What floorstanders for Cyrus System

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Cyrus CDXT-SE

Cyrus DAC X

Cyrus Pre-VS2

Twin Cyrus 8-Powers in Bi-Amp Mode

All five are fed with Cyrus PSX-R DC power supplies

Chord Pro-DAC digital interconnect between the transport and DAC

Chord Chorus interconnects between the DAC and the pre-amp

Chord Chameleon Silver Plus interconnects between the pre and power amps

Chord Odyssey 4 speaker cables - 2 pairs in bi-amp mode

Currentr speakers are Mordaunt-Short Mezzo 6's with a Mordaunt-Short 309 subwoofer.

Thinking the speakers aren't quite right for the sources. I need something a little more dynamic, maybe, and with a bit more low-down "oomph".Musical choices are moderate middle of the road (showing my age) rock, with the odd bit of older heavy metal to annoy the neighbours.

Pet hates are music mixed for iPods, and "designer" looks that are fashionable one minute and distinctly passe' the next.

Ideal speakers would have a high quality wood finish, although piano laquer black would be okay. Aesthetics are important.

Ideas in the £1000 to £2000 bracket?

Living room environment, hardwood floors with softening rugs.

Oh, and bi or tri-wireable floorstanders only.
 
Darren, if you move this to the HiFi section you will get some great advice................(this section is mostly to show off your system with pics ) tbh i would'nt be qualified to recommend anything
emotion-6.gif


And when you decide what speakers to go with.......post back here with your pics
 
The up and coming Monitor Audio RX8 if you want low down uumph!
 
Well, here's a pic...

JnLDZYznKrCq0cac1o03ks3CwibY0103kskXLyCTKnK0a.jpg


Top is a Pro-Ject turntable, can't remember which model, but the one with the phono pre-amp built in.

Left side from top to bottom: DAC-X then five PSX-R's

Right side from top to bottom: CD-XTSe, Pre-VS2, AV Master 8 (yes I know but it works with the rest of the Cyrus gear, the spare slot is for a DAB8 tuner (or another power amp) when I get a "round two-it", dual 8-Powers.

The racks and turntable plinth are by Simon Little, as sold as pukka Cyrus kit, and are excellent by the way, far better wood than that guy who advertises on EBay IMHO (and yes, I've owned one).

And I know the wiring needs tidying up. Which raises another question - how????? With 12 or more units to plug into the wall?
 
Darren Heal:

Cyrus CDXT-SE

Cyrus DAC X

Cyrus Pre-VS2

Twin Cyrus 8-Powers in Bi-Amp Mode

All five are fed with Cyrus PSX-R DC power supplies

Chord Pro-DAC digital interconnect between the transport and DAC

Chord Chorus interconnects between the DAC and the pre-amp

Chord Chameleon Silver Plus interconnects between the pre and power amps

Chord Odyssey 4 speaker cables - 2 pairs in bi-amp mode

Currentr speakers are Mordaunt-Short Mezzo 6's with a Mordaunt-Short 309 subwoofer.

Thinking the speakers aren't quite right for the sources. I need something a little more dynamic, maybe, and with a bit more low-down "oomph".Musical choices are moderate middle of the road (showing my age) rock, with the odd bit of older heavy metal to annoy the neighbours.

Pet hates are music mixed for iPods, and "designer" looks that are fashionable one minute and distinctly passe' the next.

Ideal speakers would have a high quality wood finish, although piano laquer black would be okay. Aesthetics are important.

Ideas in the £1000 to £2000 bracket?

Living room environment, hardwood floors with softening rugs.

Oh, and bi or tri-wireable floorstanders only.

Hi Darren Heal

You should consider Monitor Audio's new Silver RX8 speakers (RRP £1000 standard finish or £1200 gloss Black/White) or ATC's SCM40 speakers at £2044 (Cherry) or £2185 (Black Ash).

Dynaudio's Excite X32 at £1765 are also excellent but they are only single wired.

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft
 
Dynos for me. They have brilliant synergy with your Cyrus kit, although I would give serious consideration to the new MA RX8's. Not heard them but from personal experience of RS6's they could, and probably, will be too bright on hard flooring.
 
Spendor A6's must be worth auditioning.

Gorgeous system by the way.
 
Hi Darren

With a couple of £k you have pretty much the choice everything you could possibly want!

Our favourite 3, which consist of the ATC SCM40's, ProAc D18's, and the Spendor A6's are your first port of call. All three are quite different, and some will suit some people more than others. The Spendors are the smoothest of the bunch, allowing an easy losten with most music genres, and work quite well close to a wall, and also don't really need to be toed in veyr much. The ProAc's are a more lively listen, with a bit more energy and immediacy to them. These do like a biy of free space as their bass performance for their size is pretty damn good. The ATC's are a leaner sound, giving a little more emphasis on the midrange and treble, allowing you to hear more of what's going on, but isn't going to sugar coat anything that's less than perfectly recorded. These work very well close to a wall as they're a sealed design.

To add to the list, there's the XQ30/40 (either side of your max price point), which are more like the SCM40's in their presentation, but have the sparkle of the D18's. Being front ported, they also work well against a wall. There's also the B&W CM9's, Monitor Audio GS20's, PMC FB1i, and the Dynaudio Excite X32's, but ball four need fairly careful consideration when it comes to room tuning due to their tonal balance, both being a little on the bass heavy side. They can all be 'tuned' to some extent (except the PMC's) by using the port bungs, but I usually try not to use them as they're usually quite dense bungs which changes the tonal balance a little too much, taking away the manufacturer's intended nature of the speaker.

All in all quite a nice position to be in, unless you don't have the time! If you can't find a speaker you can live with for decades from all that then you'd really need to lower your standards.......
emotion-5.gif


Regards

David
 
Right, so the shortlist developing so far is (drum roll):

  • Monitor Audio Silver RX8
  • Monitor Audio GS20
  • Dynaudio Excite X32
  • Spendor A6
  • ATC SCM40
  • ProPC D18

It's significant that there are two different Monitor Audio recommendations, and a quick look at their website (yeah, I know, choosing speakers by how they look on a website is stupid in the extreme, but then again, some people - including at least two I know - chose their spouses that way
emotion-40.gif
).

A crucial question for me is whether the Monitor Audios can be bi or even tri-amped. I've got two power amps, after all, and wouldn't mind a third, although in a 2-bed flat that might be a tad too much for the neighbours to bear. (In my old flat, the guy across the hall had his own bagpipe business, so it wasn't such an issue). That really isn't the main issue, however, as I expect to be moving back to Texas towards the end of the year, where we have a "Texas size" living room, all be it full of the wife's and stepkids' junk FOR NOW.

A second crucial question is whether or not any upgrade will be a real benefit, rather than just something to brag about down the pub.

A third and final question is whether or not the GS60's should be added to the list. They're a bit above the £2000 ceiling I had in mind, but if they're going to be the last pair of speakers I buy before some well-meaning geek invents implants to put directly into my brain (rather than just my ears), it might be worth it.

Oh yeah, the Texas thing. I'm English, currently living near Aberdeen. Yes, I'm in the oil business - underwater pipelines and subsea production system design and construction. My wife is Texan and I'm planning on moving back there once my visa comes through. I spent seven years there before and was dismayed that the only choices apart from MaoMart seemed to be Bestbuy (think Comet or Currys on a bad day) or Conns (how aptly named), pay through the nose for over-rated American stuff, or buy "foreign" and hand over limbs, internal organs or a combination of both. QED the idea in buying up all this stuff now is to take it back with me. I can deal with the voltage issue, as we live about 3 miles from Compaq, sorry HP, world HQ and there are more electronics engineers than you can shake a warm soldering iron at in the neighbourhood.
 
When I had my Cyrus kit a few years ago I loved my Proac Tablettes with it, now I've got a pair of Proac Studio 140's but no Cyrus (yet!). I got them secondhand for £800 and I love 'em. They'll have the low end grunt that you're seeking. I had a listen to monitor audio RS8's, but I think they'd be too clinical with Cyrus kit, don't know about the new RX range.
 
IMHO if you really like the Cyrus sound and want some real grunt to push through your speakers I'd seriously look at the top of the Cyrus tree and Mono X. Selling your 8 powers and 2 PSX-R's will give you a good chunk of money to put towards the mono's. Adding more 8 powers and bi/tri amping isn't the best solution in my opinion especially when you consider an 8 power and PSX-R new is nearly the same price as a mono X amp. The downside is you need to buy the monos in pairs but they'll give a lot more than bi/tri amped 8 powers with PSX-R ever will.
 
IanS1:IMHO if you really like the Cyrus sound and want some real grunt to push through your speakers I'd seriously look at the top of the Cyrus tree and Mono X. Selling your 8 powers and 2 PSX-R's will give you a good chunk of money to put towards the mono's. Adding more 8 powers and bi/tri amping isn't the best solution in my opinion especially when you consider an 8 power and PSX-R new is nearly the same price as a mono X amp. The downside is you need to buy the monos in pairs but they'll give a lot more than bi/tri amped 8 powers with PSX-R ever will.

Fair point, but the twin 8-Powers kind of grew out of having an 8VS2, then adding an 8-Power, then getting a really good deal on a Pre-VS2 plus 8-Power combo (basically I got the Pre-VS2 for free) when Cyrus were stock-room clearing just before the Bristol show and their new product line launch earlier this year, then selling the 8VS2. The PSX-R's were mostly picked up on Fleabay along the way.

Now I've got the 8-Powers, spending another two and a half grand on power amps and still having under-spec'd speakers isn't the route I want to go down. I'd rather spend the money on the speakers first, and wait for the "next great thing" to come out of the Cyrus stable. Given all of the Cyrus power amps are virtually vintage by the standards of the rest of their range, a new line might (my thought only, I hasten to add) be in the wings. I can, of course, go halfway, and run the 8-Powers in twin mono mode, if more power was all I was after.
 
Darren Heal:

Right, so the shortlist developing so far is (drum roll):

  • Monitor Audio Silver RX8
  • Monitor Audio GS20
  • Dynaudio Excite X32
  • Spendor A6
  • ATC SCM40
  • ProPC D18

Decet shortlist Darren, but Dynaudio and Spendor can be removed as they're only single wired. My money would be it coming down to a showdown between the ATC's and the ProAcs......
 
How about Focal's Chorus 816/826/836?

Dynamic, detailed sound, very good mid-range and 826/836 does good job with low-end frequencies.

also looks like You described -
 
FrankHarveyHiFi:Decet shortlist Darren, but Dynaudio and Spendor can be removed as they're only single wired. My money would be it coming down to a showdown between the ATC's and the ProAcs.....

And the semi-finalists are:

  • Monitor Audio Silver RX8
  • Monitor Audio GS20
  • ATC SCM40
  • ProAC D18
  • Monitor Audio GS60 (late wild card entry)

The ATCs seem like they need to be tri-wired, which basically adds around £1300 for a third power amp and PSX-R to their installed cost. The ProACs look a little "agricultural" (yeah, I know, function over form and all that but they have to sit in my living room) and only have a single bass / midrange driver.

The Monitor Audio RX8s and GS60s are both 3-ways and bi-wireable.

I think I have a shortlist of two, and it will just come down to how much overtime I squeezed in last month and whether or not I end up paying for my wife's 2007 car wreck or not (long story, let's just say her Landrover Discovery 1, Nissan sedan 0) to decide between the two. Anyone want a used pair of Mezzo 6's??
 
Have you tried asking over at the cyrusunofficial.co.uk forum? Plenty of very knowledgeable chaps on there.

I tried the GS60's on a home demo least year. I found them quite bright with my Cyrus kit but that may be to your liking, nice big sound though. Eventually I went for some second hand Dynaudio Contours 1.8 mk II, nice big sound with the added bonus of not being bright. I'm just considering whether to upgrade to the Contour S3.4's. The downside is Dynaudio aren't bi-wireable but don't let that put you off them.
 
As one of them from CU (not saying anything about being knowledgable though..) I thought I'd offer you my two penneth.

If you want to run any Monitor Audio's you need to be looking at Mono X otherwise the whole tonal balance with be mid to high with limited dynamic range. Also you need to carefully match your cables (avoid silver!) so that the natural lean and forward tendencies of both Cyrus & MA don't get out of control and become very fatiguing.

I have ATC SCM40's and you don't need to tri-wire or tri amp! You can use the best quality single wire you want to spend £ on and use jumpers to the other 2 sets of connectors. I'm currently sat here listening with 3 sets of cable running to LF, MF, HF like an idiot - so I'm just about to make a pair of jumpers out of mains cable and some spades - It'll do just as good a job.

The ATC's are neutral and dynamic and also unfussy about positioning which is a real bonus - being able to stick them against the wall if you want to and no pesky bass ports to worry about.

Given the amount you're considering investing I would highly recommend home demo's - MA may not be to your taste in your room for example.

Also I would not discount single connector brands like Dynaudio - they have invested a lot in their crossover design so that you don't have to worry about single or biwire paranoia!
 
Darren Heal:The ProACs look a little "agricultural" (yeah, I know, function over form and all that but they have to sit in my living room) and only have a single bass / midrange driver.

The Studio 140's aren't the best looking speakers in the world, but having said that Proacs wood finishes are of a good standard and the Studio 140's have the extra bass driver. I wouldn't discount them, I think you'll find Monitor Audio too bright with Cyrus.
 
Since you have the monitor audios on your list, I let you know what I've learned. I've exchanged a few emails with an insider at MA and we discussed the RX line versus the GS line. They are extremely similar in everything except price. I would strongly recommend against buy GS when you can have pretty much the same speakers with the RX line for less than half the money.

If you really want something better than the RXs from Monitor Audio, wait about 10 months. The new GX line will be something special (can't say more than that right now...).
 
Darren Heal:And the semi-finalists are:
  • Monitor Audio Silver RX8
  • Monitor Audio GS20
  • ATC SCM40
  • ProAC D18
  • Monitor Audio GS60 (late wild card entry)

The ATCs seem like they need to be tri-wired, which basically adds around £1300 for a third power amp and PSX-R to their installed cost. The ProACs look a little "agricultural" (yeah, I know, function over form and all that but they have to sit in my living room) and only have a single bass / midrange driver.

The Monitor Audio RX8s and GS60s are both 3-ways and bi-wireable.

I think I have a shortlist of two, and it will just come down to how much overtime I squeezed in last month and whether or not I end up paying for my wife's 2007 car wreck or not (long story, let's just say her Landrover Discovery 1, Nissan sedan 0) to decide between the two. Anyone want a used pair of Mezzo 6's??The speakers you mention aren't 3 way - they're known as '2 and a half way', it's when there's no dedicated midrange cone, and the speaker uses a mid/bass driver as normal, and the another bass cone for lower frequencies, around 150/200Hz downwards.

The Response D18's may only be 2 way, but that doesn't mean they lack against any speaker in your shortlist. Spendor use a 3 way system in their A5's, butheir next model up uses a 2 way system - it's all about design and making it work properly, more than making it 3 way rather than 2 way. Some of the best speakers in the world are 2 way, even 1!

As for the newer RX over GS mentioned, they still sound different. The RX, now being much smoother, doesn't have that crisp edge to notes that the GS does, so still worth an audition.
 
How about Yamaha Soavo 1 (from 2006) at £2k? Very dynamic and transparent floorstander apparently. Also, Yamaha 1.1's have just come out, so you might pick the originals up for a discounted price - the new ones sadly clock in at £3k (that's some price hike!).

yamaha-soavo-1.1510192.jpg


EDIT: £1700 at HiFix (unlikely you'll want to go down the online only route, but I mention it for what it's worth), they should also come with a standard Yamaha 2 year warranty.
 
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