Cyrus - what did I do wrong?

[admin_exported]

Just interested in what I did wrong when demoing the Cyrus 6XP amp and partnering CD player recently. I hear endless praise for Cyrus including from WHFS&V - so it must be at least reasonably good. I demo'd the Cyrus combo with AVI neutrons Vs and Leema Xeros and the sound was not good. It was very direct and in-your-face - in a bad way. Very little subtlety or fluidity came through in either rock, jazz or classical. Switch to the Roksan Kandy K2 combo and the colour, detail, 3D characteristics of the music were much better - I loved it.

What should I put this down to? Initially I just concluded that HiFi is personal and subjective. But I am having trouble believing this is the full explanation. Did I just happen to test with 2 speakers that are a very bad match with Cyrus? Surely somehow I haven't heard the Cyrus kit at its best.

Thanks

 

[bluebrazil]

some people just dont get on with the cyrus sound. also, they do only like certain speaker brands that can tame the forward presentation.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Room acoustics aside, which has it's own effect on systems and speakers, it may just be that those speakers don't work well with Cyrus. Many other speaker brands do, and it's a very popular brand. It could also be down to the type of music you listen to - some music just doesn't sound good on certain systems. And then there's personal preference - some like certain presentations and others don't, whatever some will try and lead you to believe.

 

[Anonymous]

Thinking about it, the level of detail from the Cyrus was fine. It was just in-your-face in a harsh way. I tried a very wide range of music, so I think that's not the reason.

Is there much variation between individual amps of the same model? I know that many musical instruments can have very different sounds from one apparently identical instrument to the next. Is one Cyrus 6XP identical sonically to any other Cyrus 6XP?

I have decided on Roksan, however the relative performance of Cyrus has me baffled. If I get the chance I will experiment with more speakers - just to satisfy my curiousity if nothing else.

 

[Anonymous]

I had a similar case as well. My was more worst as I have sold my Cyrus set up because via my speakers(AE1MK3) the Cyrus presentation in the treble area was very agressive.I have replaced it by Naim and everything is fine now.

The reviews of WHFI yes are very positive in regard to Cyrus. The problem is that their tests do not show, which speakers, cables they use. So it is very global in a way and mismatches are easy if you do not listen personally.

The compete set up is important and that is really what they do not say in their tests.

Regards

Edgar

 

[5cats35]

Whynot post this as well on the Cyrus unoffical forum to see what response you get there.

 

[John Duncan]

RJT:what did I do wrong?
RJT:Cyrus

 

[Simon Lucas]

Edgar Eichmann:The compete set up is important and that is really what they do not say in their tests.

 

[plastic penguin]

RJT:

Just interested in what I did wrong when demoing the Cyrus 6XP amp and partnering CD player recently. I hear endless praise for Cyrus including from WHFS&V - so it must be at least reasonably good. I demo'd the Cyrus combo with AVI neutrons Vs and Leema Xeros and the sound was not good. It was very direct and in-your-face - in a bad way. Very little subtlety or fluidity came through in either rock, jazz or classical. Switch to the Roksan Kandy K2 combo and the colour, detail, 3D characteristics of the music were much better - I loved it.

What should I put this down to? Initially I just concluded that HiFi is personal and subjective. But I am having trouble believing this is the full explanation. Did I just happen to test with 2 speakers that are a very bad match with Cyrus? Surely somehow I haven't heard the Cyrus kit at its best.

Thanks

Firstly, you tested the Cyruses with Leema Xeros. Oddly enough, when WHFI did an all-in-one test last year they said the Leema Pulse and Stream had a very full on sound: "good for short listening..." and these were connected to the Xeros. The reason why I say that is because my Pulse, with MA RS6, albeit with Arcam CDP, is very organic sounding.

Second point is, like others have mentioned, it may not be to your taste. When I heard the old 8VS2 I found it to be great with vocals, but not as good as the Kandy LIII for pop and rock music.

Maybe if you heard the Cyruses with Dynaudio you may hear something totally different.

 

[Anonymous]

1- Were the Cyrus components run-in. This makes a significant difference.

2- What speaker cable did you use. Difference between Chord Epic and Atlas Hyper is very marked.

jules.

 

[AEJim]

RJT:
Thinking about it, the level of detail from the Cyrus was fine. It was just in-your-face in a harsh way. I tried a very wide range of music, so I think that's not the reason.

Is there much variation between individual amps of the same model? I know that many musical instruments can have very different sounds from one apparently identical instrument to the next. Is one Cyrus 6XP identical sonically to any other Cyrus 6XP?

I have decided on Roksan, however the relative performance of Cyrus has me baffled. If I get the chance I will experiment with more speakers - just to satisfy my curiousity if nothing else.

There is always tolerance in any component, if you happened to hear a unit where every internal component was at an extreme then this could make a noticeable change over one at the other end of the spectrum. It's something manufacturers generally try to keep a tight control of though and is generally less of an issue in electronics than mechanical components.

Everyone has a subjective taste as well, just because some people love and rave about something it doesn't mean you'll like it - as you can see from comments here not everyone loves the Cyrus sound, many do though. I've found them on the rather aggressive side myself (matched with our speakers at least), the key with any system is matching accordingly - partnered with more relaxed speakers you would probably hear something very different, put those same speakers on a more relaxed amp/source and you'll probably find the sound to be on the dull side.

It's one of the joys of Hi-Fi that there is no perfect system and no-one can tell you your opinion is wrong if you like/dislike something - find what you enjoy most, take advice as simply that, not a rule - enjoy the listening journey.

 

[yasirk]

How long did the amp have for a break-in period before your auditioned it? I found that when i first purchased the 8-power and recently, the Mono-x's, the initial sound was bright, forward and especially harsh in treble; it took about 1-2 weeks of burn-in for the sound to calm down and then it was a very different experience altogether.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know what break-in period the amp had been through. I guess this could be part or all of the answer...

 

[plastic penguin]

RJT:I don't know what break-in period the amp had been through. I guess this could be part or all of the answer...

It's much more than just breaking in on the amp - it's most definitely, as my earlier post explains, correct matching of speakers.

BTW, what system do you currently have?

 

[Anonymous]

I have nothing right now. I have been auditioning amps and speakers and plan to combine these with an rDac or DacMagic to connect to my media server.

 

[eternaloptimist]

I have lurked on Cyrusunofficial.co.uk for a couple of years.
I must admit I have never seen anyone with AVI neutrons Vs or Leema Xeros paired with Cyrus electronics.
I suspect the speakers trialed were not a good match.
Commonly Cyrus are paired with: Spendor, PMC, Proac, Dynaudio, ATC, Audiovector ( ) or some B&Ws - can't think of others I have seen.
Would you consider re-auditioning with different speakers - such as the Proac D18 (though, not sure if enough grunt form the 6XP)?
Just my 2 cents.