help improving sound on my cyrus system

jubair

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i recently bought my first hifi seperates system consisting of cyrus cd6se, 8vs2 amp, cyrus interconnect, qed xt sa speaker cable and ma rs6 speakers. it sounded great in the demo room but at home it doesn't sound quite right. the bass can be boomy on some records and the treble a bit harsh. i've only been running it for about 15-20 hours. will the sound improve with furthe running in? will changing speaker cables help? i have a budget of around £150 for speaker cables and only need 1.5- 2m on each side. my room is approximately 4x7m.
any help would be much appreciated, thanks for reading this.
 
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Anonymous

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In my experience Cyrus CD players take at least 48 to 72 hours constant playing to run in. The difference is profound. So let the whole thing run in for a couple of weeks and re-asses.

After that if the bass is still a problem try re-positioning the speakers, if still no luck experiment with bunging / partially bunging the ports.

If the treble is still a problem try soft furnishing or as a last resort you could try some diffent speakers cable - I found Atlas Hyper 2.0 to give a nice top end that's not too bright - but try to audition at home before you buy.

jules.
 
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Anonymous

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Think you will find the sound will tighten up, especially on the bass with a good 40/60hrs running in. Also you should notice the speakers will take less driving. Running the mains supply through a Tacima block will, I have found make your system sing. Keeping your mains cables well away from your interconnects and speaker cables helps too.
Hope this helps.
 
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Anonymous

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I have a Cyrus front end and pre-amp, but during the demoing I did, Cyrus/MA combo was just plain harsh, in all demo room's I heard them. Is there anyway you can contact the dealer to try some different speakers as a home trial? Id recommend Dynaudio and Spendor highly with Cyrus kit.

If this, as I suspect is not an option, Id advise Van Den Hul interconnects for 'warmer' presentation.
 

John Duncan

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Bass boom and harsh treble? Floorstanders and a metal tweeter?

It's quite a big room so you'd think that the floorstander would be alright, but you might wish to consider a smaller standmount with a soft dome.......
 
You don't make any reference to room layout. . .or indeed the contents. The difference between carpet and hard flooring is quite significant. When I recently tested a Cyrus 8 with my RS6's it wasn't as bright as I thought it might be. This machine was brand new, straight out of the box; there was no harshness at any part of the frequency range.
 

jubair

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thanks for all the advice everyone. i'm hoping the sound improves with a bit more running in. i guess i'm running in a lot of new equipment at the same time so it will take time. i don't think i would be able to exchange speakers for another pair, especially as i've thrown away the boxes. they did sound really good in the demo room, perhaps because the equipment was run in or maybe the room had better acoustics. i've read good things about atlas hyper 3.0 speaker cables, hoping that will tighten the bass maybe and take away some of the brightness. i've already spent 2300 on the sytem so don't want to spend too much more as i'm already over budget.
 

John Duncan

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Good plan. And because you've just spent £2,300, a good dealer should be willing to let you try some other things, without having to take too much of a hit on the RS6s (if you wanted to go down the route of swapping them out).
 

jubair

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i really wanted floorstanders for aesthetic reasons, the spendors were too pricey, and i wasn't impressed with the b&w ones around the 600-800 price mark. a lot of folks recommended dynaudio but they dont seem to do any floorstanders around that price either. i'm going to give it a bit more time and then maybe try some better speaker cables, perhaps kimber or atlas hyper. i've heard pure copper cables give a warmer sound?

oh yeah my room is carpeted, but not the thickest of carpets, and is well furnished.
 

Trahern

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I have to say I tried the Cyrus and MA combo and couldn't live with them. The Cyrus is very detailed and bright and with the metal tweeters in the MA's is in my view well over the top. I guess you have to decide whether you can live with it or not or whether you are prepared to take a financial 'hit'. If you decide to change then you have to decide what to keep and what to change. In my case I kept the speakers as they were part of a surround system that I really liked and changed my amp and CD player to Primare which I preferred to Arcam FMJ. However the DIVA kit would probably work just as well. If you decide to change my advice is to find a good dealer. Any good dealer will let you demo the kit at home.
 
A

Anonymous

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Keep the RS6s well away from walls and toe them in. That's probably as much as you could do to reduce the bass without plugging them. I used to have RS1s and they just boomed unless I bunged them. Unfortunately my experience of all MA RS speakers is that they boom a bit and so will be sensitive to the room and placement.

Other tricks that may or may not help give the bass more definition (and tighten it?) would be good equipment isolation. Go to Tescos and buy two granite placements for £6. Fix these to the floor with Bluetac and stand you RS6s with their feet spikes on top. This might help somewhat. It's always worth sticking CDPs and amps on top of halved squash balls too. See how you get on.

Good luck.
 
T

the record spot

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You'll need to bump up that budget a bit - the Tesco Finest Granite Chopping Boards are about a tenner each. Money very well spent.

They make ideal equipment platforms too - who needs a Seismic Sink?!
 

jubair

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i didnt try the rega speakers. in hindsight i probably did rush the buying process. if i do change any part of the system it will probably be the speakers. i do really like the look of the system so i'm going to give it another few weeks and then may be try changing the speaker cables. i hopefully can live with it for a few years and then upgarde the speakers. i spent 800 each on the cd and amp and only 600 on the speakers so i feel thats one area where my system could improve anyway.

i'll give the granite boards a try also, not got much to lose
emotion-1.gif
 
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Anonymous

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the record spot:You'll need to bump up that budget a bit - the Tesco Finest Granite Chopping Boards are about a tenner each. Money very well spent.

They make ideal equipment platforms too - who needs a Seismic Sink?!
Nah, these are the half sized place mats not the full size saucepan stands! Saucepan stands for under kit and place mats for under speakers...

:)
 
T

the record spot

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Ah! In that case, half the money, but still very well spent!
 

jubair

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thanks for all the advice, plenty to think about. what speaker cables might help other than the aforemention atlas hyper? ( i need 2m lengths and budget upto 150 quid)
 
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Anonymous

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I have had a very similar experience to you Jubair. I bought my RS 6's on the strength of a demo at Sevenoaks. I spent many hours listening to a variety of speakers and to my ears, the RS6's sounded very nice. Smooth, detailed and taught bass by the bucket load. I eventually ordered a pair of RS6's on line a few weeks later and received them just over a week ago.

My first impressions in my front room were not as expected. They sounded somewhat harsh, with a very hard midrange; not at all like they sounded in the shop. I was dissapointed.

I posted on this forum and got a mixed response. The majority of folks here have suggested a good couple of weeks running in before making any decisions, while a number of people suggested scrapping the RS 6 in favour of the Rega 3's or 5's.

I know these speakers have potential, so I am not giving up on them yet. I am going to let them bed in for a few weeks before making any decisions.

Unfortunately, I am in the process of re-decorating my front room, which has meant old furniture has been removed ready for my nice new sofa's. As my room is substantial size, (5x5m) things are very echoey in there without soft furnishings, so I am unable to evaluate my speakers just yet, anything would sound horrible in there at the moment due to poor acoustics. I have however, left my CD player running most days, so when the new furnishings arrive, I will be able to decide if i am keeping them knowing that they are well run in.

Keep us all posted with developments, as I will.
 

jubair

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yeah a lot of people seem to think cyrus and MA don't make good partners as they are both very upfront and bright sounding. i was aware of this and initially planned on getting the b&w 683 or arcaydis ak3. but i couldn't find a shop who stocks arcaydis. i did listen to the b&w's and few dynaudio's (standmounts) but they just didn't sound as exciting as the ma rs6. i listen to mainly rock, electronica, rap genres and the rs6 seemed to perform brilliantly with all the cd's i tried. there was a lot of detail, the bass was tight, and i found the sound very involving. unfortunately they just don't seem to sound the same in my lounge. but it's still early days, i'm giving it more time and going to try a few of the ideas suggested here and on the cyrusunofficial forum. i think speaker positioning, longer running in time, and maybe speaker cable change at a later date may be the key as suggested elsewhere.

thanks for all your responses, much appreciated guys (and girls?), you really are a helpful bunch. (",)

good luck blueorb, hope it works out for you, i think furnishing will make a big difference.
 

JoelSim

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Honestly don't waste your money on changing speaker cable, you need to change your speakers. Bright CD/amp + bright speakers = harsh sound. Simple as.

Try ProAc, PMC, Rega or Dali speakers and you will get a much nicer all-round sound.
 
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Anonymous

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hi jubair iv,e basically got the same system all bar the cables which are chord rumour2 and van de hul interconnects. i demoed quite a few speakers but finally settled on pmc fb1i,s, to say they blew me away is a bit of an understatement.expensive i know probably overkill with my system but they are worth every penny trust me or go listen yourself.
 

drummerman

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jubair:i recently bought my first hifi seperates system consisting of cyrus cd6se, 8vs2 amp, cyrus interconnect, qed xt sa speaker cable and ma rs6 speakers. it sounded great in the demo room but at home it doesn't sound quite right. the bass can be boomy on some records and the treble a bit harsh. i've only been running it for about 15-20 hours. will the sound improve with furthe running in? will changing speaker cables help? i have a budget of around £150 for speaker cables and only need 1.5- 2m on each side. my room is approximately 4x7m. any help would be much appreciated, thanks for reading this.

Hello jubair

Your cyrus components are very good with one or two caveats ... the 8 player improves things over the 6 in the area you're complaining about, namely bass amongst others, it is an alround better player then the 6. The 8vs, as (very) good as it is, has a slightly loose bass. Adding a psx will improve that to a small extend but not cure it entirely. You can't expect perfection from an amp and player costing what your combination has cost but the culprit is without doubt your MA's. Try some different speakers with tight punchy bass and quality tweeters such as Rega or ProAc. That will re-balance your system
 

jubair

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yeah i considered buying the cd8se but cyrus seem to think the cd6se easily outperfroms cd8x so i thought is must be pretty good. so decided to spend 800 each on the cd and amp and 600 on the speakers as i've heard the sourc and amp are more important than the speakers. if i bought the cd8se for 1100, i would have to spend more on the speakers i felt to do my cd player justice and this would probably have increased my spending by anything from 600-1000 and that would have been too much.

i don't really want to buy any more boxes just want to get the best out of my current combination. i've realised now MA/cyrus may not be the best match but i still think i can get a satisafctory sound out of it with a bit of tweaking. i'll experiment with speaker positioning and room acoustics and then maybe try some new speaker cables.

thanks everyone for all the advice.
 

JoelSim

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With the best speaker cables in the world, it's not going to change the harsh sound mate. Cut your losses and swap your speakers.
 

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