Cyrus Audio 40 AMP Integrated Amplifier Review
David Price auditions the most significant new product for this British hi-fi company in decades…
Cyrus Audio
40 AMP Integrated Amplifier
US$4,995 (40 AMP), US$3,,495 (40 PSU) RRP
Life begins at forty, so they say! In this case, Cyrus Audio is celebrating four decades of existence, initially, of course, under the ambit of Mission Electronics. We first saw this name, which later became a brand and a company in itself, appear on the Cyrus One and Cyrus Two integrated amplifiers of 1984, designed by Henry Azima. Alongside his brother Farad, these two men were a major force in British hi-fi from the late nineteen seventies to the nineties. As Mission's core business was loudspeakers, the Cyrus name subsequently became a company and split from its parent in the nineties.
Distill down the essence of Cyrus, and it's clear that it combines ergonomic design, clever packaging and fine sound quality – plus scalability, too. The brand new 40 AMP tested here is part of a four-strong lineup that also includes the PSU (off-board power supply), the CD (CD player) and ST (streamer). The idea is to deliver what the company calls "a streamlined premium audio experience". It looks quite different from what came before, which might come as a shock to traditional fans of the brand. Many agree that the earlier generations of Cyrus products – particularly from the nineties until now – are extremely pretty things to look at. Yet, this new design carries few shared styling cues besides the half-width case.
Nick Clarke, Managing Director of Cyrus Audio, told me: "While the previous design was very much a design classic, we had used the same cast/painted chassis for over thirty years, and the supply chain has changed significantly in that time, with casting and paint suppliers becoming more scarce. Also, there is always room for improvement, and modern buyers are more demanding. So the change was not forced on us, but I feel it was still long overdue – and in making it, we also took the chance to add some modern features to the integrated, like HDMI eARC."
Whilst retaining its 'half size' proportions, the case has grown slightly. The main reason for this was to allow the fitment of a larger screen, which is 5 inches for the 40 AMP and ST streamer and 3.5 inches for the 40 CD disc player; the latter is smaller to allow the disc loader mechanism to fit in. Nick explains that "the casework change is much better at thermal management, so it not only looks better but helps with performance." "It took approximately eighteen months for Cyrus's software and hardware engineers to develop the new casework and control systems", he adds.
"This isn't simply a repackaging exercise," he points out, "as quite a lot of changes have occurred internally too. For example, in the 40 AMP, CD and ST, a brand new ESS9039Q2M DAC has been implemented, which requires a lot of experience in layout and component selection to extract the best from it. In the integrated amp, the main power supply has been enhanced in terms of layout and improved component selection. The headphone socket has also been moved from the rear to the front. The CD also benefits from extensive upgrades to its power supply, by the way."
Although the Classic range will continue to be sold, this new evolution by Cyrus is a gutsy move. People have been talking about a new 'design language' for the company for decades simply because the products have looked the same for so long. But Nick Clarke's record in the audio industry speaks volumes – if you pardon the pun. I first met him nearly twenty-five years ago as an up-and-coming engineer for Audiolab, and he'd already worked for TAG McLaren Audio by then. After that, he led Arcam's engineering team, then went to Harman Luxury Audio for five years, where he was responsible for Arcam, Lexicon, Mark Levinson, JBL, and Revel. That's quite some record, so he packs a great deal of engineering pedigree behind him.
UP CLOSE
The 40 AMP amplifier has an aluminium case fronted by a glass fascia panel behind which is a full-colour display. The chunky volume control has a positive, albeit not silky-smooth, action. It is said to have been designed from five separate elements and made from solid aluminium. The crisp-looking 5-inch full-colour hi-res TFT display is a classy affair, as you would expect, as it is the focal point of the new product.
Around the back is the usual crowded Cyrus rear panel with a welter of RCA analogue inputs and digital connectivity. The 40 AMP is also fitted with a moving magnet phono input – complete with blanking plugs for when not in use, which is a nice touch – alongside an earth post. The company is also looking to introduce a separate, standalone MM/MC phono stage unit at a later date, by the way. The addition of an HDMI eARC input gives users the chance to play their films or TV sound through the amp too, which is a handy feature.
In terms of amplifier output power, the 40 AMP puts out a quoted 100W RMS per channel into 6 ohms, which rises to 2x 113W with the addition of a 40 PSU external power supply. Cyrus does not specify the figure into 8 ohms – which is more usually given – and will be a tad lower. The new, matching, optional 40 PSU is an evolution of the company's PSX-R 'intelligent' power supply, with its own onboard microprocessor to control the output voltages to the 40 AMP; it's said to provide multiple supplies which are highly stable and almost free of noise.
It's fascinating to compare the operational feel of the new 40 AMP with its so-called 'Classic' predecessors. It's clearly a different beast, with a vertical bank of touch-sensitive controls that works with a largish display to deliver most of its functionality. Is it better? I don't think so – but perhaps that says more about me than it does about the amplifier? I prefer old-school buttons over touchscreens on cars and other devices because they're instant and tactile. With the 40 AMP, there's a slight lag between issuing a touch command and it being carried out. To be fair, I feel the same about all such touchscreen interfaces, so there's no particular criticism of Cyrus here.
The plus side of this is that the new interface gives a much more 'joined up' user experience – you can configure all sorts of parameters, from the brightness of the main display to that of the volume control backlighting. You can set maximum volume and other such preferences, and you get a lot more information back – for example, you're told when the 40 PSU is active on start-up. It's where the world is going, and with it, the audio industry too – like it or not. The remote control, by the way, is a nice little thing with a brushed aluminium front section that confers a feeling of quality.
THE LISTENING
The 40 AMP is an obvious improvement over the old i9-XR, which is already a great-sounding little integrated. The Cyrus 'house sound' remains clear to hear and epitomises Class AB done well in my view. Open and expansive, it has a firm, tuneful bass, detailed midband and smooth, delicate treble. But the new amplifier brings extra transparency and better soundstaging. Tonally, it's ever so slightly on the dry side of neutral, but there's more musical insight now. Compared to rivals near its price point, it's less warm than the Class AB Rega Aethos, for example, and a lot less so than the Class A Sugden A21 SE, yet it sounds sweeter than the Class D NAD M33.
The new 40 AMP is certainly more direct and to-the-point than earlier Cyrus integrateds, with a purer and less processed sound. Yet despite the newfound transparency, it doesn't machine-gun detail out at you – you'd never call it unduly forward sounding. Rather, it simply opens the window to the recording wider, letting you peer more intently in. The result is a highly listenable amplifier, which works great across all sources.
Starting with the line input(s) driven by my reference Chord Electronics DAVE DAC – which is twice the price of the 40 AMP, by the way – and Journey's Girl Can't Help It is loads of fun. This is a typically nineteen-eighties slice of US pomp-rock, and the Cyrus captures the mood perfectly. This track can sound tonally jarring, especially on the guitar solo, but not so here. Instead, it serves up a smooth and open sound with no obvious tonal peaks or troughs and constructs an impressively wide soundstage that's satisfyingly deep, too.
This self-effacing amplifier cuts to the musical chase. It could never be described as a 'muscle amp'; however, it is always sure-footed, unflustered and confident. Again, balance is the key – there's no gratuitously powerful bass that capsizes the rest of the frequency spectrum, but nor is there a sense of the bottom end being anaemic or dynamically constrained. For example, feed it the gut-churning electronic dance music classic that is Liquid Crystal's You're No Good and it has no fear. The thumping low bass is delivered in all its glory, but this doesn't affect the midband, which sports blisteringly fast percussion work and sharp, syncopated vocals. The Cyrus absolutely nails this track.
With more subtle rock classics that rely on nuance to make their point, the new 40 AMP fares no less well. Kate Bush's Hounds of Love is a dark, brooding, synth-driven masterpiece from the mid-eighties and lets this integrated show its rhythmic alacrity and mastery of subtle detail. The grumbling bass line and percussion work are carried deftly, and the song is allowed to breathe and build up to a startling dynamic crescendo. The drama of the occasion is further elevated when the 40 PSU is added, which further bolsters the soundstage and adds greater insight into the mix. With even better current drive, the music sounds like it has really been set free and punches out an untrammelled bass line into my listening room. The 40 AMP sounds excellent on its own, but the upgraded power supply makes it better still.
The internal DAC is highly impressive, albeit not quite a match for top-tier separate alternatives. Fed by a TEAC CD transport, things come across in an upfront, confident and direct way, but there's a modest drop in detail and depth compared to my reference Chord DAVE. All the same, the sinewy and grippy rendition of Randy Crawford's You Might Need Somebody proves most enjoyable. Although lacking the organic feel of more expensive standalone digital converters, the 40 AMP's internal number cruncher is gives an immersive musical performance that's easily good enough for most listeners.
The same can be said for the Cyrus's moving magnet phono stage, which is certainly not an afterthought – as these things can so often be. Fed by a Rega Planar 6 turntable with an Audio-Technica AT-95VM cartridge, the depth, scale, and insight that it delivers will surprise many audiophiles. My much-loved first edition pressing of Trick of the Tail by Genesis reminds me how good vinyl can sound, with a satisfyingly wide and deep soundstage, fine midband clarity and delicious sweetness to the hi-hat cymbal work. The low surface noise is impressive, too, not least because I bought this LP in 1976, and it later attended many teenage parties! Overall then, the phono input proves an unexpectedly good performer.
THE VERDICT
The new Cyrus 40 AMP rather reminds me of the old Mission Cyrus 2, from four decades back. Like that iconic little Mission amp, it is fast, gutsy and eager – but brings oodles of extra power and polish. The finest sounding standalone Cyrus integrated that I've yet heard, it adds a host of functionality and connectivity that makes it perfectly suited to the modern world – something which its forebears couldn't quite do. As such, it is pretty much the embodiment of a premium modern integrated amplifier. Design objective achieved, then. Catch it if you can.
Visit Cyrus Audio for more information
David Price
David started his career in 1993 writing for Hi-Fi World and went on to edit the magazine for nearly a decade. He was then made Editor of Hi-Fi Choice and continued to freelance for it and Hi-Fi News until becoming StereoNET’s Editor-in-Chief.
Posted in: Amplifiers | Integrated Amplifiers | Applause Awards | 2024 | Hi-Fi
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