Have What Hi Fi Heard The Cyrus CD8SE ?

[timwileman]

spoke to PJ HiFi last night and they have had both the 6 and the 8 SE for several weeks, just run in, did get chance to listen myself but the guys there are impressed

i bet the ex phillips guy they headhunted to write the op code could obtain a blank cheque from the likes of denon et al ....

 

[Anonymous]

I heard the CD8SE and CD6SE last weekend, both partnered by the 8vs2 amp and Monitor Audio RS6 speakers. I had already auditioned a Naim 5i combo with some B&W 684s as well as the entry level Primare pairing with the Monitor Audios as well as the B&W 683s.

The CD6SE blew the Primares out of the water - I couldn't believe the difference. I am a classical music buff (have been a professional musician for many years), and so I have a fair idea what things should sound like. The sounds were so much more real, balanced across the tonal range, and with concert hall levels of detail. Smaller, intimate chamber music felt like the instrumentalists were in the room, and sounded so genuine without the artificial warmth of the Primare kit which to my ears stopped a piano sounding like a piano. Larger orchestral works came across with extraordinary levels of detail and with such excitement and verve I wanted to listen and listen.

The Primare kit in comparison (with the same speakers) sounded like mush - woolly, heavy in the upper midrange and the bass, with a strange gap in sound in the lower mid-range. Some instruments were artifically brought to the fore in the sound stage because of the tonal imbalance, and once again didn't sound like the real thing. Disappointing really, and some way behind the Naim/B&W Combo we had heard earlier in the day as well.

Then we swapped over for the CD8SE. Worth the £400 premium? Almost as soon as the music started my wife and I turned to each other with a massive smile on our faces. It was a revelation. Absolutely brilliant. If you think the CD6SE is good, the CD8SE will come as such a shock you will question your judgement on the CD6SE! Not that you should - as I've already said it is a very fine player.

Just had a call from Sevenoaks to say that my kit has arrived. Can't wait to get it home...

 

[Anonymous]

WHF reviewers - was there a clear difference between the CDXT SE/DAC-X combo and the CD6 SE?

I have a relatively older CD8 as a transport into the DAC-X and I wonder if upgrading the CD8 to CDXT SE (£300 factory upgrade) would yield any improvements?

 

[Anonymous]

Good to hear the improvement from the SE players can still be felt when partnering with price comparable equipment.

(I'd heard the 8SE with a Chord Pre/Power and Dynaudio Confidence C1 speakers..... the whole thing sounded unreal BTW).

When WHF get round to the 8SE test it'd be good if they could report back regarding the difference the PSX-R makes too.

Cheers

jules.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Ffish,

How did CD6SE and CD8SE compare to Naim 5i ?

thanks,

Neeraj

 

[Hi Fi Decision]

I have owned a new CD8se since Monday. This is after trying to own a CD8x since April and all 4 of them I have had have been faulty! The dealer swapped the 4th CD8x for the CD8se as a good will gesture because of the hassle I'd been through. The CD8se is incomparably better than the 8x. Much higher resolution, a firmer grip on bass and a larger soundstage. A much more exciting and dynamic player than the outgoing model. However there appears to be a software problem. I often get 'Disc Error' on the display only to replace the disc without cleaning and it works fine. On one CD in good condition it won't play it at all although it plays on other CD players I own. I hope this isn't a great sounding player which will be let down by build quality and reliability issues.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Fi Decision:I have owned a new CD8se since Monday. This is after trying to own a CD8x since April and all 4 of them I have had have been faulty! The dealer swapped the 4th CD8x for the CD8se as a good will gesture because of the hassle I'd been through. The CD8se is incomparably better than the 8x. Much higher resolution, a firmer grip on bass and a larger soundstage. A much more exciting and dynamic player than the outgoing model. However there appears to be a software problem. I often get 'Disc Error' on the display only to replace the disc without cleaning and it works fine. On one CD in good condition it won't play it at all although it plays on other CD players I own. I hope this isn't a great sounding player which will be let down by build quality and reliability issues.

The Cyrus players have always been fussy over non-red book standard discs. Some will not play at all owing to secret tracks hidden at the front etc. Two that I know of are Blur - Think Tank and British Sea Power - Open Season.

The 'No disc' error is quite annoying, id hoped they'd fix that completely with the new transport

 

[Hi Fi Decision]

The error message is 'Disc Error' and not 'No Disc'. However it is worth noting that when I eject a CD after listening the display reads 'No Disc' as the CD ejects. However when I interrupt the loading of a CD by ejecting it the display reads 'Eject'. It does beg the question why doesn't the display read 'Eject' at all times when you eject a CD?! I'm not particularly bothered by this though. I am bothered that I have to re-load mint condition CD's after receiving 'Disc Error'. It won't play Morrisey's 'Ringleader of The Tormentors' (please spare me the 'I don't blame it posts') which plays on a friends old CD8x. In fact I gave this CD to my local dealer and it wouldn't read on their 8se and 6se. A firend borrowed the new transport to partner his Dacxp and has the same problem with 'Disc Error' messages on mint condition CD's.

 

[John Duncan]

A review elsewhere had an interview with the MD of Cyrus where he stated that they had taken a deliberate path of optimising replay for 'perfect-condition' CDs, which was why it sounded so good, and that some people might find more disc errors than they were used to (I'm paraphrasing from memory).

 

[Anonymous]

neerajvatsa:
Hi Ffish,

How did CD6SE and CD8SE compare to Naim 5i ?

thanks,

Neeraj

It's difficult to make a very accurate comparison as I heard them in different locations a few hours apart, and with different speakers. However the main area the Cyrus-based system won was in the soundstaging - particularly producing a convincing whole out of a lot of threads in complex orchestral music - and the way it handled the big stuff. With the Naim system some climaxes I found the "whole" was sometimes lost as, for example, the percussion dominated the sound above all else. The Naim system was probably comparable when it came to the smaller tracks we tried, but the detail and accuracy of the Cyrus system in the bigger music shone through.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Fi Decision:The error message is 'Disc Error' and not 'No Disc'. However it is worth noting that when I eject a CD after listening the display reads 'No Disc' as the CD ejects. However when I interrupt the loading of a CD by ejecting it the display reads 'Eject'. It does beg the question why doesn't the display read 'Eject' at all times when you eject a CD?! I'm not particularly bothered by this though. I am bothered that I have to re-load mint condition CD's after receiving 'Disc Error'. It won't play Morrisey's 'Ringleader of The Tormentors' (please spare me the 'I don't blame it posts') which plays on a friends old CD8x. In fact I gave this CD to my local dealer and it wouldn't read on their 8se and 6se. A firend borrowed the new transport to partner his Dacxp and has the same problem with 'Disc Error' messages on mint condition CD's.

Oh I see. I assumed that 'Disc error' was a new message on the SE models for 'No disc'. I dont think my CD8 has 'disc error' in it's display code so couldnt comment as Ive never seen it

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. If you were to choose between CD6SE and Naim 5i, which one would you choose ?

CD8SE is out of my bounds and hence not considering ...

 

[Anonymous]

That's a bit closer, though I would probably still go for the CD6SE - I would have liked to have heard the Naim combo with the Monitor Audio RS6 speakers I listened to, but my local Naim stockist didn't have anything other than B&W in the right price range. They really are worth a listen however.

Worth listening to the Roksan Kandy as well, though it suits my listening tastes less well.

Trust your ears!

 

[Jitter]

Cummon Clare put us out our misery - when will we see a comparative review!!

 

[fr0g]

JohnDuncan:A review elsewhere had an interview with the MD of Cyrus where he stated that they had taken a deliberate path of optimising replay for 'perfect-condition' CDs, which was why it sounded so good, and that some people might find more disc errors than they were used to (I'm paraphrasing from memory).

Sounds more like excellent quick thinking to me.

 

[Hi Fi Decision]

I agree. I've played perfect CD's and they get the 'Disc Error' message. My dealer told me that Cyrus said that a 'first batch' that were released had this fault and it could be fixed. Apparently they didn't want to tell everyone(anyone?) as this was only the first batch. I think I want my money back this being my 5th dodgy Cyrus CD player in a row. A nice quality touch how the sticky back feet on the bottom of the player ping off so easily! Oh and there appears to be the odd electric type crack on the odd track which also happened on the dealers machine. Aviod this one.

 

[Anonymous]

Hooked up my new CD8SE yesterday, and have been running it in since. I have not had a single problem with it reading my CDs (even ones I have owned for 15 years).

I don't know whether there were problems with the demo batch to go out, but mine seems to be running fine.

Will update if that status changes...!

 

[Hi Fi Decision]

I spoke to Cyrus. Apparently the 'Disc Error' problem can be resolved with a software update. Cyrus are aware of some players going out with a fault causing them to make a cracking noise but weren't sure what the problem was although they hinted at a possible clocking issue. This player sounds great but if you want to own one I'd give it a while until the glitches have been ironed out.

 

[the record spot]

Hi Fi Decision:I spoke to Cyrus. Apparently the 'Disc Error' problem can be resolved with a software update. Cyrus are aware of some players going out with a fault causing them to make a cracking noise but weren't sure what the problem was although they hinted at a possible clocking issue. This player sounds great but if you want to own one I'd give it a while until the glitches have been ironed out.

Pretty inexcusable IMO - £800 for snap, crackle and POP. You gave them three chances more than I'd have done HFD. For that kind of money, you expect, new product line or no, a fully tested and performing piece of hardware. How does this kind of schoolboy error get out the door?

If this is so demanding on the condition of discs being played, it's surely not a stretch of the imagination too far to test it with a collection of discs is it? Brand new, marked, scratched, fingerprints, dust, etc?

Software upgrade or not, this sounds like a company with an eye on WHF's awards coming up and one eye too many off the ball IMO.

Cynical I know (both me and Cyrus methinks!).

 

[Hi Fi Decision]

I agree. The CD8SE is £1100 for 'snap crackle and pop' as you put it! They've also had 5 chances and not 3.

 

[John Duncan]

Canon 1D MkIII anyone?

 

[Clare Newsome]

Well, we went back to Cyrus for comment, and here's what we got...

 

[Anonymous]

Very pro-active Claire! Well done.

 

[Hi Fi Decision]

After reading the official comment from Cyrus I did indeed 'go back immediately' to my retailer who contacted Cyrus and told me my CD8Se would need to go back for a software update which would only take 3 days.. I telephoned the Service team at Cyrus who spoke to their R and D team, called me back and indeed confirmed the player needed to sent back in to Cyrus for a software update. I also commented that the player 'cracked' intermittantly and Cyrus said they were aware some players had this fault although did not want to comment what this fault was but mentioned a possible clock error. My retailer has offered me a new player as an alternative to sending mine away on my insistance. However if I have been receiving 'mixed messages' as Peter puts it, it has been from Cyrus and my dealer (after they talked to Cyrus).

 

[Anonymous]

I refrained from saying it before, but Hi Fi Decision's posts are beginning to sound like a combination of bad luck and sour grapes - and it sounds like his dealer needs a kick up the backside!

Still no problems on mine. I'm still running it in, but nonetheless it's a peach.