Hardware Reviews

Cyrus 40 CD proves that silver discs rock

CYRUS 40 CD review https://the-ear.net

Cyrus 40 CD player

UK audio manufacturer Cyrus has launched a new family of separates, the 40 Series. It’s a re-think of its existing popular range that at debut comprises just four products, but is likely to grow further.

Aesthetically the new look is sleeker, some might say more up-to-date, with dark glass, TFT displays and less angularity than the style of the older products. Internally, the four units – a streamer, a power supply, an integrated amplifier and a CD player – retain the functionality familiar to a generation of Cyrus users, but feature circuitry that both takes advantage of today’s more advanced components and uses fresh thinking about how they can be combined for maximum performance.

The 40 CD player exemplifies this approach. According to Cyrus head of marketing Chris Hutcheson it blends a quality OEM transport mechanism with a more advanced realisation by Cyrus of its own highly-regarded in-house servo circuity. The aim is to achieve right-first-time recovery of the information coded into the pits on CDs and thereby reduce the load on the error correction which almost inevitably results in degraded sound quality. The all-new DAC built into the player has an ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M chipset at its heart and the player’s internal power supply is also a new Cyrus design, one that’s notably more sophisticated than that employed in the company’s previous players.

Cyrus 40 CD player review https://the-ear.net

Connectivity-wise the 40 CD has a less-well populated rear panel than some alternatives. Apart from RCA analogue outputs – two pairs for some reason known only to Cyrus – we find optical and S/PDIF coaxial outs that enable the 40 CD to be used with an external DAC. RJ45 and USB sockets allow in-the-field updates via internet and memory stick. There’s also a socket to connect the 40 CD to the 40 Series external PSU.

At the front, an illuminated Cyrus logo is red when in standby and white when active. Virtual buttons appear below it when a CD is posted into the slot, but most users will likely drive the player via the supplied remote control which allows all four 40 Series products to be managed from the comfort of the couch.

Muscular

It’s been many years since I last heard a Cyrus product and the 40 CD delivered a shock to expectations – in a good way. Connected to Quiescent T100MPA monoblocks via an Icon 5 passive line stage, it delivered a confidently muscular performance, with large servings of energy and tonal density, and crisp timing.

Cyrus 40 CD player review https://the-ear.net

It’s impossible to know which of the key elements – the drive, the new servo control, the new DAC or the new power supply – are the predominant contributor here; more likely it’s a blend of all four and a testament to the quality of the design intelligence Cyrus has flexed to produce the 40 CD. It’s built to a low-ish price, yet delivers a performance that I consider punches higher than buyers might expect.

The review sample was one of a pre-production run and exhibited a firmware bug that led the unit to flop into standby after 20 minutes even if a CD was playing. The easy work-around was to use the configuration menu (accessed via the handset) to turn off the auto-standby entirely. I am informed that this bug has been firmly squashed for production, so I mention this not to criticise but partly for the sake of disclosure and partly in order to introduce the 40 CD’s menu which provides further pleasant surprises. Not only does Cyrus enable users to change the brightness of the touch-sensitive virtual buttons on the front panel buttons through five levels, but the TFT display is also similarly stepped. The (de-bugged) auto-shut-down can be set to any of six delay periods, and there’s a further sub-menu that gives access to eight different user-selectable filter options. Overall, Cyrus’s control menu is sharp to look at, responsive and easily navigable.

Cyrus 40 CD player review https://the-ear.net

I suspect that many buyers will leave the alternative filters alone once they have tried them. Their effect is subtle in the main; even the benchmark resolution provided by the Quiescent monoblocks and Icon 5 line stage driving into PMC MB2se monitors failed to telegraph gross gains or differences and in the end I lost interest and simply accepted Cyrus’s default filter. There’s absolutely no implication of mediocrity here, though. The default filter is linear phase apodising and on this setting the review sample 40 CD exhibited commendably low levels of ringing and aliasing, along with the crisp timing already noted. I suspect that Cyrus chose to allow user access to the filters because they are built in to the ESS DAC chip; in other words, it was more a case of ‘we might as well’ rather than one of responding to a particular market signal.

We are not alone

Cyrus is in two minds about whether we should buy a 40 CD as a stand-alone, in other words as an element in a hybrid system using kit from multiple other vendors, or whether it wants us to buy all four of the new products – streamer, amplifier, power supply and CD player, thus keeping it in the family, so to speak. Evidence for this is that the new streamer and amplifier both also contain DACs – DACs identical to the design of that in the 40 CD. The outcome for customers that do buy all four of the new 40 Series products is that along with good looks and (on the strength of how the CD player performs) good sonic performance, they’ve also paid for three DACs when they actually only need one. Only Cyrus knows if this duplication increases its market footprint, but it does seem a rather odd approach.

Cyrus 40 CD player review https://the-ear.net

There’s no equivocation though over the 40 CD’s sonic performance. I used the words confident and muscular earlier and that’s certainly the overriding impression the player gives. It combines the fine detail retrieval that the top ESS DAC chips are known for with a degree of expressive drive that is relatively uncommon when we consider alternatives DACs that sport the same core internals. We get impressive, almost forensic micro-dynamics and spatial cues, but accompanied by the kind of dynamic expression that tells our brain we are closer to the original as-recorded event.

Surely all contemporary transport/DAC combinations do just the same? No. The 40 CD is therefore more of a complete and well-rounded transcription device than some of its peers with the result that listening sessions are more foot-tappingly satisfying. There’s a bit of a big-band thing going on in the review household at present and so I dug out one of the current favourites, Broad Horizon, the 2016 album by Billy Cobham and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. Any one will do, but the last track in particular, Red Baron, allows me to highlight what the 40 CD does well and a surprising number of alternatives do not. The track is one of three parts. It starts with a drum solo of such a style and mix of tempi that even jazz neophytes would easily identify it as being the work of Cobham. The 40 CD transcribes with pleasing subtlety the well-recorded differences between the textural and tonal qualities of the drums in his kit, and when in a brief moment Cobham fires a staccato salvo of pulses from the kick drums the Cyrus allows us to hear that the air-compressing gut-punches have tonal detail too. However, the 40 CD’s strong timing abilities also let us know that the sometimes rather wayward underlying beat we hear during the solo is not creative slowing or speeding, but actually rather surprising sloppiness. The Cyrus shows us that Cobham’s not having his best day at the office on this take (it was ever thus – Ed).

Cyrus 40 CD player review https://the-ear.net

The second part of the track opens with the orchestra’s horn section rising like the morning sun to blaze a motif that bafflingly has absolutely nothing to do with the tune’s signature theme that follows. However, even if musically it is a rather strange interjection, it does allow us to hear that the 40 CD treats brass with respect for the complexity of sound that it generates; we hear proper blatt and bleat along with a satisfyingly natural weighty growl that (finally) segues into the funky Red Baron theme.

At first it’s just piano and drums, but the soundscape builds until, with the whole orchestra bopping along, the theme is stated fully first on oil drums, and then handed around. With the orchestra now at full chat, it’s the kind of material that has lesser players throw the towel in and just present a wall of sound. However, the 40 CD handles the complexity well, allowing us to hear the orchestra as a whole while revealing the underlying multiple cross-rhythms and musical exchanges as they emerge. When things get really loud it doesn’t collapse into digital white-out but continues to deliver a subjectively linear reading with powerful low-end weight and detail to accompany the shrieking of the horns.

Conclusion

At circa £3,000, is the 40 CD a midrange player or a high end player? I guess the answer to that depends upon the depth of the buyer’s pocket. Either way, I consider it to be a remarkably sophisticated product for the money. Cyrus should take a bow.

Specifications:

Type: CD player
Disc types: CD
Digital inputs: no
Analogue outputs: 2x single ended
Digital outputs: coaxial, optical
Transport mechanism: not specified
DAC: ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M, Hyperstream IV dual
Dimensions (H x W x D): 88 x 220 x 365mm
Weight: 5.2kg
Warranty: 5 years

Price when tested:
£2,995/€3.595/$3,995
Manufacturer Details:

Cyrus Audio
cyrusaudio.com

Type:

CD player

Author:

Kevin Fiske

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