Cyrus reliability and customer service?

MikeToll

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I am thinking of getting into streaming my music and am considering either the Naim ND5 XS or one of the Cyrus range. Naim seem to have a good reputation but there have been issues brought up on this forum about some Cyrus products (the CD player if I remember correctly) so how reliable is Cyrus gear and what is their customer service/support like?

The Naim or Cyrus would be feeding into a Leema Tacuna II powering Spendor A 6's, music a mixture of classical/pop/rock/blues. Any thoughts on which make would sound best with my existing kit?
 

jjbomber

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It was the naim Uniti range that was having problems with reliability. Their customer service is non-existant; they just refer you back to the dealer. In fact, the MD of Naim came on the forum to confirm they were doing nothing. In my case, the dealers just sent the UnitiLite back and got a new replacement. The new one works fine.

You mention CD reliability, but the ND5 XS and Cyrus Streamline don't have a CD player anyway. If you want to go down the Cyrus route, I would go for an ex-demo series 1 Streamline. These go for about £800, half their original cost. They unofficially will stream in ALAC and most other file formats. The Naim will sound better, but is it £1,000 better? Only you can answer that.
 

jjbomber

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jjbomber said:
It was the Naim Uniti range that was having problems with reliability. Their customer service is non-existant; they just refer you back to the dealer. In fact, the MD of Naim came on the forum to confirm they were doing nothing. In my case, the dealers just sent the UnitiLite back and got a new replacement. The new one works fine.

You mention CD reliability, but the ND5 XS and Cyrus Streamline don't have a CD player anyway. If you want to go down the Cyrus route, I would go for an ex-demo series 1 Streamline. These go for about £800, half their original cost. They unofficially will stream in ALAC and most other file formats. The Naim will sound better, but is it £1,000 better? Only you can answer that.
 

WinterRacer

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MikeToll said:
I am thinking of getting into streaming my music and am considering either the Naim ND5 XS or one of the Cyrus range. Naim seem to have a good reputation but there have been issues brought up on this forum about some Cyrus products (the CD player if I remember correctly) so how reliable is Cyrus gear and what is their customer service/support like?

The Naim or Cyrus would be feeding into a Leema Tacuna II powering Spendor A 6's, music a mixture of classical/pop/rock/blues. Any thoughts on which make would sound best with my existing kit?

Cryrus did indeed have a problem with its launch of their new CD players around 2008. I bought a CD-XTse transport that had go back for a firmware update. My experience of this was fine with quick turnaround.

You could argue that Cyrus shouldn't have launched the product with problems, but these things happen and they sorted it pretty quickly.

I also had to send back an out of warranty DAC-X after a poorly designed interconnect damaged a connector on the back. It turns out Cyrus have a fixed price service/rair scheme for units out of warranty. For the DAC-X this was about £180.

Cyrus seem happy to service and repair old units and are upfront with the costs. Overall, I'd say Cyrus are good to deal with.
 

BigColz

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If you are buying a streamer just to be a streamer (not amp combo etc) I would suggest the ND5 XS or Linn Majik.. You could try the Cyrus too but IMO Linn and Naim are at the top of the streamer game by a fair bit and will come down too taste which you prefer. I love the ND5 XS absolutely gorgeous sound, extremely natural, engaging, fluid and analogue sound.
 

Frank Harvey

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I agree that Naim do make excellent streamers, complete with one of the best apps around. Since CYrus have launched their app for their streamers, they are now in direct competition for that crown. The app is stable and very well thought out and is something they'll be perfecting over time too.
 

WinterRacer

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MikeToll said:
I am thinking of getting into streaming my music and am considering either the Naim ND5 XS or one of the Cyrus range. Naim seem to have a good reputation but there have been issues brought up on this forum about some Cyrus products (the CD player if I remember correctly) so how reliable is Cyrus gear and what is their customer service/support like?

The Naim or Cyrus would be feeding into a Leema Tacuna II powering Spendor A 6's, music a mixture of classical/pop/rock/blues. Any thoughts on which make would sound best with my existing kit?

Have you considered Sonos? They've been at it for ages, have the largest product range and best multi-room capability of them all (AFAIK).
 

WinterRacer

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richardw42 said:
I'm not even slightly tempted to swap my Sonos for the so called high end.

I've got a SBT, but if it dies I'll be turning to Sonos. There's no way I'd give house space to one of the audiophile streamers. Worse functionality and user interface, limited multi-room, over sized and over priced, all with no audible improvement to SQ. All IMHO of course :)
 

BigH

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Having read some users feedback of Cyrus I would say their customer service is pretty poor. Just read problems about their cds players on this site, it seems the only answer from Cyrus was to upgrade to a newer more expensive Cyrus player and it seems even that has similar problems, ie. not playing some cds..
 

chebby

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jjbomber said:
In fact, the MD of Naim came on the forum to confirm they were doing nothing. In my case, the dealers just sent the UnitiLite back and got a new replacement. The new one works fine.

Actually he did not "confirm they were doing nothing".

He confirmed there had been issues with a new CD mechanism - that had been resolved - and asked affected customers to arrange for a replacement through their dealer.

Paulnaim said:
Hi sorry for the delay in replying, we have had some issues with a new mech fitted into the uniti2 this has now been resolved, please contact your retailer who will organise a replacement unit for you, sorry you have had this experience.

Regards

Paul Stephenson

Managing Director

Naim

You were screaming for action (and for free compensatory CD5i players and half price vouchers) in the middle of Naim's annual Christmas leave on the 28th December.
 

Frank Harvey

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BigH said:
Having read some users feedback of Cyrus I would say their customer service is pretty poor. Just read problems about their cds players on this site, it seems the only answer from Cyrus was to upgrade to a newer more expensive Cyrus player and it seems even that has similar problems, ie. not playing some cds..

Cyrus initially had issues with their CD players when they decided to make their own laser mechanism - basically so they won't be at the mercy of the likes of Philips and Sony who regularly discontinue laser mechs and leave some players unserviceable. By doing this, Cyrus can now make and supply CD players for as long as they want to, not for as long as is dictated to them. Those issues are all sorted now with the SE2 mechs.
 

kmlav

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I have had loads of Cyrus kit over the years and none of it has ever broken so I don't know what the customer service is like but I do know the kit is good. My brother is still using a old 8vs2 amp of mine which still sounds great.

I also have a Streamline and a stream XP, I am going to get the upgrade for both to the new "2" so I can use the App and steam higher res files.

The sound on both units is really good with the streamline offering a really nice one box solution. Having tested both on the main system the XP is better than the streamline. Im not that great at putting this into words but for me the music seems more natural and there is more space around the notes - in as much as each note has a start and an end and does not appear as a mush of sound.The sound is more involving with the stream and I often find myself listening for hours, when time permits!

The N remote is ok but not worth it if you are going to use the App. On the N remote software you would have thought you would be able to select all the cyrus models but you cant and for example there is no Pre DAC. Even if there is a work around this is a shameful shortfall which they should really sort out. It almost seems like they did some dev on the n remote then gave up with it leaving it half finished. Personally if I was running cyrus I would give whoever is in charge of the n remote project a good kicking as the software lets it down and would take a decent developer 30 mins to put right.
 

BigColz

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WinterRacer said:
BigColz said:
No audible improvement in sound quality :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

You either haven't heard them or you're deaf

Wrong on both counts. Guess again.

No guessing needed i've done side by side comparisons on multiple set ups and had a friend 100% pick out the massive difference without knowing which was playing. Through your actives you probably wouldn't hear much of a difference no.. Same way there's not as much of a difference on my Cambridge living room set up and will probably get a connect at some point. I've heard both on my amp and my old Cyrus and the difference is night and day. The sonos sounds like its playing through wool in comparison. but you get what you pay for and they're both great bits of kit at their price point
 

WinterRacer

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BigColz said:
No guessing needed i've done side by side comparisons on multiple set ups and had a friend 100% pick out the massive difference without knowing which was playing. Through your actives you probably wouldn't hear much of a difference no.. Same way there's not as much of a difference on my Cambridge living room set up and will probably get a connect at some point. I've heard both on my amp and my old Cyrus and the difference is night and day. The sonos sounds like its playing through wool in comparison. but you get what you pay for and they're both great bits of kit at their price point

The old "your system isn't revealing enough" argument. Enjoy your night and day differences.
 

MikeToll

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Thanks for some interesting views.

I only mentioned the Cyrus CD issue because I wanted to know how well they dealt with it for their existing customers, same with the Naim issue (which I had forgotten about) because that would give a good indication of their support. I already have an excellent CD player so only want a streamer which will connect to my integrated amp.

It looks like there is not much in it so it would seems like a case of personal choice. There is a Naim dealer about 15 miles from me but a Cyrus dealer is more like 50 miles so there is no way of doing a proper comparison sound wise. The Naim dealer does do interest free credit so that may swing it but how do the sounds compare? By the way I am not really interested in a multi room setup.

David, you are very experienced so what do you think?
 

BigColz

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WinterRacer said:
BigColz said:
No guessing needed i've done side by side comparisons on multiple set ups and had a friend 100% pick out the massive difference without knowing which was playing. Through your actives you probably wouldn't hear much of a difference no.. Same way there's not as much of a difference on my Cambridge living room set up and will probably get a connect at some point. I've heard both on my amp and my old Cyrus and the difference is night and day. The sonos sounds like its playing through wool in comparison. but you get what you pay for and they're both great bits of kit at their price point

The old "your system isn't revealing enough" argument. Enjoy your night and day differences.

I do, everyday.. Enjoy making snide comments, unbacked up claims and recommending actives to everyone, no matter how far from their brief with the rest of your fanboy clan :clap: :wave:
 

WinterRacer

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BigColz said:
I do, everyday.. Enjoy making snide comments, unbacked up claims and recommending actives to everyone, no matter how far from their brief with the rest of your fanboy clan :clap: :wave:

I suggest trying Sonos and you think it's ok to suggest I'm deaf. Well done.

I haven't mentioned active speakers or AVI on this thread. The hostility on this forum to anyone who owns AVI products is getting really tedious.

Sorry to the OP.
 

BigColz

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WinterRacer said:
BigColz said:
I do, everyday.. Enjoy making snide comments, unbacked up claims and recommending actives to everyone, no matter how far from their brief with the rest of your fanboy clan :clap: :wave:

Post #12 - you started with the snide comments and I haven't mentioned active speakers. Get a grip. The hostility on this forum to anyone who owns AVI products is getting really tedious.

Sorry to the OP.

It wasn't actives this time but you all seem to have the same mentality. Come on a post and put your negative misleading elbow in. He's specifically asked recommendations for audiophile streamers and then you come on saying how rubbish and overpriced they are with no audible improvements. Which is arrogant and misleading as i've heard (and many many others on here) first hand how good they are. It's a joke you cant just put your point across without slagging something off. If you think we're all idiots for 'wasting' our money on HiFi then thats fine but do it on another site because it's just plain boring.

To the OP I suggest demoing the Naim at your local dealer against whatever digital source you can, perhaps sonos or laptop and see what you think. If you can demo a Cyrus or Linn that would be even better.. For the record I got mine 12 month 0% which helped as I found the jump in price easily justifyable. You may see it differently, good luck :grin: :cheers:
 

jjbomber

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MikeToll said:
It looks like there is not much in it so it would seems like a case of personal choice. There is a Naim dealer about 15 miles from me but a Cyrus dealer is more like 50 miles so there is no way of doing a proper comparison sound wise. The Naim dealer does do interest free credit so that may swing it but how do the sounds compare? By the way I am not really interested in a multi room setup.

I have a UnitiLite and original Uniti that I use for streaming, with a Cyrus Streamline in another room. The Naim's are a marked improvement above the Cyrus. Given the new Streamline 2 is only a few hundred quid below the Naim, then I would definately go for the ND5 XS for a new purchase. If you don't intend to stream high res files, then I would look at a ex-dem Streamline 1. They will do Apple lossless (unofficially).
 

Frank Harvey

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MikeToll said:
It looks like there is not much in it so it would seems like a case of personal choice. There is a Naim dealer about 15 miles from me but a Cyrus dealer is more like 50 miles so there is no way of doing a proper comparison sound wise. The Naim dealer does do interest free credit so that may swing it but how do the sounds compare? By the way I am not really interested in a multi room setup.

David, you are very experienced so what do you think?

Hi Mike

The Sonos ZP90 is a great tool for discovering music - as well a internet radio, you have Spotify, Napster, Last.FM, 7Digital, AUPEO!, Deezer, Wolfgang's Vault, Stitcher, Hearts Of Space etc etc. The ZP90 is the best thing I ever bought as I have so much more music to choose from now, and I can discover more when I want to. While some of these music service and internet radio stations are of a lower bit rate, some are decent and will benefit from a good DAC. Unfortunately, the ZP90 doesn't have a good enough DAC to take advantage of these better sounding options. If you're just discovering music, it's fine, but to use it as a high quality source for serious listening, a better DAC is needed.

Sonos and specialist streamers will all stream music from your NAS drive. Again, the ZP90 doesn't make full use of the quality that is available. This is where streamers from specialist manufacturers come in. They have higher quality DACs and also higher quality analogue outputs, which is pretty obvious when auditioned through a half decent system that will benefit from it.

The Sonos has always had the best control app (still is), but Naim and Cyrus have a seriously viable alternative, and with the improvements that both manufacturers are constantly making will bring it in line with the Sonos one.

The good thing about the "specialist" streamers is that you have options. As well as stand alone streamers, they also offer ones with built in pre-amplifiers where you just need to add a power amplifier, and also ones with amplification that can be used as stand alone unit or as a second zone.
 

WinterRacer

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BigColz said:
It wasn't actives this time but you all seem to have the same mentality. Come on a post and put your negative misleading elbow in. He's specifically asked recommendations for audiophile streamers and then you come on saying how rubbish and overpriced they are with no audible improvements. Which is arrogant and misleading as i've heard (and many many others on here) first hand how good they are. It's a joke you cant just put your point across without slagging something off. If you think we're all idiots for 'wasting' our money on HiFi then thats fine but do it on another site because it's just plain boring.

So basically, you didn't like my suggestion that streamers all sound pretty much the same (which is my experience), so you think it's ok to have a go at me because your prejudice tells you I'm the same as all the others from that place. Nice.
 

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