What is the weakest link in my HIFI system?

[Pjames]

Hi, this is my first post but i have been reading the WHF forums since the new year and find them very useful.

I would like to here peoples opinion on my first real HIFI system, which i am very pleased with so far.

Cyrus 7 amp

Dynaudio Audience 42 speakers

CA DacMagic

Airport Express

Carnival Silverscreen speaker cables

Merlin Bach interconnecting cables

True Colours Coral optical cable

Atacama Nexus 6 speaker stands

Streaming Apple Lossless with Itunes

I'm looking at what would be the best area for upgrading my system as i can see there are many knowledgeable people on this forum.

Thanks.

 

[the record spot]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

What do you perceive to be aa weakness in your current set-up?

 

[Pjames]

Hi thanks for the reply,

unfortunately i am no audiophile and do not have clue really

. I'm hopeing someone can guide me purely by the hardware listed as to what should be upgraded first.

 

[JoelSim]

Have you got a good, solid rack?

 

[the record spot]

OK, well, first things first, I'd always suggest you need to decide what you think the problem is if one exists. If you like what you hear, are you planning to change because you think there really is a shortcoming in your system, or is it change for the sake o fchange.

I don't do the hard disc/music streaming thing, but if we look at your DAC, you might say you could reasonably upgrade that to the £650 Stello SA100, but you then need to decide if that a worthwhile step. Is the upgrade going to give you a big difference over your DACMagic that is going to be worth handing over that amount of money?

Same applies to speakers, amp, etc...hence my query, and it makes not one jot of a difference under the sun (or out of it) whether you're an audiophile or not. Most of us just like the music, the rest is incidental!

 

[Pjames]

Hi,

i have a blok 4 stand, very heavy about 50kgs.

 

[Pjames]

Hi,

i would have to say that there is know problem to my ears but would like to know what people think is right logical upgrade.

I appreciate your time.

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Pjames, your digital set up is as good as many people will ever feel they need. I would take a guess that you would audition DACS worth 3 or 4 times the price of your Dacmagic and if you were honest with yourself would not feel it was worth the investment. Digital music quickly finds its top end in my opinion. Put it this way, I think if you upgraded your amp or speakers you would notice a lot more difference than upgrading your digital source.

People often fall into the trap of wanting to upgrade their hardware without concentrating on what it should all be about, buying music! Imagine the feeling of having a whole bunch of new cds or records to listen to compared to spending £100 on a mains conditioner. No contest in my opinion.

People aren't giving you a lot of recommendations because your asking a very generic question. Do you want more bass? More soundstage? What sort of music do you like?

You seem to me to have a nice little well matched set up. If I was you and had a few hundred to spend on upgrading I would invest in a starter turntable and phone stage and get yourself a new hobby by collecting records. Vinyl is much more enjoyable and lifelike than digital music and you could get yourself a whole new hobby.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Pjames:
Hi, this is my first post but i have been reading the WHF forums since the new year and find them very useful.

I would like to here peoples opinion on my first real HIFI system, which i am very pleased with so far.

Cyrus 7 amp

Dynaudio Audience 42 speakers

CA DacMagic

Airport Express

Carnival Silverscreen speaker cables

Merlin Bach interconnecting cables

True Colours Coral optical cable

Atacama Nexus 6 speaker stands

Streaming Apple Lossless with Itunes

I'm looking at what would be the best area for upgrading my system as i can see there are many knowledgeable people on this forum.

Thanks.

I see it as a pretty well balanced system. Other than getting floorstanders instead of your Dynaudios, I wouldn't change anything unless you were going to a whole new level.

 

[Pjames]

Hi FolsomBlues, i'm in a smallish flat and space is limited, i find that streaming music to be very convenient and love using my Ipod Touch to control what i'm listening to. A friend of mine recently purchased what was for him his first decent system and i went with him to places like Rayleigh HIFI and Sevenoaks (the first time for boths of us) and we were both blown away by how good a half decent system could sound. So it got me thinking and i started reading mags/internet and put together my system from Ebay and stores via internet (not really the done thing i know).

So to here you say i have 'a nice well matched set up' is the feed back i guess i'm looking to hear.I have been thinking of upgrading the amp but wasn't to sure if say the speakers or somethink else were a weaker part of my system.I listen to a very wide range of music rock/pop/acoustic.

I think your right about 'people often fall into the trap of wanting to upgrade their hardware
without concentrating on what it should all be about, buying music!'

Thankyou for your time.

 

[Pjames]

Hi Gerrardasnails, i'm pleased to see that you think the system is balanced, i guess i needed to know weather there were any obvious imbalances in my system that needed changing.

Thank you.

 

[Anonymous]

IME you can never have enough power for Dynaudios - even the cheap ones will improve no end with more watts up them. The Cyrus 7 is probably the weakest link in your system. I had Dyn 52SE with a Cyrus 6, then a Cyrus pre-X and aPA7.5's, which were better.

Switching to a Rotel RCH-10 passive pre and RHB-10 power really showed what the Dyns were capable of. Much, much better sound than the Cyrus set-up, for less money.

 

[matthewpiano]

I'd agree with the all the cautionary posts about changing for the sake of it. If you can't identify a weakness, or an area of reproduction that you want to improve, I'd leave it be and spend the money on music.

However, I do also agree with Bin Clankem that your amp is probably the item which could most usefully be improved. I tried a Cyrus 7 for a while and, although it is excellent in terms of detail I think something like a Roksan Kandy would make a better all-rounder.

 

[Anonymous]

I also use AE/DACMagic in my system and on the brink of spending money on a more expensive DAC - Cyrus DAC X, but after comparing the DACMagic and the DAC X, I decided the price difference of £1,000 cannot be justified by the improvement in sound quality. Yes DAC X is better in terms of imaging and separation than the DACMagic but not 6 times better if you look at their RRPs. The DACMagic punches well above its weight in my opinion and yours will serve you well.

I would agree with other posters about your amp; if you like the Cyrus sound, there are plenty of very good deals out there on the new or second hand 8VS2 integrated amps because of the arrival of the new XPd series of integrated amps. The 8VS2 has 10 extra watts of power over the Cyrus 7 which will help drive your nice speakers. Take your own speakers to a dealers and demo the 8VS2 and you may be very impressed. And the price you pay depends on whether you buy new from dealers (£550 to £600), or second hand on ebay (from £350 to £450), but either will be cheaper than the £750 for a new Roksan Kandy .

The other thing you might wish to try is to home-demo some speaker cables and interconnects, most dealers will be happy to loan you a few pairs to try (after leaving a deposit of course). They may not "improve" your system by night/day differences to your ears, but they may give you some ideas of whether you are getting the right tonal balance, imaging etc. It is difficult to know what you might be missing unless you try alternatives. Same with power cables, Clearer Audio does a 60 day money back guarantee so another opportunity to try something new. If you don't like them, return them!

"Tweaking" is part of the pleasure of Hi Fi

 

[Pjames]

Thank you for all your comments,

i agree that the Cyrus amp is under powered for the Dynaudios and will take a look at some amps.

Thank you all.

 

[Craig M.]

or change your speakers to something like pmc db1i. i demoed some when i was upgrading from audience 42's, i eventually got dyn focus 110, but the pmc's where really nice and i thought had a similarish sound to the audience 42's but where better in every regard - punchier bass, clearer mid, more detailed treble. could be an option if you want to keep the amp. you can get locked into a never ending quest for current with dynaudio speakers.