CYRUS 40 AMP REVIEW

Cyrus 40 AMP is, needless to say, an amplifier from British brand Cyrus. It has an onboard DAC, MM phonostage, and costs £3995. Janine Elliot takes a listen for HiFi PiG.

Like NAD, Cambridge Audio, A.R Cambridge (Arcam), and Quad, Cyrus is one of those special names from my past, following years of drooling through the glass windows at the HiFi within K.J Leisuresound in Watford on my way to piano and violin lessons at the school of music. Of course, Cyrus didn’t exist then, as all I could see were Mission and other loudspeakers pumping classics and punk rock from Nytech, Meridian and Quad.

Mission was set up in 1977 by Farad Azima in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and their iconic 770 loudspeaker from my youth has recently been re-released. Later in 1984 they decided to make a “Cyrus” labelled amplifier, the Cyrus One. With all the success, twenty years later the Cyrus division started to trade as a separate company (Cyrus Audio Ltd). Add another 20+ years, and Cyrus is still going strong, an independent British brand noted for its half-width range of integrated amps, streamers, CD players, power amps and power supplies; products with a distinctive frontage that, like the shape of the Porsche 911, hasn’t changed much in its lifetime. That is until now.

I reviewed the “new shape” 40 CD last year and was amazed at the technology and sound, one of my highlights for 2024, plus I loved their distinctive new shape. If only Porsche would do the same. The “40” series might well have coincided with their 40^th anniversary, but this is a new shape for their top-end series.

As with Mission, the products are manufactured in Britain with their partners in Nottingham, SMS Electronics, and is run by MD Nick Clarke. As Chris Hutcheson, Head of Marketing says about the new 40 series; “This is just the beginning of some very exciting plans at Cyrus”. The project took 2 years to develop, and whilst at the moment the range includes this integrated plus a streamer, CD player, and PSU, the company is also planning to add a phono-stage to the combo.

BUILD QUALITY AND FEATURES OF CYRUS 40 AMP

As is common with Cyrus DNA, this latest £3,995 amplifier is a half-width and deep amplifier (220 x 385 x 88mm) with a build quality par excellence, as always. Available, as in the Ford Model T, in any colour as long as it is black, this has a distinctively barren facia. Gone is the Cyrus protruding bottom lip, and whilst some may think this new model is rather bland, if you have the full set of 40s on their special stand it all looks rather spectacular.

That black plastic frontage suddenly comes to life when you switch it on; a backlit volume control on the right, a large 5” TFT front screen in the middle to tell you what you have selected, plus the volume/balance level, and 5 touch-sensitive selection areas on the left including (at the top) a Cyrus logo. The company name is in red when in standby, but changes to white when you touch it and the beast comes to life. The four selectors underneath are for input up/down, balance and mute. Under the volume control is an adult ¼” headphone socket.

At the rear is a well-stocked plantation of RCA sockets for the 4 analogue and 2 coaxial inputs, plus a Toslink socket. There are no XLRs, which is a shame, though there isn’t much real-estate at the back to fit them. There is also an RCA MM phono-stage input for you to use to play records until they bring out the separate box. There is a USB digital audio socket and the latest e-ARC HDMI socket for your TV, plus HDMI and RJ45 sockets for control/updating.

Finally, a D-shaped socket allows you to connect a separate PSU to get better sound quality, sending as it does the correct voltage to different areas of the circuit board. Your 40 Amp will automatically detect if you have connected this add-on.

For outputs there are pre-out and fixed-level RCA sockets and, surprisingly, the loudspeaker sockets are designed for you to connect a special 2-pin connector, like those old-fashioned 2-pin headphone connectors on some airplanes. Cyrus wants you to cut off the lovely 4.4mm banana plugs on your expensive loudspeaker cables and wire them up onto the enclosed 4.4mm gold-plated plugs that attach to the adaptor. Really? No, I’m not touching my cables! Don’t tell Cyrus, but I just plugged my bananas into the recessed sockets – they look like those holes in early HiFi amplifiers before they installed lovely 4-way sockets that normal people use. Of course, I made sure that it was all safe for review before I switched on.

Digits are handled by the very respectable ESS Sabre 32-bit ES9039Q2M DAC chip, meaning that coax/Toslink allow up to 192kHz@24bits and USB is capable of handling 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD256 data streams. As with most DACs/Streamers these days, there is a choice of 8 filters to fashion the sound, including Linear Phase Anodising (the default setting) and various linear and minimum phase, fast and slow roll-off, settings. I mostly used the Linear Phase filter option. The amplifier is rated at 100W into 6-ohms, which works out as 81W@8Ω, and if using the separate 40 PSU rises to 113W and 92W respectively (and into 4 Ω speakers a very grown-up 144W). Being Class AB amplification with toroidal transformer, the amp’s own internal power supply is certainly very good.

GREAT AGAIN?

This is a British-made amplifier, made clear to you when you first switch it on with its “Made in Britain” announcement. Unsurprisingly the “Great” word that we were taught to add in UK schools in the last century has disappeared, but I am so pleased this isn’t farmed out to factories in the Far East. I take my (foreign made) hat off to you, Cyrus. There is no mains toggle switch at the rear, though, if you wish to save the universe, but the packaging is mostly eco-friendly; oh, and there isn’t an instruction book in the box, to save trees. All illumination, such as the volume level or source selected, is in a very clear white display. This is miles better than previous Cyrus separates! The technology inside is also very user-friendly so that the volume that you last had the amplifier set at will resume the next time you switch on, and it also memorizes the last headphone volume setting, as that will probably be different to the loudspeaker setting. You can also change individual input gain settings to make them “match”, plus alter the brightness of the screens or get them to disappear completely after a predefined time (that screen, particularly the LEDs, is incredibly bright if you set it at “5” maximum). Even left/right balance can be altered by up to 5dB. The accompanying small-ish remote is also not an afterthought; it not only looks good but it also has the volume up/down buttons in a sensible position for your thumb to press (if you are right-handed!) As I remarked in the 40 CD review, even the shape of the remote, end on, mimics the footprint of the 40 series frontage, and can be used with the CD, Streamer, Amplifier and “PPA” (phono preamplifier), whenever that comes to life.

SOUND QUALITY

This amplifier fits in at the same area of pricing as several other “top end” amplifiers from other “British” manufacturers, such as NAD, Cambridge Audio, and Audiolab, all of which I have listened to. This might well be the loudest Cyrus I have heard, but it is still fairly low in comparison with many comparable machines. However, I never once felt that I needed any more watts, even from the headphone socket, though I needed to have volume over halfway to get any oomph from the amplifier (and my LS5/9s and Wilson Benesch Arcs are fairly efficient). The built-in phono-stage gave me a chance to get out my lovely Michell/Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turntable, plus I used several cartridges and arms to play music. It is a surprisingly good phono-amp for an “add-on”, and works well with high-output moving coils.

Turning to the important listening sessions, I used both hi-res digits from a Bluesound Node streamer and reel-to-reel recordings into analogue inputs, plus recorded DSD and FLAC files into the digital coax from my Astell and Kern DAP.

My first point of call was David Gilmour’s Live at Pompeii “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”. This was a great way to edge into listening-mode with an old favourite that starts quietly, with lots of atmosphere, and excellent soundstage – not just left and right, but also front to rear, and plenty of detail from the synths, drums, guitars, and, of course, David’s vocals. The bass was good, but to me just didn’t quite match the extension and power from my KT88 valve Synthesis mono-blocks or my Krell SS workhorse. It was all there, but just not quite as exciting. Detail, though, was very clear especially the start and end of notes, allowing me to hear the different instrumentation and riffs that almost mimic the “original” 1975 masterpiece. It was originally written as a tribute to the amazing Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett who was removed from the band due to his mental health issues.

Keeping with David I turned to his recent 2023 ‘Luck and Strange’ album. This is by no means his best album – despite tracks like “Black Cat” and “Luck and Strange” mimicking his style from earlier productions. What it is, though, is good material for reviewing, especially the last track, which is also called “Luck and Strange” and is a 13’59” jam session for the bass, drums, guitar, and mostly Fender Rhodes keyboard, recorded back in 2007 in Gilmour’s barn with the late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright. He plays about mostly with the Rhodes (his favourite keyboard sound) but occasionally tries out piano, organ, Hammond B-3 and synth sounds. There is a lot of detail from all the instrumentalists (and especially from the drums) in this track, with excellent initial transients, extended decays, and plenty of atmosphere, all centred around a repeating E minor riff.

E minor led me tastefully onto Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 Op.11, which he amazingly wrote when he was only 20 years old, and which he himself played at its very first performance just before he left Poland for Paris. Chopin was a child keyboard prodigy, which shows in the complexity and musicality of this great work, and Benjamin Grosvenor gives a compelling performance with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (24/96) in a recording from 2020 that was used via Qobuz. It takes a massive 3’58” for the orchestra to set the scene before the first notes from the piano, and his playing is certainly quite excellent, colouring the musical lines with his vivid imagination, though the orchestra sounded a little more like it had just heard the news that they hadn’t won Independence. It just didn’t get my goose bumps going, sounding rather more like a lame duck. The Cyrus is very honest and just gives what it gets, which is a good thing. The instruments are easily definable in their different positions and the music sounds very natural.

Turning to Webster Lewis’s “Do You Believe” from The Club 7 Live Tapes, recorded in Norway, the amplifier could now really speak, with the vocals, organ, and drums sounding very analogue, powerful, and moving. Starting with a long drum introduction the iconic Hammond B-3 organ then joins in, this time a repeating A-minor-based riff and then Webster’s voice, which is very strong uttering the words “I’m going home, one of these days”, and even the sudden feedback from the microphone didn’t get in the way of his passionate message, nor my enjoyment of this 20’33”, largely repeating-riff, performance. This track, a highly regarded album from 1971 (and hard to find these days in its original LP format), is played by his quintet including brass which he mysteriously labelled on this recording as “The Post-Pop Space-Rock Be-Bop Gospel Tabernacle Orchestra and Chorus”. It is usually hard for any system south of 10k to get this anywhere sounding musical and natural enough for me with its brilliant brass and drums, but the Cyrus gave all it could, especially the excellent soundstage and audience contribution. This amp is impressive. London Elektricity also does a version of this track in the same key, though they use modern instrumentation and effects, with a very strong rhythm (from 1’20”) helping to give it extra atmosphere and bite. Only detail of space and timing weren’t quite as high as on more expensive amplifiers I have played this track on.

Keeping with electronica, Spark’s own “Electronica” from 1986 really got my attention with the clarity and fast transients. Similarly, the 2023 “The Girl is Crying in her Latte”, also has great attention to timing and space and with excellent attacks and decays, but musically the music itself was perhaps as boring as…latte. Whilst I have followed the duo since their famous “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us”, even meeting them and setting up the piano for the deadpan Charlie Chaplin moustached Ron Mael and his brother for a Radio 2 performance, they seem to have now run out of ideas, in the same way as I felt David Gilmour had in his last album. Luckily Cyrus hasn’t, and this new amplifier is a fine way to make a statement after 40 years. It is honest, and maybe some will say it’s a bit Ron Mael, but I actually got quite attached to this new amplifier, as I had the CD player before.

QUIBBLES

For once, there is very little for me to moan about in a review. This is a really well thought-out product, except for the loudspeaker-connecting ritual, and there really is enough space to just about put 4-way loudspeaker connector blocks!! Next, they’ll be using DIN sockets. Also, if you use digital sources, it doesn’t indicate sampling rates etc. That’s perhaps a shame.

CONCLUSION

If you want excitement on the scale of Syd Barrett, then this will probably not be the amplifier for you; this new amplifier is a refined statement of the art. Everything is there, be it musicality, detail, soundstage and speed. It just didn’t quite give enough of the excitement to lift me out of the doldrums of watching Trump trying to save the universe. But, isn’t it honesty that this world really needs, and, being a true Brit, with this amp I could once again utter the word “Great”.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:

Typical excellent build quality which is normal for Cyrus kit

Comes with an extended 5-year guarantee

Sound Quality:

Very honest and accurate, with tight bass end

Value For Money:

At £3,995 this is a busy space for class AB powered amplifiers, but this one is truly special if you want honesty and accuracy

We Loved:

Brilliant build quality

British made

Honest sound, working on all music genres

Good quality remote

We Didn’t Love So Much:

Lack of proper speaker connections

Limited information from the screen

Elevator Pitch Review: Last year I was very impressed with the 40 CD player; brilliantly engineered and with a truly excellent sound from the 16 bits. The 40 AMP needs to be good to give that product a chance to glow, and I wasn’t to be disappointed. This is a very honest performer, developed after 40 years of making some truly excellent British products, and enabled me to test out my digital and analogue sources to great effect well into the evenings before I had to whisk it back to Cyrus.

Price:

40 AMP £3,995

Janine Elliot

SUPPLIED BY CYRUS AUDIO

System used: Bluesound Node Streamer (Qubuz player), Astell and Kern SE180, Lenovo laptop (DSD, WAV, FLAC, MQA, MP3 Digital sources); Michell Hydraulic Reference/SME and Rega arms/Ortofon and Shure MM cartridges (turntable); Nagra IV-SJ (reel-to-reel); Wilson Benesch Arc, Graham LS5/9 plus Townshend Supertweeter (speakers); Townshend F1 and Isolda RCA and speaker cables, Coppice Audio stand and Townshend rack.

SUPPLIED SPECIFICATIONS

Inputs; Line level x 4, MM phono, optical x 1, coax x 2, USB Type B, HDMI eARC

Outputs; Line level, pre-out, speaker

Power output (2 channels driven);  6 Ohms…………… 100W

(With 40 PSU:  6 Ohms…………… 113W)

Digital audio performance;

DAC…………………………………….ESS ES9039Q2M 32 bit DAC

Sample rate range (SPDIF)………………… 16/44.1k – 24/192k

Sample rate range (USB)…………………… 16/44.1k – 32/384k

USB supported formats (SPDIF)……………………. PCM stereo

USB supported formats (DSD) ……………………up to DSD256

USB supported formats (DOP)………………….. up to DOP128

S/N ratio (pre-out, 0dB FS) ……………………………… >113dBA

THD (pre-out, 0dB FS)……………………………………… <0.001%

Enclosure

Size (HxWxD) … 88 x 220 x 385 mm (3.46” x 8.66” x 15.16”)

Weight…………………………………………………. 8.5kg (18.7lbs)

Material……………………………..Anodised aluminium chassis