Cyrus AV Master 8.0 / DacMagic / Arcam 8 or Myryad MC100, which DAC?

[Naass]

Hi Fellow Forumers,

I got fed up of having two systems in the living room. One for HiFi stereo and one for home cinema.

For Stereo, I use a Cyrus aCA7/XPA + Arcam 8 / AppleTV + DacMagic.

For home cinema, I use the Onkyo TX-SR806.

I finally bought a Cyrus AV Master 8.0 on Ebay and I am now waiting it to arrive.

In the meanwhile I was wondering what would be the best way to listen to CDs.
What is in your opinion the best combination of the above is the best sounding?

1. AV Master CD direct + Arcam 8 (player's DAC)
2. AV Master CD direct + Myryad MC100 (player's DAC)
3. AV Master digital input + Arcam 8 (AV Master's DAC)
4. AV Master digital input + Myryad MC100 (AV Master's DAC)
5. AV Master CD direct + Arcam 8 + DacMagic (DacMagic's DAC)
6. AV Master CD direct + Myryad MC100 + DacMagic (DacMagic's DAC)

I will certainly upgrade the XPA to a 8 amp and will get rid of my TX-SR806.

I tried several home cinema amps to see if I can merge the HiFi/AV systems for no results.

The quality of sound in stereo direct from any of AV amp did not match the dedicated stereo one.
It is also very frustrating to waste hundreds of watts using a 5 or 7 channels amp using only two of them in a stereo mode.

Thanks for your thoughts and comments.

Cheers.

Naass

 

[Messiah]

I would try the various combinations and see which you prefer. Personally when I had the Cyrus CD6s and AV Master I preferred the sound played directly from the CD6s to my Cyrus 7 amp rather than via the AV master.

For the configurations you have listed above, 1,2,5 and 6 do not need to be connected to the AV master. If you are going to pick any of these options then connect them directly to the amp.

 

[Naass]

Thanks Messiah for your input.

But, if you are familiar with the above equipments, which combination you would settle for if you want to listen to CDs?

In other words, which DAC you would trust? The internal one of the Arcam 8, the one of the MC100, the DAC of the AV 8.0 or the DacMagic one?

I tried all these combinations, one after the other and couldn't find a real winner.

If only I could have the combinations setup in parallel to allow switching back and forth between the combinations!!

Cheers

 

[Messiah]

If I could not find much difference between them then I would go with the CD player direct. Simply to take one piece of equipment out of the chain.

What I would suggest though is some more extensive listening. Listen to some tracks you know well and you may find that a particular combination unearths some detail you may not have heard before.

From my own personal experience I am not surprised by the outcome of your tests so far.