Cyrus CD8SE Upgrade

[admin_exported]

Hi Folks,

Not been on the Forums for a while but I know there was a lot of issues with the first lot of upgrades to this CD Player, what's the general consensus now, are recent upgraders happy with it? or not?

Looking to upgrade myself in the next few weeks so would appreciate your views/opinions.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Are you referring to an upgrade as in the Cyrus CDxtse/DAC X combo?

 

[Anonymous]

No, sorry, should have made it clearer, I'm talking about the upgrade from CD8 to CD8SE.

 

[Anonymous]

Anyone?

 

[john dolan]

I upgraded my cd8x to cdxtse.Its worked perfectly for 4 months apart from 3 or 4 disc errors when loading.Ive also compared the cdxt with the cdxtse and can say as far as performance is concerned the new slot transport is a winner.I upgraded mine before xmas so got in before cyrus doubled the price of the upgrade.I paid £300 but now it cost a mighty £600 which is outrageous imo.Check with cyrus or your local dealer what the cost is but tbh if its still £600 sell your cd8 and just buy a new cd8se.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I can understand people thinking the upgrade is quite expensive, but given that the CD8 was released mid 2003, making it 6 years old, I think it's a good thing that a player of this age can be upgraded, even if the cost is £599. With this, comes a new 2 year warranty, and the increase in performance as stated in the previous post. Some may prefer to sell up and start again, but others don't like the hassle. How many other companies offer this sort of service? Even Arcam have now limited their CD upgrades.

The other thing to remember is that many people will have bought their machine when it was discontinued, paying about £500/600, which means the upgrade takes them up to the current cost of a new 8SE, so they've lost nothing.

 

[Anonymous]

The 8SE is a terrific player, and a real step-up in class from the 8. Is it worth £599? It's a more affordable upgrade than £1100 on a new player!

 

[john dolan]

FrankHarveyHi fi My cd8x was only 2 months old and i paid £800 for it.If i had to pay £600 for the upgrade then the cost would of been £1400 and the new 2 year warranty would make no difference to me as my cd8 had 2 year also.So it would depend on how old the cd8 is and how much you paid for it whether the £600 is value for money or not.When i had mine upgraded i got the upgrade for the old price of £300 but i had to wait for 2 months for Cyrus to complete the work as they had a large backlog of players waiting to be upgraded.If its still the case that the upgrade will take a month or more and the price is still £600 i think it would be better to sell the cd8 and buy a new cd8se or ask the dealer how much he would give you for it in exchange.Another thing to consider is you could buy a used dac x for the upgrade price instead.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Maybe part of the negativity surrounding the upgrade price is that it doubled towards the end of last year, but for obvious reasons which have been discussed at length here and everywhere else, this had to happen.

Given that the CD8 was phased out around July/August of 2005, I don't think it's unreasonable to pay £599 to upgrade a 5 year old player up to current spec, and have a fresh 2 year warranty. That's pretty much unheard of for any manufacturer, and if it's not value for money, I don't know what is.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the comments folks, I will be upgrading mine as I picked it up for a reduced price last June anyway although as previously commented the double up in upgrade cost was a bitter pill to swallow but at least you can upgrade.

I will be pairing it with a PSXR as well as I can get one of these secondhand or ex-demo for aorund £350.

 

[Anonymous]

john dolan:FrankHarveyHi fi My cd8x was only 2 months old and i paid £800 for it.If i had to pay £600 for the upgrade then the cost would of been £1400 and the new 2 year warranty would make no difference to me as my cd8 had 2 year also.So it would depend on how old the cd8 is and how much you paid for it whether the £600 is value for money or not.When i had mine upgraded i got the upgrade for the old price of £300 but i had to wait for 2 months for Cyrus to complete the work as they had a large backlog of players waiting to be upgraded.If its still the case that the upgrade will take a month or more and the price is still £600 i think it would be better to sell the cd8 and buy a new cd8se or ask the dealer how much he would give you for it in exchange.Another thing to consider is you could buy a used dac x for the upgrade price instead.

The £800 is sunk cost - the only way you'll get any of that back is by selling it. From a financial perspective you can only compare (a) the net cost of buying a new player and selling the CD8X, and (b) the cost of the upgrade.

Justifying spending more money on something just because you've already spent a fortune on it can be a road to ruin, or it can be the best value option to get you where you want to be. That's just something you have to weigh up.

 

[john dolan]

I only got the cd8x after talking to my dealer as i had been waiting for the new se players for a long time and getting tired of the constant delays.The dealer told me to get the cd 8x which at the time was a good price at £800 then when the new player launched i could then upgrade for £300 so it was a win win situation.This also did cyrus a favour as they could shift the old stocks of cd8.Lucky for me i was quick and got my upgrade for £300 but would of been angy if id had to pay the £600.I was lucky some guys that did buy old cd8s got stung.As i said it depends on your circumstances if the new price is good value or not.For myself i would rather buy a used dac x instead for £600 or sell the cd8 and buy a new 8se.Nice to have the choice though as i don't know of any other hi fi company you can upgrade older models to new current spec like you can with cyrus.

 

[Frank Harvey]

ffiish - the point of my post was that someone who had bought a CD player 5 years ago could upgrade it and have a new 2 year warranty now - that as far as I know is unheard of - any other manufacturers doing that? Yes there is the option of selling the existing player, which some might prefer to do, but I'm sure you can see what I was getting at.

 

[john dolan]

My advice to the op comes as a cyrus customer thats gome through the upgrade process.Yours from a dealers point of view.We said the same things i just offered a couple more options.

 

[Anonymous]

FrankHarveyHiFi:ffiish - the point of my post was that someone who had bought a CD player 5 years ago could upgrade it and have a new 2 year warranty now - that as far as I know is unheard of - any other manufacturers doing that? Yes there is the option of selling the existing player, which some might prefer to do, but I'm sure you can see what I was getting at.

I quite agree with everything you say - it is a very good deal; my point was not addressed at you

 

[Frank Harvey]

I sort of realised that after John's post - it looked like you were quoting me because your reply to John's post has Frank Harvey at the beginning!