Cyrus Amp or Valve Amp

[Voodoo66]

I'm rekindling my hifi interest and want to upgrade my Cyrus 1 Amp ( yes it's been a while)

My question is should I go for a new Cyrus 6 or 8 Amp or would a valve amp bea better choice? If so what should I be auditioning?

I listen mostly to rock and blues ( pink floyd, led zeppelin, buddy guy, Clapton etc) but I do listen to other genres occasionally

 

[MajorFubar]

What is it you're wanting to change or improve? I don't mean that to sound an awkward question, just trying to help steer you from the wrong path.

 

[stevebrock]

yep what is your budget? Your Speakers? What area of your sytem do you feel could be improved? Then we can suggest a change or two.

 

[CnoEvil]

Is there any reason to discount everything in between?

There is Hybrid (Pathos / Unison Research Unico) and Solid State Class A. There are also some good Class D, as well as some very musical AB amps (Electrocompaniet / Audio Analogue / Lavardin).

Depending on budget, I like Valve amps from Icon Audio, Pure Sound, Audio Note, Unison Research and VTL.

Nobody can tell you what you will prefer, they can only tell you what they prefer, so you need to go and demo some options......and what amp you go for, may depend on the speakers you have in mind. The amp/speaker synergy is the key to success.

 

[plastic penguin]

I'm rekindling my hifi interest and want to upgrade my Cyrus 1 Amp ( yes it's been a while)

My question is should I go for a new Cyrus 6 or 8 Amp or would a valve amp bea better choice? If so what should I be auditioning?

I listen mostly to rock and blues ( pink floyd, led zeppelin, buddy guy, Clapton etc) but I do listen to other genres occasionally

Crikey, you have been out of the hi-fi ring a long time. 🙂

It really depends on your speakers and source. The Cyrus is toothachingly bright while the valve amps tend to be textured and warm

We need to know what your max budget is, source and speakers?

 

[Gusboll]

I'm rekindling my hifi interest and want to upgrade my Cyrus 1 Amp ( yes it's been a while)

My question is should I go for a new Cyrus 6 or 8 Amp or would a valve amp bea better choice? If so what should I be auditioning?

I listen mostly to rock and blues ( pink floyd, led zeppelin, buddy guy, Clapton etc) but I do listen to other genres occasionally

The Cyrus is toothachingly bright

Which one; the 1, the 6 or the 8? And what does "toothachingly bright" mean to your ears exactly?

 

[Gusboll]

Well Voodoo66, I've never had the privilege of hearing a Cyrus 1 compared to a valve amp, but from experience, you can get hold of 8 series gear for relatively little money these days so if you get the opportunity, give it a trial. It's not for everyone but partnered with the right speakers Cyrus can give beautifully detailed gutsy performance in my opinion.

 

[freedom1971]

I suspect he means all of them! Certainly, with the right speakers the Cyrus amps would probably better anything for the money. I fear with the RS1's though your ears would bleed, and unless you are prepared to change them also I would stick amps a little more on the warmer side of things. IMO of course.

 

[plastic penguin]

I'm rekindling my hifi interest and want to upgrade my Cyrus 1 Amp ( yes it's been a while)

My question is should I go for a new Cyrus 6 or 8 Amp or would a valve amp bea better choice? If so what should I be auditioning?

I listen mostly to rock and blues ( pink floyd, led zeppelin, buddy guy, Clapton etc) but I do listen to other genres occasionally

The Cyrus is toothachingly bright

Which one; the 1, the 6 or the 8? And what does "toothachingly bright" mean to your ears exactly?

The 6 and 8. Had the 8VS2 on dem a few years ago and it sounded not very nice. Great with female vocals but for rockier stuff... nah.

Put on some Kate Bush very loud and you'll see what I mean. Never happened with Arcam or Leema.

 

[MajorFubar]

This is a pointless thread until the OP re-posts

 

[Voodoo66]

Here goes, as you will see a lot of my gear is ancient.

Amplifiers - Cyrus One

Audiolab 8000A

Speakers- B&W 602 s3

Mission 753

Sources - Mac Mini

Marantz CD 63mkII Ki Signature

Dac - Cambridge Audio DacMagic

I am intending to invest in a Michell Gyro SE next year and re invest in my vinyl collection which sadly I sold about 8 years ago.

I'm not looking to necessarily improve any areas I just feel the time has come to upgrade my old cranky equipment and as I want to spend around £1000 per unit and I've been out of the loop for so long I just wanted to get some opinions to guide me on my way 🙂

 

[plastic penguin]

Here goes, as you will see a lot of my gear is ancient.

Amplifiers - Cyrus One

Audiolab 8000A

Speakers- B&W 602 s3

Mission 753

Sources - Mac Mini

Marantz CD 63mkII Ki Signature

Dac - Cambridge Audio DacMagic

I am intending to invest in a Michell Gyro SE next year and re invest in my vinyl collection which sadly I sold about 8 years ago.

I'm not looking to necessarily improve any areas I just feel the time has come to upgrade my old cranky equipment and as I want to spend around £1000 per unit and I've been out of the loop for so long I just wanted to get some opinions to guide me on my way 🙂

You'll need to get a dealer (Richer Sounds, SS&V...) and listen to various set-ups. My only caveat is to avoid valve amps, for practical reasons as opposed to SQ.

Arcam, Rotel, Marantz, Leema, Rega, Roksan Kandy all have cracking built-in phono stages for a turntable.

Alternative brands such as Creek, although fantastic, you'll need to budget for a outboard phono stage.

 

[MajorFubar]

Stick with your CD player for a start. You won't better it by much unless you start throwing silly money around.

Also your Audiolab was a highly-regarded piece of kit in its day, so make sure you compare it carefully against anything 'newer and greater'. Your Cyrus is no slouch either,

I find the hardest part of assessing fresh HiFi equipment is correctly identifying 'truly better' from 'different'. There's a reason I still use equipment from the same era as you: I've informally compared it against newer stuff and found that quite frankly I can't afford to better it.

 

[floyd droid]

My only caveat is to avoid valve amps, for practical reasons

Yeah , tis a right old pita having to use a crank handle to fire up this ancient technology.

 

[plastic penguin]

My only caveat is to avoid valve amps, for practical reasons

Yeah , tis a right old pita having to use a crank handle to fire up this ancient technology.

Don't you start. Had a gut full with Mr. Horlicks...

 

[drummerman]

Cyrus sounding 'bright'?

Mine doesn't (with or without PSX-R). Quite the opposite, it has some of the classic valve traits like excellent transients and dynamics including the small ones and it strings the whole sound together nicely. What it doesn't do is roll of the frequency extremes so if something is badly recorded, it will sound just that.

Having said that, a good valve amplifier can sound lovely too but they are normally more difficult to speaker match. I had one for a long time.

regards

 

[floyd droid]

Don't you start. Had a gut full with Mr. Horlicks...

Awww bless , gis a hug 😉

 

[plastic penguin]

Don't you start. Had a gut full with Mr. Horlicks...

Awww bless , gis a hug 😉

No.

 

[chrisr1718]

I don't find my Cyrus 2 "toothachingly bright", with or without the PSX connected. I think it depends on your source and speakers and getting a balanced system. Try to demo your options and trust your ears!

 

[Voodoo66]

So is it fair to say if I want a change of amp I should be looking at Solid State amps and not Valve?

Or are there worthy upgrades for the Audiolab 8000A or Cyrus One?

 

[MakkaPakka]

If Cyrus amps were really that bright the company would have gone out of business thirty years ago. I picked up a 6DAC recently and am very happy with it.

 

[SiUK]

The Cyrus TWO and PSX can be horribly bright. Mine sounded fantastic with my old turntable and Kefs and then my 751s. Never bright. I absolutely loved it. When I ditched the turntable and moved to CD the soul departed from my set up and I was left with a very detailed, analytical 'bright' sound and the musicality went AWOL...and the highs really did often hurt my ears. I tried a few CD players and ended up with a TEAC VRDS10 but I was never 100% happy with the sound after that.

 

[Sir Lemon]

So is it fair to say if I want a change of amp I should be looking at Solid State amps and not Valve?

Not really. 🙂

Do you intend to keep your current speakers or change them as well?

 

[MajorFubar]

I can certainly agree that my Cyrus 2 + PSX is not forgiving of forward-sounding speakers and harsh CD players. It was designed in a time when vinyl was the main source.

 

[CJSF]

My only caveat is to avoid valve amps, for practical reasons

Yeah , tis a right old pita having to use a crank handle to fire up this ancient technology.

Hay Floyd, I find stoking the boiler a *** to keep a head of steam, still cant decide if I prefer wood or coal . . . ? :?