Cyrus Audio CD i - CD Player

Product Code: 1667

Condition: New product

CD player using the award winning Servo Evolution technology.

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Description

The CD i is an integrated CD player using our award winning Servo Evolution CD engine. It is our best sounding CD player ever. Everything from the power stage through to the analogue output of the machine has been designed with sound quality in mind, and the results will exceed all your expectations.

While the CD i is a high end CD player, it has been designed to introduce new people to the joys of hi-fi. Experience your music in the greatest detail, with easy set up and control.

The CD i uses many of the same components as the CD Xt Signature, including a latest generation LED disc loader. This use of top end components for lower specification models spreads throughout the Cyrus range, meaning that products like the CD i comfortably outperform their peers in the same price range.

A 32-bit DAC gives the CD i all of the capacity it needs to convert even the most complex loads into full analogue output. All of this means that it is the best sounding CD player we have ever made.

To further improve your sound, connect our PSX-R₂ external power supply to decrease the strain on the internal power supply of the unit. Connect the CD i to an amplifier like the 8₂ DAC for a fantastic sound, and complete your system by connecting a Stream Xa to add streaming capabilities.

Servo Evolution

Our SE platform is specifically engineered to retrieve data from an audio CD with the fewest errors. To provide ideal data output for hi-fi, Cyrus controls the whole electromechanical servo system providing superior quality audio than previously possible with conventional drives.

DAC Technology

Following on from Cyrus’ trickle down approach, the CD i features the same 32-bit DAC featured in the DAC XP Signature . The move to 32-bit for Cyrus allows even greater detail retrieval and sonic resolution.

Connectivity

CD i benefits from twin analogue outputs and two digital outputs allowing it to fit into a variety of setups. CD i can be connected to other Cyrus units via our unique MC-BUS connections.

Precision Loading Drive

The CD i features the PSX-R port for connecting to the PSX-R₂ power supply. This instant sonic upgrade provides a separate, highly regulated off-board power supply.

Upgradability

The CD i features the PSX-R port for connecting to the PSX-R₂ power supply. This instant sonic upgrade provides a separate, highly regulated off-board power supply.

Servo Evolution CD Transport at a glance

Servo Evolution – the first audiophile standard CD platform. Whereas almost every other CD player uses a standard off-the-shelf disc reading platform with the focus on the DAC section, Cyrus took the unique move of creating something better: our own disc reading technology.

The benefit of the Cyrus Servo Evolution technology is the ability to pick up more data from the disc first time round rather than relying on error correction to fill in missing gaps in the data.

This supplies the DAC with up to 20% more information than the conventional design and explains the higher resolution that all Cyrus CD players are capable of producing.

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

Benefits of Servo Evolution include:

• Pulls more data from the disc than typical disc-reading systems
• 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 optic control accuracy

A standard 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. In order to achieve the perfect sound replication that 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 digital and therefore always perfect. The laser light reflected from the CD surface is converted into an electrical signal, which is in fact an analogue signal. 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 off-the-shelf servo systems used by almost every other manufacturer, is optimised for audio data retrieval – and the proof is in the sound.

When evaluating our CD players please ensure that you use original CD’s to evaluate the performance and not copies of the originals (CD-R’s) as the burning engines in most CD burners devalue the benefits gained by our SE engineering. Not all CD burners do a good job of creating copies from the original disc and it’s a shame to compromise the fine engineering that makes our players sound so valuable, by feeding them with compromised information from the very start.

Cyrus developed the Servo Evolution hardware and firmware to attempt to resolve the problem of lost data as the disc is read. We refer to this suite of engineering as a CD ‘engine’ as it covers a collection of hardware and software engineering often rather too complex to interest a casual reader.

The problem:
Hi-Fi manufacturers generally do not have the deep specialist servo firmware experience or investment budget to use anything other than off-the-shelf (OEM) CD drive ‘kits’ developed for mass production (CD loader, laser, sled mechanism and firmware to drive this set of parts). The engineering to make the mechanical parts work reliably in the intended environment is complex and sophisticated and therefore expensive to develop. Economics mean OEM kits are developed for the largest customers such as automotive markets. Because disc drives contain small, complex and mass produced parts, they require sophisticated firmware to keep the mechanical parts positioned over the data spiral on the CD. Even more problematic is that the big customers need this to happen while, for instance, a car is bumping 1.5g vertical acceleration over a pothole!

The answer is to optimise the servo code for a tough environment and buffer the output into a powerful averaging system or error corrector to provide an unbroken data stream as the car bumps along. The resulting output will play but contain a high ‘bit error rates’ that need the errors, or gaps in data, filling in with an approximation of the data/music. Clearly this is a work around solution for a harsh car environment but not ideal for the sound quality standards of a high resolution HiFi system in your living room. However commercially it does work for many mass market applications where the subtle leading edge information that would raise the hair on the back of your neck at home, is unlikely to be missed at 50 MPH with 80db ambient background noise in a car. So this is fine for mass market applications but is a severely compromised source in the mind of a Cyrus hi-fi engineer.

By comparison, hi-fi is a tiny market by volume and it is therefore not attractive for large drive manufacturers to offer a special system. Cyrus desired a disc drive that could read data ‘right first time’ without repairing gaps with approximations through error correction algorithms.

The solution:
Because the needs of an in-car CD kit are very different from the needs of a domestic hi-fi, Cyrus had to decide if CD had a long enough life to make the substantial investment worthwhile. The decision was made and over 12 months three engineers worked to finish our unique SE (Servo Evolution) platform. The result was the world’s highest resolution CD engine. Our CD engine is very different from OEM kits as it runs the disc at 1x speed (not 50x for a PC drive) meaning we can optimise the controller motors to work much more accurately rather than just fast. We require accuracy rather than speed and this is where our SE system is so different to CD kits. So how good is the latest SE firmware and hardware? By comparison, Cyrus’ bit error rate delivers an output with 20% fewer errors than the next best system. In CD data terms, this is an enormous increase in resolution. Just take a moment to consider how much effort goes into gaining 5% improvement in amplifier noise or distortion. A 20% improvement in error rate means the error correction works infrequently, motors are rarely now asked to drag the laser sled back to re-read data, and focusing accuracy is maintained more of the time. The result of all this engineering is a data feed capable of greater subtlety and resolution because it gets more data from the disc ‘right first time’.

Traditionally, hi-fi designers have attempted to improve performance by focusing on post-servo options because their data quality is fixed by the needs of the mass market. Cyrus was motivated to develop SE because we believed that getting the data with greater accuracy was the correct engineering route as opposed to attempting to fix errors retrospectively. Because we have fewer errors, data is retrieved ‘right first time’, and therefore we have far less need for error correction, so the whole system is calmer with much reduced motor noise in our ground and power planes. Clearly not needing error correction nearly as often means our sound is a closer facsimile of the data on the CD because it is less ‘corrected’ and the players DAC section is not affected by power supply noise from motors in adjacent ground planes. It is also important to differentiate between those manufacturers who market a “special” buffering or correction system. These are not high resolution servo systems; they are attempts to improve on the generally available mass-produced OEM offerings made for the mass market and these kits are limited by lower resolution servo output.

Designer

Why Cyrus

Cyrus a specialist audio company built around its Research and Development team, which encourages innovative ideas, feeding our obsession for ever higher quality reproduction. Our mission is simple – we want you to enjoy your music. Working to achieve this we allocate a great deal of time to our highest performing models. The exceptional engineering and technology used in these products forms the foundations of all our models allowing even entry level hi-fi components to benefit from years of research.

Painting with music

why cyrus 1

Developing ultra-high-performance audio components requires skilled audio engineers and tuning ears with regular experience of the sound of live music across different genres and venues. The process begins with a document detailing the concept for the project, describing features and techniques that may help advance the current state-of-the-art. The Cyrus R&D team is next tasked with developing this concept through a series of prototypes each subject to listening assessments as we evaluate newly available components and the evolving layout of the circuit. While we design in many known audio concepts such as star-earthing and multi-layer boards, each design inevitably presents new opportunities to investigate new techniques to tune the sound. Although the sound is by far the most important tuning goal, we must also engineer for global safety, emission and energy standards.

The Cyrus sound is an intentionally tuned acoustic picture; we want to paint a vast soundstage encompassing width and depth in which to realistically position the performers, extend the frequency range to capture ambient sounds, create deep and tuneful bass without commercially added upper bass, set precise timing and project accurate female vocal tones.

Each component must conform to our acoustic palette as we want all components in a system to play a part in a consistent sonic image, and never to conflict. Although detail, dynamics, soundstage and other parameters improve with each new model, the sonic signature remains constant. This is what we believe will recreate the most lifelike performance in your home. We want to resolve the fine details that reveal the emotion and passion truly great artists share with us at the recording stage. Most audio systems unintentionally filter out much of the special magic that is evident at a live performance. It is our goal to refine our art so our components transmit more of the subtle details through to your listening room.

The Cyrus listening panel may decide to re-spin a circuit many times through the development processes in order to be sure we have explored every option to refine our design. Each board may require comparative component auditions across as many as 50 parts, each shaping small but cumulatively important changes to the overall performance.

The logic of buying products designed to work together

Separate components always sound better because, among other technical benefits, they each have a dedicated power supply designed for the exact purpose. Cyrus has always believed that it is vital for audio components in a system to be voiced identically; otherwise it would fall prey to acoustic chaos. For example, consider the anarchy of assembling your own sports car made up of parts originally developed for taxis, tractors and trucks. Would you reasonably expect them all to perform as a balanced supercar? No, we wouldn’t either. Cyrus believes that audio system components should be designed holistically and voiced with the same philosophy; to play harmoniously together, so they complement one another.

Cyrus’ audiophile technologies

why cyrus 2 Servo Evolution
Cyrus has been at the forefront of CD development since 1983 when our engineers helped develop one of the very first specialist CD players. In 2015 Cyrus wants to make the best players in the world, irrespective of price. To achieve this goal we have developed our own CD read ‘engine’ we call Servo Evolution (SE) that reads data from the disc with 20% fewer errors than leading rivals. All our CD players use this custom made for high-end audio CD ‘engine’.

Hybrid Class D
Until recently Cyrus had considered Class D topologies to lack the performance required for our high-end audio amplifiers. However there are many potential acoustic benefits and so following a research project, Cyrus has developed several solutions that solve barriers to Class D’s successful use. Our development of S.I.D. (Speaker Impedance Detection) means that we can automatically analyse the impedance of the connected speaker (and cable) and adjusts the Class D amplifier to accurately match the consumer’s specific loudspeakers. S.I.D. is just one of a suite of solutions that allow this valuable technology to become an exciting amplifier opportunity.
pdf Download our Class D whitepaper (782 KB)

Zero Global Feedback
Zero Feedback is a sophisticated amplifier topology that requires experienced design engineering and manufacturing controls to work well.
However the sonic benefits are legion, providing very good distortion characteristics among many advantages.
Sonically this is a revealing topology suitable for our most advanced and high performance models, the Mono X amplifier platform.

Virtual Servo pre amplifier
Cyrus believes that in many audio circuits short, direct signal paths are best. By eliminating both the coupling capacitors or the necessity for a DC servo used in standard preamplifiers to remove DC, this ingenious Cyrus design uses fewer electrolytic capacitors. We call this circuit a Virtual Servo because it does the same job, but with fewer components.

The perfect chassis for audio
A striking visual feature of a Cyrus system is the aesthetic lines of the half width chassis. Created by pressure die-casting aluminium, the beauty of this monolithic chassis is however more than skin deep.

The hand finished casework is an integral part of the products’ sound. Cyrus has invested in sophisticated die-cast tooling to create an electrically shielded and mechanically vibration free environment for the sensitive audio circuits which are hung inside the inverted chassis.

Microphonic interference can occur when certain components transform mechanical vibration into unwanted electrical noise if the chassis is excited. The Cyrus chassis has been designed to provide an enclosure that is immune from a wide range of frequencies. This acoustically inert enclosure protects the sensitive audio components from external microphonic influences.

Inside a common steel chassis, components such as transformers radiate electromagnetic fields which induce unwanted electric currents and secondary magnetic fields within the ferrous box, thereby adversely affecting other components in the same enclosure. In the Cyrus die-cast chassis our choice of non-ferrous aluminium means this effect is avoided.

Read about Cyrus Chassis

Upgradeability, a designed-in concept
This has two major benefits. Firstly, it enables customers to build up systems over time. The initial investment is never wasted as they upgrade and add complementary components to build a better system. Secondly, it’s environmentally friendly as it extends the life of older Cyrus units when customers decide they want to improve the quality of their hi-fi system.

Many components can be returned to the factory to be upgraded to the next level up in performance. DAC cards can be added to give digital inputs to an analogue amplifier. Our advanced Qx DAC cards can be added to improve the performance of an existing DAC. All power amplifiers are gain matched, so you can improve the dynamics and resolution of your system through bi-amping or tri-amping your speakers.

The performance of most Cyrus units can also be improved through the addition of our PSX-R2 power supplies. This feeds the attached component with strong, clean filtered power, allowing the complex electronic circuitry to perform at its best.

Find out about upgrades here.

Service and support
Did you know that Cyrus regularly restores amplifiers sold up to 30 years ago? Our customers often hand down amplifiers through generations of a family and our service team can replace parts that degrade over time to restore the amp to its original glory. This allows each generation of user to enjoy the amplifier’s superior sound quality again. We estimate that 80% of our products are still in use today, making Cyrus one of the most effective users of materials in our industry. Cyrus’ longevity is clearly in sharp contrast with products made in low cost economies that may initially retail for less, but lack the long term value of better engineered products. Our customers appreciate that quality remains treasured long after the price is forgotten.

View our Service options.

Made in England
cyrus audio about The Cyrus factory is in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England, where all our products are conceived. We design, prototype, tune, manufacture and support our products, both new and historic from this UK headquarters which is unusual for a modern consumer product.

Cyrus is a privately owned company conceived and run with the core principle that, like our customers, we focus on premium stereo music systems. In a world where 99% of audio manufacturing happens in low cost economies, Cyrus has chosen to build our team of people and expertise in Cambridgeshire, where we are surrounded by a rich pool of excellence in education, technology, high-tech manufacturing and enquiring minds.

Modern manufacturing processes mean that smaller scale, premium products can be successfully manufactured in England. In fact our decision to locate our manufacturing in one of the world’s most advanced economies, where high quality is expected, means we can set our quality standards higher. For all these reasons, our suppliers understand our requirements and because the UK is a world leader in many high-tech industries, we can access leading-edge technologies faster.

Whether we are restoring your cherished Cyrus amplifier from 1983, or delivering a new system, Cyrus is set up to support our products over many years; and in many instances over several generations, as our products pass down through a family. We appreciate your investment in Cyrus and are proud to provide unparalleled service to extend the useful life of a Cyrus system.

What Influences audio quality?

Source Resolution
why cyrus 3

In order to perceive the vital, low level and sometimes quite subtle sounds that are the essence of a stunning performance, we want to have as much data as possible. While compressed music from DAB or online streamed services can sound good, it does not take long, even for those new to hi-fi, to appreciate that higher bit rate music sounds much better.

To take advantage of the fast growing marketplace for downloadable higher bit rate music, Cyrus has developed arguably the most advanced High Definition, or HD, streaming “engine”, capable of 24 bit/192k FLAC and WAV files. We can also play most other file types as well, however, it is the high resolution CD quality and HD files that offer the most exciting sound quality.

The chart shows the relative data rates between likely digital sources. Although most listeners agree that Bluetooth™ music at 352k is great, true hi-fi starts with CD and HD files which sound clearly better.

Amplifier dynamics

This illustration shows the relative power of our amplifiers. As outlined in the amplifier pages, there is no substitute for power because we want to reproduce the dynamics as recorded. For example, a powerful voice should sound louder than the backing singers, and so to correctly reproduce this dynamic relationship, we need strong reserves of power.

The percussive sound of a drum requires high dynamic (or bursts of) power to drive the speaker and therefore the more power in reserve, the more realistic the drum will sound. The chart shows how our more sophisticated amplifiers have higher headroom available, or to put it another way, better ability to provide bursts of short term power.

Greater power is not about playing the music louder; it’s about presenting the difference between large and small notes so they sound realistic.
Power is quoted into 6Ω because this is the real-world impedance of high quality loudspeakers.

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Products availability:

Cyrus Audio CD i - CD Player:
This product can be ordered and will be shipped within 4 days. Also see the Availability tab and eventual options of the same product.

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Product availability is real-time updated and correspond to our actual stock quantities (Green) or to estimated obtainability times (Blue); in the case of (Blue) products, although the specified times are a realistic and conservative estimate, have to be intended as indicative and not as a binding obligation.

If you place an order containing both readily available products (Green) together with products that will make available within the indicated number of days (Blue), will be shipped alltogether when all product types are into our wharehouse; if you’d like we immediately ship the in-stock articles, it’s better that you place a separate order, or contact us.

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For any further information please contact the Customer Service, available from monday to friday (hours: 9-13 / 15-17).