Rega Brio - R vs Cyrus 8vs2

stereoman

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Hello to you...have heard many positive reviews of Rega Brio-R. Cyrus offers excellent sound quality too. (I'm familiar with Cyrus but never heard Rega) How these two compare to each other ?
 

Ketan Bharadia

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Both are good amps. The Cyrus sounds crisper and more precise while the Rega has more of a sense of fun. I think the Cyrus is ultimately the more detailed of the two, but that isn't always the most important thing.
 
stereoman said:
Thanks all. The good question will be - what is more important in music ? Detail or fun ? I need to simply take a listen to this Rega's famous musicality.
Since seeing your question earlier, I've now read the latest WHF where the new Brio is compared to the Cambridge CXA60. The latter was amp of the year but they prefer the Rega for similar reasons to those Ketan highlights above.
 

drummerman

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As you move up the rega range, amplifiers get more detailed and controlled. Less in your face.

With smaller cheaper speakers the brio r 2017 will likely sound more animated and the lack of bass control will probably be a bonus.

Move to larger or smaller better speakers and some of those traits may not be so desirable anymore.

Cyrus 8series is upgradeable.
 
Given the OP has the Cyrus 8VS, personally I'd say the newer Cyrus 8XP would be more of an upgrade. My experience of any upgrade (any make) to a MKII or VS2 tends to be subtle.

Having heard both amps, I would say the VS2 is more speaker dependent. Drummerman could probably elaborate more as he's a Cyrus fanboy.

Not heard any of the Brio amps.
 

stereoman

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plastic penguin said:
Given the OP has the Cyrus 8VS, personally I'd say the newer Cyrus 8XP would be more of an upgrade. My experience of any upgrade (any make) to a MKII or VS2 tends to be subtle.

Having heard both amps, I would say the VS2 is more speaker dependent. Drummerman could probably elaborate more as he's a Cyrus fanboy.

Not heard any of the Brio amps.

I have just upgraded my Cyrus 8vs to 8vs2. I just love Cyrus for the amazing sound control. 8vs2 is on the way now...so I will see whether really it makes a subtle difference as the reviewers say. As to Rega, although I never heard it, something tells me it is indeed better sounding than CA but better or on a par with Cyrus ? I really do not know. Good musicality is also very important. I heard once CA and thought it was much overrated. Nothing special. Rotel amps on the other hand are really nice sounding.
 

stereoman

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Ok as promised. A short personal review of older "Cyrus 8vs2" model. To start with - power switch on the back. An important thing. You need to make sure the amp has been on a few hours after plugging in. This stabilizes the transformator and components. in normal operation it should never be switched off. Never judge the sound right after plugging it in - give it some time. Now, the sound.

Tested with Leema Xero speakers. Sorry I will use a bit of my own terminology. First of all - a few seconds of the initial hearing gives you three important things. The smooth ( flowing sound ) across whole frequency, detail ( resolution of the cymbals, guitar sound is very detailed and airy ), clean treble never sounds agressive but has enough presence. In 8vs treble was also never agressive but much more prominent in comparison to midrange. The soundstage is not wide nor narrow, it just gives you a modest instrument placement. Enough to be satisfied. The overall sound is never coloured - it is very neutral. With Leema Xero the sound is very close to studio sound giving no coloration at all but the excitment of presenting rather everything what is being put on a record properly. This is enough because a listener never loses anything from the recording. The sound is never pepped up - just focused on being as "clean" as possible. Bass is quality one rather than boomy what is a big advantage . Cyrus 8vs2 presents the music a bit more rounded up than 8vs. Making the enjoment from music exactly like you hear music from radio and get this "dynamic radio compression excitement" although it has nothing to do with compression. The power is absolutely enough. Driving 6 Ohm 85dB Leema without no problems. 8vs as well. 8vs is leaner in sound but just a bit. Overall, true - 8vs2 sounds a bit better - but rather in context of being more "creamy". There is nothing to dislike about this amp in terms of sound etc. A very proof itself showing how you do not need any bass, treble knobs and please forgive me - the loudness buttons. No. 8vs2 is all about the most direct sound which aims for studio reproduction. Summing up - both are very good amps - but with the advantage of the 8vs2 for being more rounded up and accomplished without losing anything from the previous models - the most important - resolution. A great amp for listeners focused on neutral studio reproduction.
 
That all sounds positive, stereoman. Although not heard the 8vs i have read before that the '2' has smoothed off the rough edges. Your views seem to confirm that.

Would be interested to gauge your views on the old Dynaudio Audience 52 or 52SE. Did hear these years ago with the original Cyrus 8 in a shop, and the pairing sounded impressive.
 

stereoman

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plastic penguin said:
That all sounds positive, stereoman. Although not heard the 8vs i have read before that the '2' has smoothed off the rough edges. Your views seem to confirm that.

Would be interested to gauge your views on the old Dynaudio Audience 52 or 52SE. Did hear these years ago with the original Cyrus 8 in a shop, and the pairing sounded impressive.

Yes quite a few years ago I heard Cyrus / Dynaudio combo. As far as I remember the sound was more about punchy bass / mids but they lacked a bit the resolution of monitor LSs unfortunately what made the sound a bit dry and a bit muffled. I cannot really comment further because it was a long time ago and I only made a quick listen. I know that I got positive impression from Spendor A1 / Cyrus. I heard that Dynaudio has changed their management in production line ? I think that the new Dynaudio can sound different and maybe better ? I know that "Special forty" gets only very good reviews across all HiFi magazines. I wish I could try cheaper Dynos with Cyrus out.
 
Like you it was an awful long time ago. More recently I heard Dyn Contour S1.3 on the end of a Naim XS - incredibly impressive. The downside of the Contours is they need shedloads of room. The cabinets are horrendously deep. You could put wheels on those Contours and drive them to the shops *wink*

Anyhooo... it seems the Leema Xeros are a good match with Cyrus -- not heard any Leema speakers.
 

stereoman

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plastic penguin said:
Like you it was an awful long time ago. More recently I heard Dyn Contour S1.3 on the end of a Naim XS - incredibly impressive. The downside of the Contours is they need shedloads of room. The cabinets are horrendously deep. You could put wheels on those Contours and drive them to the shops *wink*

Anyhooo... it seems the Leema Xeros are a good match with Cyrus -- not heard any Leema speakers.

Lol. Yep, the Contours are rather biggish. Leemas are very transparent speakers. They require not much power (as many people think) but definitely good quality electronics. Otherwise they will only reproduce the drawbacks of the system and will be pretty unlistenable. With good source and amp they will give a sweet sound. The strongest point of Leemas are teriffic detail retrieval and quick response with very good vocal reproduction. Very well balanced across the whole spectrum not too bright and not too dull. The first speakers of all I had that made a huge impression on me. They will be not to everyone's liking though because of their dry sound and a bit narrow soundstage. But again, amazingly good speakers offering truthful monitor sound.
 

Alberich

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More love here for the 8vs2.

Was planning on buying an 8XP originally a while back but when at my dealers I was fortunate enough to be able to do a side by side with an 8Vs2 and for my ears the Vs2 just had a bit more musicality and enjoyment to it.
Same typical Cyrus resolution and detail but seemed to present it in a more spacious and less fatiguing manner than the XP.

Speakers used were a couple of price brackets below - Dynaudio DM 2/6 , which were my speakers at the time so I may have missed out on some of the finer qualities the XP had to offer.

Stupidly sold the Vs2 after a time but I count myself very lucky I was able to repurchase it of the same bloke I sold it to a couple of months later.

It will never leave my possession again I'm certain of that.
Have paired a range of speakers with it since , from System audio to Sonus Faber to Magnepans and have never tired of the way it dishes up the music.
Legendary amp !

Ps. Stereoman, my amp has that same power cord wobble.
 

stereoman

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I appreciate what you're saying Alberich. This amp ( especially providing that it goes with good quality speakers ) is probably one of the best amps ever produced within this sound league. The synergy of Leema speakers and Cyrus is also one of the greatest I have ever heard though I wish sometimes I could get more upbeat bass. As to the cord - I think Cyrus back inlet is of the proper very good quality but they supply the units with cheaper cables that fit a bit wobbly. You can tell that by changing for better cable and they sit properly in. It might be also that Cyrus do it on purpose to prevent sudden inlet rip or amp jerk when the cord is stepped on and pulled accidentally - but that can be a bit crazy theory...
 
Q

QuestForThe13thNote

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I was going to recommend a speaker change as I think if you wanted a bigger sound upgrade for not much cash, I'd go there. But I see you changed the amp anyway. I've owned cyrus stuff from the basic intergrated to signature amps I currently have, a good upgrade is adding an x power. But I tried that atlas hyper and I didn't really like it with my speakers, but obviously every speaker is different. It was lacking a bit of detail and dynamics, and if you went for something like chord odyssey or clearway speaker cable, you'd get added detail resolution with the Cyrus. Depends on tastes of course.
 

stereoman

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QuestForThe13thNote said:
I was going to recommend a speaker change as I think if you wanted a bigger sound upgrade for not much cash, I'd go there. But I see you changed the amp anyway. I've owned cyrus stuff from the basic intergrated to signature amps I currently have, a good upgrade is adding an x power. But I tried that atlas hyper and I didn't really like it with my speakers, but obviously every speaker is different. It was lacking a bit of detail and dynamics, and if you went for something like chord odyssey or clearway speaker cable, you'd get added detail resolution with the Cyrus. Depends on tastes of course.

Thanks , will try them out. Hyper 2.0 is not so bad but true, it is a bit of a whimsical cable. It favours good speakers and with the bad ones it will even make them worse. But again, this is a good cable. If the ones you recommended are better to my taste , I will know after trying them out. As to the speaker / amp synergy - the Leemas sing wonderful with this amp giving a studio like bass response. Great for listeners who favour quality bass over the boomy one.
 

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