are the Bose Classic around ear headphones
http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/shop_online/headphones/audio_headphones/around_ear_headphones/index.jsp

I am sure these are not the problem as I use them a lot and have never experienced the level of noise with any other source.

I am using the specific headphone socket on the amp. This is the small 3.5 connection (same as the headphone jack) so no adapters are used. I feels like a solid connection.
 

matthewpiano

Well-known member
I find the headphone outputs on most modern amps to be pretty ropey. I think its something manufacturers used to make far more effort with.

I'd plump for a decent headphone amp if I were you. You can pick the MF and Creek ones up for relatively little outlay.
 
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Anonymous

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matthewpiano:I find the headphone outputs on most modern amps to be pretty ropey

Surely I am not expecting too much for an Amp with a RRP of £1800 to have a better headphone output than a laptop I bought for £350!?

I tried two sets of headphones with my first Amp and spent quite some time moving the jack but the noise was still present. I will try this again with the new amp, but doubt it will make any difference.
 
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Anonymous

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Ok, so I have now tried 3 different headphones/earphones with the amp... and the level of noise through each varies quite dramatically!

Sennheiser Ear Canal Headphones - Terrible levels of noise
Bose Classic Arround Ear Headphones - Bad Levels of noise
Sennheiser HD 495 Open Back Headphones - A lot less noise than the others but is still there to a small degree.

Why would this happen?

I then tested these by plugging them directly into the squeezebox. When using this, there was a very small amount of hiss from the in-ear headphones and absolutely non from the other two.
 
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Anonymous

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The hum you are hearing is probably very very low level, is in the background and is not being amplified.

Each of the headphones probably has different sensitivity (check out the impedance of the headphones that you own - the lower the number the louder it will sound for any particular volume setting). I would expect the Sennheiser 495 for example to require a higher volume setting to achieve the same level of volume compared to the Ear Canal headphones. This means that the low level hum is almost inaudible on the 495s.
 

matthewpiano

Well-known member
I think Grimaldi has hit the nail on the head.

I wasn't saying you should or shouldn't put up with a poor headphone output. I'm not a fan of Cyrus myself so I've purposefully avoided saying anything along those lines. Its just that I have noticed many modern amps seem to have inadequate headphone stages.
 
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Anonymous

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I don't think I would be very satisfied with those results but on the other hand its not totally unexpected. I would definitely recommend getting a dedicated headphone amp if you do a lot of listening through your cans as it would take you to a completely new level of musical enjoyment.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
this is almost certainly an amp problem and worth taking up with cyrus. A purpose-built headphone amp is indeed usually best, but the headphone output of an expensive piece of kit like the cyrus 8xPd should be able to deliver a decent performance. As a extension of the whole discussion, there is probably little point in buying a separate headphone amp for a BOSE set of cans. Bose haven't tried to build audiophile level equipment in 15 years. A headphone amp will benefit hifi cans but can't be expected to overcome the limitations of 'lifestyle' headphones.
 

idc

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Kevin1:this is almost certainly an amp problem and worth taking up with cyrus. A purpose-built headphone amp is indeed usually best, but the headphone output of an expensive piece of kit like the cyrus 8xPd should be able to deliver a decent performance.

Agree

Kevin1: As a extension of the whole discussion, there is probably little point in buying a separate headphone amp for a BOSE set of cans.

Well the smaller, portable cans could well benefit from the superb FiiO E5 and the larger ones have a place with dedicated headphone amps.

Kevin1: Bose haven't tried to build audiophile level equipment in 15 years. A headphone amp will benefit hifi cans but can't be expected to overcome the limitations of 'lifestyle' headphones.

Disagree. But the real point is that the Cyrus should drive any headphones with ease and no noise or associated problem. Thats reasonable to expect from any amp with a headphone out. A dedicated headphone amp should do a better job, particularly with harder to drive cans. But IMHO they only become necessary if you listen to headphones regularly.

The OP should only consider a dedicated headphone amp as an upgrade, not as a way to listen to decent SQ because the Cyrus is rubbish.
 
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Anonymous

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Kevin1:A purpose-built headphone amp is indeed usually best, but the headphone output of an expensive piece of kit like the cyrus 8xPd should be able to deliver a decent performance.

My thoughts exactly!

It seems strange though that the both amps had this exact same problem. I will speak with Cyrus during the week.

It would be very usefull If anyone here who has access to the Cyrus 8XPd could also test it with headphones to see if this is a general problem!

I demoed some speakers today using the amp and the noise was not present
 
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Anonymous

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PJPro:Just to be clear, what are you connecting to the amp and how are you connecting it?

Hi,

The hum/noise is there regardless of what is connected, it is even present when nothing is connected at all. It is also the same regardless of the volume - i.e mute and max volume sound ths same when nothing is playing. I have tried connecting a Squeezebox with Coax and Optical, a computer with USB and a rotel CD Player with analogue connections. The noise is always there. As stated previously there is a low hum with all the analogue connections and a additional higher pitched noise is present when any of the digital inputs are selected.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Well, I have sent a mail to Cyrus to report that the replacement amp has the same problems as before.

I will let you know how it works out.

In the meantime, it would be very usefull if anyone here with access the 8XPd could test it out with a set of headphones to see if it has the same noise.

Thanks
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I've got an 8XPd QX and the headphone connection works fine.

I don't get any unwanted noise on any of the analogue inputs and all the digital (optical, spdif or usb) are fine too.

Headphones I've used are my main Sennheiser HD580 plus I've also tried the same brand's PXC 300 and PXC 450 noise cancelling things. Tried a pair of in-ear Sony things I use with my iPod too to see if anything was different but still OK.

Overall, I'm very happy with it. Don't really use the headphone output much as I've also got a Creek OBH-21 SE in the system.

Only issue is that occasionally my Vista box hangs when playing music out to the amp via USB. Actually, only the sound and mouse hang - the keyboard and machine continue working. I suspect it's the Logitech mouse software messing something up.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Apparently this is a software issue they are working to fix.

Has anyone else heard about this?
 

Ygate

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I know this is an old thread but I recently bought a Cyrus 8 DAC, the headphone port gives a similar hiss to what was described here, I use denon 2000 headphones and KEF LS50 speakers

It works greatly with the speakers
 

bn8959

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Hi,

I have just tested headphones on my 8 Qx DAC and I too am experiencing these issues. There is significent backgroud noise on the digital inputs. When I turn the volume down to zero (mute), then output goes totally silent, as if output is turned off, turn it up just one notch and the noise appears, and is not affected by any increase in the volume control.

There is also a small amount of noise on analogue inputs, but nowhere near the levels of the DAC inputs.

I am very disappointed considering this ought to be a decent amp, and their top-end DAC adding some much more noise over analogue is unacceptable.

If connect the headphones to an iPhone for comparison, I get no noticable noise at all.

I do admit that I find the sound quality absolutly excellent - except for the quite noticable noise!

Ben
 

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