Hi everyone

I have a cyrus CD8X running with NAIM NAC 102 and 2 x NAP 90/3, and PMC GB1 speakers. (I love my PMC speakers).

I'm struggling to love my Cyrus mainly because string sounds can be so glassy and tough. It can be amazing at times but its very inconsistent, showing up some CDs very badly. Having bi-amped my speakers things have improved a little.

But try playing John Elliot Gardiner's B minor mass recording from 1984 and the sound is unbearably hard and artifical. Most string quartet recordings for example that I play lack the true glow of a great string sound for me. There's too much artifical bloom around the sound and it sounds wrong to my ears (I am a violinist).

I was pondering a couple of ideas (3 infact)

- buy the Cyrus PSX-R power supply and see if that helps

- try out a Musical Fidelity tube buffer and see if that takes from edge of the sound (then I worry about the price of decent interconnects)

- Change the Cyrus for a Unison Research CD player (with the Class A valve output stage)

I don't really want to change my amps yet, though I suspect a Class A valve amp would give me the kind of sound I am looking for.

I don't listen to much else besides classical music.

Thanks

Neil

Ps : how can Art Dudley listen to Menuhin's out-of-tune, scratchy, sawing 1970s solo Bach on any system let alone a CD8X...