CYRUS strives to make the best audio systems in the World today. For some customers hi-fi is a hobby, for some it is a way to unwind and escape the pressures of our busy lives. Whatever music means to you, Cyrus hi-fi systems are a wonderfully rewarding way to bring music into your home.

We can think of no other high quality consumer purchase that offers such future proofing value or long term return on investment. Cars, cameras, computers and home furnishings all lose value the second you hand over the credit card. Cyrus system components remain highly valuable, even years later, when they can be upgraded to a later model or higher series range.

In a world of throwaway mass production, Cyrus stands out as delivering products with exceptionally long lifetime value.

Design: The most striking visual feature of a Cyrus system is the aesthetic lines of its matching, half-width, hand-finished units. Their beauty, however, is more than skin deep. This casework is also an integral part of the product. Cyrus has invested in sophisticated die-cast tooling to create an electrically shielded and mechanically vibration free environment for the sensitive electronics. Minimising the effects of vibration and spurious radio signals aids performance and creates a unique, high quality, long lasting enclosure that discretely impresses.

Research: Continual improvement is fundamental to the Cyrus ethos. Our R&D team are skilled in many disciplines. Our components incorporate the very latest in digital audio technology, clever mechanical and electro-mechanical design and sophisticated analogue electronics. Every aspect is carefully considered; software, hardware, cosmetics, reliability, and serviceability. Even well understood concepts such as star earthing are revisited periodically for potential improvements. Novel design and free-thinking is actively encouraged. Cyrus is able to research new techniques and design concepts that perhaps could not be considered in a more cost-sensitive product so that you, the customer, can enjoy the benefits.

Development: Initially a ‘eureka’ idea is examined to ensure it is truly beneficial and can be manufactured. Assuming the initial concept passes this test, design time is allocated, a prototype is made and auditioning sessions run to assess the prototype. Every element of a new product has to meet strict acceptance criteria. Even circuits we think we know thoroughly have to be revisited. Experience tells us that every application, however similar, is subtly different. In some models more than 50 tuning options need to be assessed. Each tuning decision is carefully considered in relation to all the others. Only by building a broad understanding of the effects of all the variations can a balance be created of the whole, ensuring we have the best possible product. Having finessed the prototypes, the story is only just beginning. Because a Cyrus product is created without compromise, components are sourced globally, so the supply chain is potentially huge. All this is carefully managed to tight production schedules and the finished product is hand built and quality checked at our factory in Huntingdon, England.

Acoustic tuning: Our components benefit from many months of our expert acoustic tuning between the electronic design phase and the pre production stages. We listen to many options, for example, capacitors, resistors and circuit layout during the prototyping stages, in this way we’re able to extract the maximum audio performance from our designs. It’s this unusually extensive listening process that leads to the ‘Cyrus sound quality’. Developing components at this high level of performance requires large investments in engineering, licensing and experience. Once our engineers complete a technically precise design we begin the long process that subjects all new models to exacting acoustic tuning. The listening panel then goes to work, sometimes for months, tuning each new Cyrus model until we consider it complete. Our listening panel has wide audio experience and is able to tune and shape each aspect of the sonic picture until satisfied they have maximised the performance available from the design. We often use descriptions from the world of painting and photography, such as light and dark, colour, space and perspective, to describe our work because that’s what we do — we paint pictures with music.

• Features:

  • Magnesium main chassis
  • High tech pressure casting method
  • High performance audio design
  • Extra technical advantages

Magnesium... and why it is so valuable in high performance audio design

Cyrus selected magnesium and a high tech pressure casting method for our main chassis because, like other high performance industries, we recognise many unique and desirable properties that help us improve our products. High performance car designers use it for its strength and lightness (compared with steel or even aluminium), to improve performance/ fuel economy. Professional quality cameras often boast a chassis made from magnesium to be strong if dropped, yet light enough to hold steady in the hand.

For Cyrus, magnesium delivers extra technical advantages, allowing us to protect high performance components from specific problems that degrade all audio components. For example:

1. Vibration: Electrical components are adversely influenced by vibration and our environment is full of microphonic vibrations. Unfortunately, a steel box is a perfect resonant enclosure excited by vibrations and, consequently, severely limits the ability of capacitors and integrated circuits to work as well as we want them to. The Cyrus chassis is a single diecasting of magnesium that is highly resistant to resonance, thereby providing an ideal environment free from vibration. This ‘quiet’ space allows our designers free rein to exploit the benefits of using top quality components to their best advantage.
2. Electro-magnetic distortion: We know that components such as capacitors produce fields of localised magnetic energy. If a sheet of ferrous metal is nearby, such as the chassis of almost all hi-fi equipment, this (EMF) energy is reflected back onto the PCB and surrounding components with detrimental effect. Our choice of magnesium is valuable because magnesium (a non ferrous metal) allows magnetic fields to pass harmlessly though the case, allowing our finelytuned audio circuitry to operate without negative magnetic fields.
3. Radio frequency interference: Choosing magnesium to allow EMF fields to pass through the chassis is good. However, radio interference should, in an ideal world, be kept out. Fortunately, magnesium is a very effective screen for RF interference such as that caused by many household goods.
4. Heat: Cyrus components are compact yet powerful, so how can we achieve this apparent miracle of engineering? Our one-piece magnesium chassis creates a fabulously efficient way of radiating heat. This efficiency means we do not need massive heat sinks inside a big box. Cyrus components can, therefore, be smaller and more home-friendly than the behemoths that use conventional case technology.
5. Cosmetic excellence: Although the tooling investment required to use magnesium is much more expensive than the common sheet metal box process, the electrical benefits certainly make this justified on audio grounds alone. Add in the ability to create shapes and fine detail not possible with steel and the investment becomes clearly worthwhile. Our pressure die-cast moulding and handfinishing processes create products that feel valuable, with an understated quality that is quite special.

The die-casting process

Our die-casting partner is one of the World’s most advanced magnesium foundries. The process begins with billets of raw magnesium that are melted in a high temperature furnace until they become liquefied. The two tonne Cyrus master mould is placed into a massive casting engine that forces the liquid magnesium under 600 tonnes of pressure into the preheated Cyrus chassis cavity. The heavy machine opens on rails and, after a short cooling period, a robot extracts the hot casting and places the virgin chassis onto an inspection belt for human assessment. Any chassis that fails visual inspection are melted again, thus reducing waste. Next, the new chassis is subjected to a long series of ‘clipping’, finishing and assessing processes before the casting can progress to the painting stage. Between the ‘linishing’ and painting stage, the finishing team (same people for 15 years) hand-dress each casting, tuning some radii and lines slightly differently to create a unique, special chassis. The magnesium now needs to be protected before painting to guarantee a perfect finish. The environmentally-friendly chemical process exceeds stringent EU standards. Overall, the manufacturing of the chassis takes many weeks from raw magnesium through to our assembly factory in Huntingdon.

Finished die-cast chassis

• Features:

  • 300VA toroidal transformer with an enormous current delivery capability
  • 30,000 microfarad slotted foil reservoir capacitors ensure that very low ESR and wide bandwidth.
  • Symmetry: this wide dual bandwidth DC amplifier works as a linear voltage regulator in an identical manner for the positive and negative sides of the PSX-R.
  • Current sharing fast double output power transistors ensure quick response in providing the demanded current from the partnering unit.
  • Low noise high gain amplifiers in a propriety design provide the remarkable load and line regulation.

What does a PSX-R do for my Cyrus products?

The PSX-R is a separate power supply that may be added to most Cyrus models. It’s connected to the mains and acts like a giant battery. The PSX-R feeds the highly tuned audiophile circuitry in your CD or amp with super smooth ‘regulated’ DC power to allow the advanced circuitry to perform without the ‘noise’ that is present in the public mains supply.We describe a PSX-R as a resolution enhancing upgrade. A system could include a number of PSX-Rs for several components.

In low Power applications such as DACs, Preamplifiers and CD players the PSX-R provides a highly stable external power supply with massive inertia which ensures ideal battery like operation.

In high Power applications the PSX-R establishes a very stiff voltage source behind the power amplifier and successfully inhibits mains related distortions and charging spikes from reaching the signal lines of the amplifier.

• Features:

  • Zero Feedback technology
  • Complex circuitry
  • Powerful and precise output
  • Exceptional musical performance

Despite the much higher cost of production, we pursue  Zero Feedback technology because it brings some very special attractive sonic benefits. The amplification processes have been expertly engineered to produce Zero Feedback, with complex circuitry making sure that the output is powerful and precise.

Two interesting benefits of Zero Feedback technology are:

1. The design allows the key stages in our amplifier to work independently without the hindrance of global feedback. In a traditional amplifier the corrective actions necessary in the output stage to drive a loudspeaker are fed through the entire amplifier, disturbing unnecessarily the input and voltage amplifier stages. To put this another way, it allows the first stage of the amplifier to operate without the unwelcome influence of the latter, separate voltage and current stages.  Zero Feedback amplifiers are only possible when one understands how to prevent distortion in the first place. They require very advanced circuit topology and close tolerance components.
2. Cyrus Zero Feedback amplifiers are able to create an uncanny sonic blackness onto which we paint our musical image. They can achieve this because as the output level reduces to lower levels, where the ear becomes most sensitive to these effects, the distortion produced by the new Mono X Signature models falls below measurable limits. The result is an exceptional musical performance.

• Features:

  • Proprietary CD replay method
  • Up to 15% more data off a disc
  • Up to 5 times fewer data errors
  • Optimised for audio data retrieval

Servo Evolution:

• We use a proprietary CD replay method that NO other manufacturer uses.
• We get up to 15% more data off a disc with our method and we believe the sonic justification in this.
• But what we have that no other manufacturer has is a ground up designed software code that reads the discs in a completely unique way and give us much better sound quality.
• We choose the latest drive / laser to match our specification.

Whereas nearly every CD player on the planet uses standard or slightly adapted CD Rom drivers, Cyrus took the unique move of throwing that software out of the window and creating our own disc reading technology

All of our CD players now use our servo software which provides audible improvements to the reading of CDs.

Benefits of Servo Evolution include:

• Pulls more data from discs than typical drivers

• Up to 5 times fewer data errors

• Reads more data ‘right first time’ than any other CD system

• Less dependent upon error correction

• Lower noise interference

• Improved laser control accuracy

More details on Servo Evolution

A CD ROM drive is optimised for high speed data retrieval. It is not the best tool for reading a CD audio disc in high definition. Other proprietary drives are typically low cost, high volume designs with inevitable compromises in the early stages of the data retrieval process.

To achieve the perfect sound replication we strive for, it is simply not enough to take the data from the CD, feed it to a DAC and expect the best possible audio performance.

It is commonly misunderstood that CD data retrieval is all digital and always perfect. The laser light reflected from the CD surface is converted into an electrical signal, which is in fact analogue. The quality of this analogue signal is directly linked to the number of errors in the later digitising process.

A good analogue light signal is completely dependent upon the ability of the servo systems to control the focus of the laser light spot, providing smooth tracking of the data stamped onto the disc. The Cyrus-designed system, unlike the servo systems bought in by almost every other manufacturer, is optimised for audio data retrieval – and the proof is in the sound.

Servo Evolution is the most accurate CD data recovery technology in the world.

More details about Servo Evolution

The streamer technology

Ten years ago Cyrus was the first hi-fi company to sell a network streaming system. Following a decade of experience researching network audio technology, Cyrus has developed an advanced streamer module that is arguably the best sounding, high definition streaming module available, and capable of playing the most advanced file formats available today. The special Cyrus streamer module (or engine as we describe it) is the reason our streamers sound so good.

Our HD streaming engine is built into four distinct models. Our customers can choose to create the cornerstone of a new system, or source model to add streaming to existing systems.

The two source models:

The Stream X Signature is arguably the best sounding source component available in audio today. Attention has been lavished on this special streamer source component to ensure the most detail is resolved from the highest resolution HD files you can buy today.

The Stream XP₂ and the Stream XP₂ Qx takes the same streaming engine and incorporates a control amp and DAC, just add a power amp to create a very high performance and upgradeable modern streaming hi-fi system.

The streamer for an existing system:

Stream Xa is a streamer engine with a DAC so it is ideal as a streamer source for systems that do not have a DAC yet. The complete streaming system in one box.

Streamline₂ is a modern example of miniaturisation of electronics. Building streamer and amplifier into a single ½ size Cyrus aluminium cast chassis, this high performance music system will appeal to everyone who wants a small modern hi-fi system but still wants a big, high quality sound.

CYRUS streaming players:

Stream X Signature Stream X₂

Stream XP₂ Qx Stream Xa Streamline₂