DAC in Cyrus Pre XP d QX vs Musical Fidelity V-DAC

[ErwinC]

I am planning on buying a preamp/power amp combo to go with my Musical Fidelity V-DAC (with upgraded Little Pinkie power supply, a huge improvement btw), Teac transport and Dali Mentor Menuet speakers. Since I like the sound and flexibility of Cyrus I was thinking on buying a Cyrus Pre XP d (QX?) as preamp solution.

What I would like to know is the quality of the Cyrus integrated DAC d and d QX compared with my MF V-DAC. How would you rate following combinations?
- Teac -> digital interconnect -> Cyrus Pre XP d
- Teac -> digital interconnect -> Cyrus Pre XP d QX
- Teac -> digital interconnect -> MF V-DAC -> analogue interconnect -> Cyrus Pre XP

The reason I ask is because I would like to know if I need to buy the QX upgrade or not.

 

[ErwinC]

Nobody?

 

[jockey.wilson]

Hi,

I recently upgraded the 'd' DAC in my Cyrus 8 XP to the 'Qx' DAC. Usng the CD XTSE+, the difference was significant, but not as great as when using files off a PC (lossless and compressed). The difference then was night and day

Cyrus says that the Qx DAC performs better than that in the CD8SE, but not quite as well as that in the DAC X.

If you are only using the TEAC transport as a source, depending on the quality of the rest of your kit, the QX may not be required.

Can't comment on the MF.

 

[ErwinC]

Thanks for the feedback. It seems the QX upgrade is indeed made for higher jitter / lower quality digital sources.

Can you describe what the improvements were when used in combination with your Cyrus transport?

 

[jockey.wilson]

ErwinC:

Can you describe what the improvements were when used in combination with your Cyrus transport?

Slightly more forward and energetic presentation, with greater pace and better bass extension, although not massively so.

I had a 10 year old Naim system before and now with a Qx DAC added to the Cyrus 8 XPd the whole presentation is more 'Naim' like, albeit not as harsh and with much greater transparency.