Cyrus transport. Schiit Gumby DAC. |
Benchmark sounds great, but I would have to come up with the two grand.
I was already considering the Oppo 205. They’re supposedly coming out with a new run this month. I’ve long been on the waiting list to buy.
|
Johnny,
Isn’t the Ayre Codex primarily a headphone amp?
|
ICs are Morrow Toslink between the Cyrus and the DAC, Morrow MA4 out of the DAC to the preamp, MA 3 between the Oppo and the preamp (RCA’s).
Stock power cords on both Cyrus and Oppo.
Morrow MA 4 power cord between preamp (Currently Emotiva XSP1, while my Conrad-Johnson PV11 is out for repair,) and Nuforce (Reference 9 V3) mono-block amps.
I have the Oppo 95. The 105 is light years better. |
Dweller,
Are you saying you liked the 105 more than the 205?
Important! because I’m seriously considering getting the 205.
|
dweller— Thanks for the response.
Doesn’t sound as though there’s a big difference yet.
Of course you now have 4K video!
|
mahler123,
I had originally used the Oppo as transport to the Gumby ( and to my previous Theta DAC) prior to buying the Cyrus.
The Cyrus-Gumby combination sounded better.
I just never expected the Oppo alone to sound best!
|
Sorry for so many posts in a row, but I made a discovery.
After finding that Tidal sounded better through the Gumby, I did as mahler123 had suggested and hooked up the Oppo with the Gumby. I A-B ed the two setups and, Voila, the Oppo/Gumby combo sounded better than the Oppo by itself.
It’s hard to believe the Cyrus transport is inferior to the Oppo transport, especially considering the cost.
I’m sending the unit back to them to check it out. It just doesn’t make sense. |
CDs through the Oppo though sound better than the same CD performances through Tidal.
|
Interestingly, when I stream Tidal through the Gumby DAC, it sounds a lot better than streaming through the Oppo, even though the opposite is true with CDs.
|
If you hear a lot of noise with clean records, you probably need a new turntable/cartridge setup. My records generally play with little or no background noise. |
Dweller,
Good idea.
But I lost the original cord when we had a fire in the music room. |
1graber2,
I’m pretty sure you have something there.
Interesting situation with the Cyrus. I ordered it from an English store. The power cord included had a European outlet end so I couldn’t plug it into the wall. To make matters worse, the other end, the end that connects to the transport, has only two prong holes instead of the normal three.
As a solution I substituted a regular three hole plug and plugged two of the holes into the transport. The unit worked.
As you mention it, It dawns on me now that this could very well be the problem.
The dilemma is, where do you get a two hole cable with an American outlet plug?
Anybody have a suggestion?
|
Uberwaltz,
Where do you buy the materials? |
I found an adapter that accommodates a three pronged plug into two prongs on Amazon.
We’ll se if that makes a difference.
|
“ I think you may be surprised at the dynamic range of vinyl. You may find its range far exceeds digital.”
+1 uberwaltz
|
Getting back a little closer to the original subject, the three to two hole adapter that I got to enable me to connect the Cyrus to the DAC had the wrong size two-hole. So, I’m back to the original dilemma of not being able to hook up a decent cable to the transport.
Writing to Cyrus didn’t do much good. They, incredulously, praised the Oppo, and said the sound might be a matter of taste!
|
Not that I want to get into a debate either, but in my subjective experience, I’ve found that records have always sounded more “open” and transparent than CDs.
And, as I’ve stated, there’s very little if any background noise on a clean record.
|
“but given the pro vinyl propaganda out there, perhaps that is the reason.”
And perhaps some of us just like the sound of LP’s better.
|
In saying that I prefer records to CDs I was somewhat overstating the case.
There are some terrible sounding records and some wonderful sounding digital recordings. Indeed I think quality control is generally higher in the digital domain than in the analog. I just prefer the sound of the best records to the best CD’s, SACDs, etc.
Also, In using the Oppo 105 as a transport to the Schiit Gumby, I’m getting much better sound than with the Oppo alone.
|
|
In case anyone is still following this thread, I’ll update it.
I finally got a power cable from Cyrus itself, and, lo and behold, it’s a THREE pronged IEC hole instead of the two hole designed for the unit. The good news is that it works and sounds great, much better than the cable I was using. The bad news is that, for some reason, the coaxial interconnect now produces no sound whatsoever!
Fortunately, the optical cable works.
I’ve called Cyrus. |
The coax (Morrow) kicked in finally, but it doesn’t sound as good as the optical.
Maybe it has to break in more |
What a difference with the new power cord.
Hard to exaggerate how much better the Cyrus-Gumby combo sounds than anything else I’ve tried.
|
I wrote that post back in August. Since then, I’ve made several major changes to my system. And the Cyrus/Schitt combo sounds wonderful, and much better than the Oppo 105 by itself, as it should.
|
If you’re referring to me, I’ve tried connecting the 105 outs to the DAC. Not as good a result as using the Cyrus. My power cord and connectors are all high quality Morrow MA4’s.
|
