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Cyrus 40 amp

Verdict

The 40 AMP isn’t cheap but it is a deeply impressive blend of specification and performance that is able to deliver a genuinely high end sound blended with real world convenience that many rivals struggle with

Pros

Brilliant sound quality

Excellent connectivity

Solid build

Cons

Not cheap

No Bluetooth

Slightly awkward eARC functionality

Key Features

Power100 watts into 6 ohms

ConnectionsDigital and analogue inputs including HDMI eARC

40 PSUOptional power supply

Introduction

Those of you who read the hi-fi reviews here on Trusted Reviews will have noticed that the rate of change in stereo products is… graceful? Believe it or not, we’re actually in a phase of quite significant technical upheaval in how we put stereo systems together but it doesn’t really translate to things looking wildly different on the outside.

When it comes to things looking the same though, Cyrus Audio is an absolute champ. The company has put the vast majority of their products in the same half width casework for the entire time I have been working in the hi-fi industry (which is… a long time…). Sometimes the colour changed a bit and the company has experimented with different displays (and indeed, no displays) over the years but everything has basically looked a certain way for decades.

This makes the all new casework of the 40 Series products ‘A Big Deal’. The 40 Amp is nothing less than the most sophisticated, powerful and expensive integrated amplifier that Cyrus has ever made. Does it manage to hold its own against the competition and usher Cyrus into a whole new era?

Availability

The 40 AMP is available in the UK for £3,995 from a nationwide selection of specialist dealers, many of whom have sold Cyrus products for a very long time and that know the brand inside out. In the US, it can be found for $4,995 and in Australia, it is available for $6,499 AUD.

Something that Cyrus has long offered with their products and that carries over to the 40 Series is that you can boost performance by adding an external power supply. This can be purchased at the same time as the 40 AMP but it can also be added at a later date, giving you a little more upgrade potential than is generally the case for products of this type.

Design

All new metalwork

Large front display

Small but perfectly formed

The big news with the 40 Amp is that it looks different to any Cyrus Audio product that has come before it. The new casework has a little more internal volume and this allows Cyrus to lay it out more efficiently and eke more performance out of those features.

Cyrus 40 AMP new design

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I have had the 40 AMP sample here for a little while now and the looks have grown on me over time. I think that the 40 AMP is a good looking bit of kit; managing to look modern in a way that that the older Cyrus casework sometimes struggles to do. I was initially a little concerned that it lacked a little identity as a Cyrus device but I suspect this is simply because it looks different to anything that has come before. There is less visible branding than with the older casework but the result still looks like a Cyrus.

At the front of the chassis, the small letterbox type display of old has been replaced by a larger white on black affair that covers the whole front panel. This gives information on source and has menu buttons to access various settings arranged down one side. This display is crisp and easy to read but the actual amount of information it shows is quite limited. If you use the 40 AMP with other components from the range, they can send additional information to the 40 AMP to display there but, if you are using the amp on its own it feels a little sparse.

Cyrus 40 AMP display

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I have no complaints about how the Cyrus is built though. When you are charging a fairly hefty amount of money for a compact device, you can sometimes struggle to overcome a feeling of being slightly underwhelmed. The 40 AMP is small but the care and attention that has gone into its construction is clearly evident. I really like the cut in lower edge to the casework (replicated on the remote handset) and everything looks and feels like it has been built to a very high standard.

Features

100 watts into 6 ohms

Digital inputs, now with HDMI eARC

Analogue inputs and phono stage

Newly accessible headphone socket… but no Bluetooth

The 40 AMP is a class AB based design that produces 100 watts into 6 ohms. For those of you not familiar with Cyrus, this is not unusual – the company doesn’t straight quote into 8 ohms which is a more usual impedance to quote at – 65-70 watts into 8 ohms would be roughly what the 40 AMP is capable of. This can be increased to 110W when you add the external PSU which is – I think! – the first time I’ve seen this in a Cyrus product.

Cyrus 40 AMP remote control

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This amp designed around the idea of having enough real world power rather than a headline grabbing notional maximum. The power supply that Cyrus has shoehorned into the back of the 40 AMP is very hefty indeed and it is there to ensure that the 40 AMP has enough power to handle the speakers it is likely to in the real world without strain or stress. This is made available to a single set of speaker terminals connections which are 4mm sockets and will need plugs to work. The good news is that these can now actually be solid tipped which might not sound exciting but is pretty radical in the world of Cyrus.

In keeping with many modern integrated amps, the 40 AMP has a digital board built around an ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M DAC in an optimised implementation. This is made available to a USB input, two coaxial connections and an optical socket – one fewer than more affordable amps in the XR range. This is because the 40 AMP gains an HDMI eARC connection in its place which will be a pretty acceptable trade-off for most people. Sample rate handling is 384kHz PCM and DSD256 via the USB input which should be sufficient for most applications.

Cyrus 40 AMP connections v2

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As well as the digital connections, four RCA line inputs are supported by a moving magnet phono stage, this latter input taking design experience from the company’s standalone phono stages which are truly exceptional performers. If you want to use the 40 AMP in the time honoured fashion with external sources, you absolutely can. This is partnered with a variable level pre out and fixed line out. Fitting this many connections on the back of an amp half as wide as normal is no small feat but Cyrus has achieved it without everything feeling too constrained.

One last welcome feature is a headphone socket on the front panel. Cyrus has fitted headphone sockets to their amps for years but put the socket on the back panel which was less than ideal. The 40 AMP has moved the socket to the front panel which makes it rather more useful. In fact, the only real wishlist feature missing is Bluetooth; something Cyrus is actually rather good at but has decided isn’t needed on their amps which is not something that customers, or indeed their rivals, always agree with.

Sound Quality

Enough power for real world applications

More refined and spacious than Cyrus amps of old… but still a Cyrus

Exceptional phono stage

Consistent performance across all inputs

Good, if not totally perfect, TV partner

Whatever you might think of the fact that the 40 AMP doesn’t give a wholly honest figure for its power output, the reality is, in the real world, it has more than enough. I used a pair of Focal Kanta No1 standmounts for the bulk of testing, partly because they’re a roughly similar price and partly because I have used them for other Cyrus amp tests over the years. The 40 AMP is able to control the Focal brilliantly, extracting better bass and a more controlled low end than I’ve experienced before.

Cyrus 40 AMP casework

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In fact, the 40 AMP feels like a well-considered evolution of the XR models that were released a few years ago. The way it performs with the spacey electro rock of Black Blossom by Zola Blood is more open and effortlessly spacious than was the case with older models and it means that dense material is unpacked and given more space to breathe. On really high quality recordings, particularly ones where the musicians were recorded as a group rather than overlayed in studio, you get an effortless sense of their positions relative to one another and the space they are performing in.

The really important thing is that these new tricks have been gained without losing the skills that have been winning Cyrus customers for forty years. This is an amplifier that will take a rhythm, any rhythm, and latch onto it like its life depends on it. With higher tempo music, the Cyrus is an absolute joy that engages on an emotional rather than a technical level. EBM by Editors is an almost visceral experience to listen to on this amp. What’s most impressive about this is that this really isn’t a great piece of mastering but the Cyrus manages to keep everything sounding civilised.

If you are a turntable user with a moving magnet cartridge, the phono stage in the 40 AMP is far more than a convenience feature as well. I ran some tests with AVID turntable using a Vertere Darksabre cartridge – one of the best moving magnet designs you can buy – and the performance wasn’t ‘good for an internal phono stage’ it was genuinely involving and enjoyable judged by any metric. The magnificently retro Who do they think they are? by Sweat is potent, lively and hugely enjoyable.

Cyrus 40 AMP phono stage

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The new HDMI eARC input is a useful fixture too. It syncs perfectly to your TV and hands volume adjustment over to your TV handset and does so reliably enough that the household is likely to trust and make use of it. The only slight bugbear I have is that, if the amp is used on an input that isn’t the eARC and then switched off, it will not automatically power back on when the TV is turned on – it will only do this if the HDMI input was last selected. This is not the end of the world but, compared to the bulletproof implementation on something like the Cambridge Audio EXA100, it’s a little more fiddly.

Extended listening to the Cyrus suggests it is admirably consistent across the various analogue and digital inputs. Using the Cyrus via its USB input from a Roon Nucleus compared to sending that USB signal to a Chord Electronics Qutest connected via RCA sees the digital board hold its own against the dedicated bespoke DAC. It’s sweet, rich and tonally believable in a way that makes this an extremely easy device to spend many hours in front of. I question how many people are going to spring for the dedicated streamer when the digital board is this good but it’s a nice problem for 40 AMP owners to have.

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Should you buy it?

Next Generation

The 40 AMP takes everything that Cyrus has been doing so well for years, improves on it further and wraps it in a design that is attractive and bang up to date. It’s the most talented and complete integrated amp that the company has ever made

Four large

There’s no escaping that a whisker under four grand is a lot of money and there are amps like that formidable Cambridge Audio EXA100 that can keep the Cyrus honest for rather less outlay.

Final Thoughts

After so long using the same casework, the 40 AMP was always going to be bit of a shock to the system but it really is a wholly positive one. This is a thoroughly modern and well sorted amplifier that still knows what it takes to be a Cyrus.

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