Cyrus system upgrade

Hi All

I have a Cyrus 3 amp and PSX supply feeding a couple of Mission bi wired 753 speakers. I have had the system for around 25 years and to be honest never really been satisfied with the sound, but as I have owned this kit for so long I have become attached to it! I have been trawling through the ebay pages and toying with adding a decent power amp to try and improve the system.

I must be honest all my music I listen to on this system is streamed but does come of a good sound card so actually sounds quite good, its just that I have never felt the mission 753 have ever performed how they should do, and I suspect they need a lot more power to bring them to life at low volumes.

Here's the thing, do I buy a Cyrus 8 power amp and use my 3 and PSX as the preamp or do I mix things up and use a different make of power amp as I have heard Cyrus should never be used with Mission. I have thought about buying another 2nd hand Cyrus 3 and PSX and using them as mono amps per speaker with another preamp (my thinking behind this is that 2nd hand Cyrus 3 are cheap but have no idea if this would be pointless).

I have a budget of £400 for some 2nd hand kit so any suggestion or sensible advice will be welcome. What has brought this upgrade fever on is I have just purchased 2nd hand kit for my son for his first system which comprised of Audiolab 8000a Technics turn table and Mission 752 and this sounds bloody good compared to mine, so I have to address this.

Thanks
JT

 

There is no reason not to have Cyrus and mission together. The 753's are bi-wireable, you could drive the tweeters with the 3 and the low units with the 8. The 753's will sound better with more power to drive and control them. Later you could get another 8 and have them in mono one to each speaker. I have an 8000A which I dont use at present and the sound is different to the Cyrus I have so that may be some of the difference you hear, but the 753'sdo likemore power perhaps than you 3 provides on its own.

You could look on here http://www.rdhworld.myzen.co.uk/ this forum is great started by Cyrus enthusiasts but now covers all things hifi and some not.

 

Hi Thanks for the reply, I agree and think the best option is a Cyrus 8 power amp although never thought of using the 3 for the tweeters and the 8 for the bass, how would this be wired? sounds interesting

Thanks
jt

 

I would sell the Cyrus 3 keep the PSXR and buy an 8vs2.

 

In the end I brought two new power 8's as these were good value and vertically amped my 753's and used the Cyrus 3 as pre amp only. The system sounds very nice now although still not happy with the 753 speakers, I think I have just grown up since I originally brought them and find them a bit brash, next upgrade will be Spendor A5 or better and as you recommend 8vs2 or similar. Out of interest during my upgrade journey I originally brought one power 8 and used this on the bass and the 3 on the tweeters, for the record don't try this it sounded terrible 3's and 8's don't mix in bi-amping.