HOW MY SYSTEM HAS EVOLVED & OTHER STORIES

Air movement;   Mission 753  floorstanders 

Cables:  originally Deltec Precision Audio’s own;  replaced by Cyrus’s own bi-wire cable.

Source[s];  Meridian 200 cd transport & Meridian 203 DAC  [twin DAC7 ‘bitstream’ chipset] replaced an older Sony 222es;   supplemented with PSXR and Cyrus CD8se [luckily no problems with disc reading]  which has been recently returned to Cyrus for upgrade to CDXTse+ [when it came back the first time it did not work!]

Interconnects:  Deltec Precision Audio co-axial ; Deltec Precision Audio optical link ; Cyrus’s own, Cabletalk & Chord Silver analogues.

Amplification:  Original Audiolab 8000A [still going strong for av duties] replaced by Deltec Precision Audio pre-power combo with ‘black slink’ interconnects [balanced outputs];  replaced by Cyrus Pre-vs2 with PSXR and one X Power,   Additional X Power added to facilitate bi-amping of speakers.The Pre-vs2 was returned to Cyrus for upgrade and what came back was a new Pre XPd QX;    Both X Powers served by DPA ‘The Power’

Whole system runs off Lindy mains block conditioner.

# emboldened text indicates current set up.

Using the Meridian 200 as a source with a co-axial input to the Cyrus XPd QX and optical to the Meridian 203 DAC with that connected to the cd analogue input  using the Chords,  the Meridian DAC cut the mustard!  The expected difference in sound quality between the Cyrus DAC circuit and the Meridian did not materialise.  Both offered a spacious soundstage and had the ability to place instruments and track complex pieces.  Now that the CDXTse+ is up and running the same test was run again using that as the source.  This time the Cyrus DAC circuit nosed ahead .. atmospheric pieces became that tad more atmospheric and there was slightly more grip on complex pieces [but only slightly!] .  I will, in due course, do a direct comparison between the Meridain and Cyrus transports into the XPd QX  thanks to all those digital inputs.  That way i can find out how good the Cyrus transport is.