Cyrus Audio 40 Integrated Amplifier Review

For the last twenty-five years, I have been listening to Cyrus Audio equipment with my first ever Integrated amplifier, the Cyrus Audio 7 which started me on this journey and really ignited my love of HiFi as before I mainly focused on Home Cinema, reviewing and listening to high end AV systems which included multichannel audio from the likes of Meridian, Rotel, Denon and Arcam components, it was around about 2000 when I moved to a dedicated two channel system. This hobby evolved into something more serious when I began adding Cyrus Smart power amplifiers and PSX-Rs, aiming to enhance what was already a great HiFi system.

Considering the original Cyrus One amplifier was produced all the way back in 1985, Cyrus had already made a name for itself in the world of HiFi. Fifteen years before I started on this journey, I had always looked to them and loved the small form factor that they offered as HiFi components, and that only grew as my tastes matured. Even though I've tried other brands over the last two decades, I always returned to Cyrus Audio for my central system, as there was something so addictive about the sound and how they presented the music in a way that I loved. It really did pique in about 2005 when I went for a full separates system with the Cyrus Pre Xvs and DAC X as my preamp/DAC and Mono X power amplifiers with the CD8 for my CD collection, which grew considerably over those years. My speakers at that time were the Wilson Benesch Discovery, which I absolutely loved, powered by the Mono X power amplifiers.

I also had many iterations of the Cyrus Audio 8 amplifier, including the 8, 8vs, and 8vs2. Even to this day, I still use a Cyrus 82 DAC Integrated amplifier in my primary system, along with a PSX-R and CD8SE, which I love. Last year, when Cyrus celebrated its 40th Anniversary, it marked a new chapter for the company, introducing the new 40 series of components. This was not just an overhaul and a look at their components. However, it refreshed and revitalised the Cyrus Audio brand into something ultra-modern and fit for the 21st century, while still retaining the Cyrus iconic half-width component style and look.

Now you know some of my history with Cyrus Audio and their components, and how much I appreciate the brand's success in the world of HiFi. So, when they offered to send me the new 40 series to review, I initially had some reservations about whether I would like them as much as I love the classic series of components that I have known for so long. I did get to hear the new 40 series at this year's Bristol HiFi Show back in February. I was seriously impressed with the sound that I heard as they were paired with the brilliant Audio Physic speakers, but the real proof is how they perform in my own room and system here at The Speaker Shack.

Build Quality and Features

Cyrus Audio components have always had exemplary build quality, and the new 40 series Integrated amplifier follows on this tradition with stunning build quality. The main chassis is crafted from anodised aluminium, looking and feeling very solid with its sleek and customised design. Gone are the buttons on the front of the unit and replaced with a beautiful glass facia which has a 5" TFT screen display, and to the left are the touch-sensitive buttons to control the unit, and to the right is a dial for volume control and underneath is a 3.5mm headphone socket, so very minimalistic in its look and ultra modern in its design. This new look has certainly grown on me. Over the last week, it has been a pleasure to use. The display is large and, therefore, easy to see from across my living room when seated. All of the controls can be controlled by the small remote that is included. The brightness of both the screen and the lighting around the volume dial can be adjusted separately, allowing you to tailor the settings to your preference. I have the volume light turned right down and the main display set to half brightness, which I have settled with and seems a good balance.

Built in the UK in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the R&D team has designed and built everything in-house, utilising the latest advancements in technology. Under the hood of the chassis, the Cyrus 40 Amp is packed full of components. Considering its size, you really appreciate how they can squeeze all the technology into such a small yet efficient design. It certainly packs a punch with an oversized and engineered power supply. The class A/B amplifier delivers 100 watts into 6ohms, and even though that might not seem much, the amplifier produces lots of current to allow for even the most demanding of soundtracks to be replicated perfectly and drive speakers to very high levels with ease.

The Cyrus 40 Amplifier really does have every connection possible for your system. It includes a low-noise MM phono stage and high-end DAC using a reworked ESS ES9039Q2M Sabre chipset and HyperStream IV Dual DAC technology to allow for high-resolution audio up to 32-bit 768kHz PCM & DSD1024. On the rear of the unit, it features a plethora of connections with four RCA analogue inputs, one pre out, fixed pre out, two digital coaxial inputs, and one optical SPDIF input. There are no XLR balanced connections, but considering the size, that would be nearly impossible to accommodate in a half-width design. Also on the rear is an Ethernet connection and both USB A and B connections, with the B being used for high-resolution audio. Speaker connections are banana plug type and include a pair for both left and right channels; they even include an eARC HDMI input so that you can connect them up for your AV entertainment system.

One of the most essential connections on the rear of the 40 Amp is the D-type 40 PSU connection, which is basically an upgraded version of the PSX-R that the classic series has used for as long as I can remember. I have always used this upgrade because it provides the benefits of a clean and stable DC voltage to feed the delicate preamp sections of the amplifier. Still, with the 40, it has also increased power output by 13 watts, pushing the total output to 113 watts for the 40 Amp, and with the classic series, previously I could always hear the benefits of this upgrade, and that goes to all components which accept this upgrade, including CD players and any component that the PSX-R or PSU plugs into.

For this review, I am using the 40 Amp with my Cyrus Audio CD8SE CD player and PSX-R for CD playback, and for vinyl, I am using my Denon DP400 turntable with the MM phono cartridge fitted. For streaming high-resolution music, I am using the Bluesound Nano Node streamer. All this is connected up using a mixture of Chord and Montaudio cables, which are connected to my ProAc Response D2R speakers, which are an incredibly revealing speaker and perfectly matched with my existing Cyrus components. So, it will be great to see how they perform with the new Cyrus Audio 40 series Amp.

Sound Quality and Performance

I have been listening to many artists with the new Cyrus Audio 40 Amp, and one that I always come back to when reviewing HiFi equipment is Patricia Barber. Her wonderful music, along with the quality of the recordings, makes her the perfect choice to evaluate new equipment. I own all of her albums in high resolution and at varying sample rates. I know them so well across a broad range of equipment and speakers that I have had here for review, so my first album is the brilliant 2000 recording in high-resolution Nightclub with a sample rate of 24-bit 88kHz. 

Track one Bye Bye Blackbird starts off with the piano notes which play centre left of the stage and behind Patricia Barbers vocals, they have such an beautiful tone with some fantastic textures to the lower notes that the ProAc’s produce perfectly, its immediately noticeable that the grip on the speakers with the new 40 amplifier is greatly improved over my existing 82 DAC integrated amp, the delicate brushing of the brush sticks over the drum skins are almost tangible in feeling the rhythm of this track, while Barbers beautiful vocals are centre stage, the imaging is razor sharp with every instrument perfectly placed having their own space creating a holographic image of the band playing in front of me, Barbers vocals are silky smooth with an excellent tonal balance, the higher piano notes seem to hang in the air in front of me but crisply defined, this is a highly musical sounding amplifier in Cyrus tradition which I love and its clear that they have most certainly improved this with the new 40 series, with every detail and nuance revealed in the music.

Track three Yesterdays is 6 minutes and 40 seconds of beautiful music, the 40 amplifier manages to produce such an intoxicating listen replicating all of the atmosphere of the sultry jazz club and band playing, the percussive instruments sounds stunning with so much energy from the drums which fill my room with such clarity and definition, piano notes are crisp and well-rounded which once again seem to hang in the air in front of me, cymbals shimmer and Patricia Barbers vocals sound powerful and have such a beautifully smooth and even tonal balance allowing every breath she takes to be felt and anticipated through the speakers, it really is foot tapping music and draws you completely into it, closing my eyes I can feel every note from this incredible band spread out in front of me, the Cyrus Audio 40 amp creates such a beautiful sound.

 

Track Four Just For A Thrill is another superb track which I have been listening to over and over such is the quality, I love it when an amplifier and speaker can replicate the instruments so perfectly and there is a section where the electric guitar plays solo centre stage at about 2 minutes into the track, at gigs you can feel the raw power from the amplifiers producing the sound of the live music and instruments, with each pluck of the guitar strings the sound resonates through you and the Cyrus 40 Amp recreates this perfectly with stunning clarity and power which sounds so impressive making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, it shows how quickly the 40 amp can deliver the power and how it is being delivered from the amplifier to the speakers with an excellent transient response, which really does pack a punch, creating this realistic and believable sound. This is also shown on track six, Alfie, where the bass guitar and guitar’s lower notes sound incredibly powerful and considering the 40-amp size, this makes it even more impressive, with such stunning realism.

For my next album, I am listening to Supertramp’s legendary 1979 album Breakfast in America on CD. I own this on vinyl, CD and in high-resolution, and this CD remaster sounds superb through the Cyrus CD8SE player, so I wanted to spin it through the new 40 amplifier and see, or should I say hear, the results. I love all tracks on this album but I have my favourites and track two The Logical Song is one of them, this has to be one of the most beautifully composed and sounding pieces of music, and while writing this review sadly Rick Davies passed away, what a voice and sound he had and what impact his music with Supertramp had on the world of music, truly legendary. The new Cyrus Audio 40 amp and CD8SE have such great synergy, and I have always thought that Cyrus makes some of the best CD players on the market, as they manage to excel with this format and always have done. The intro with the Castanets echoes from left to right of the sound stage with some slight reverb introduced, and Cyrus presents this perfectly. At the same time, Rick Davies' piano and vocals come in, the sound has exceptional clarity and energy before the drums, which have plenty of snap with excellent dynamics, the lightning fast transient shifts allow the 40 amp to produce some stunning results allowing the beauty of the track to be heard, musically engaging and brilliantly executed this is most certainly my favourite Supertramp song from their long list of hits.

Track Four, as is the title of the album Breakfast In America, is a classic, and the CD8SE accurately captures every musical detail, with the 40 amplifier amplifying the sound perfectly. The Cyrus Audio pairing makes for an extremely musically proficient pairing; they tune them to play all types of music so well. With this track, I love hearing and picking out all the various instruments, which are so well defined. The 40 amp produces a precise image of the music in front of me, making it an easy task. At about 40 seconds into the track, the Tenor Horn adds to the multiple layers of textures that make up this stunning track. The lower notes from this instrument sound simply sublime. The Piano notes from Rick Davies sound crisp, while the drums have all the snap and rhythm you'd expect. Towards the end, the Clarinet comes in, and on some amplifiers/speakers, I have heard it edge towards being on the bright side, but not with the Cyrus 40 amplifier; it has a lovely, sweet yet powerful sound with a tremendous grip on all the frequencies.

I have been listening to a lot of vinyl on the Cyrus 40, which I've been taking full advantage of thanks to its onboard MM phono stage. I used to own the Cyrus Audio Signature phono stage which I used in one of my systems for a good few years so I can attest that they've certainly learnt a thing or two about this format/vinyl over the last few years, having just released a new turntable which I saw at the Bristol show earlier in the year, connected to the 40 series. Using the phono input, you immediately notice the lack of noise, which is a good thing, especially with vinyl, as you are presented with an incredibly quiet background from where the music can emerge.

Listening to the new album from Faithless - Champion Sound on vinyl is a refreshing blast from the past with this iconic group, whose music has had such an impact on the club scene and still does to this day. Unfortunately, Maxi Jazz passed away back in 2022. His legendary voice is featured on one of the tracks from this latest album, Forever Free, which is an excellent tribute to him. The Cyrus 40 Amp and excellent phono stage simply get on with the job, allowing all the hard-hitting and punchy bass lines from this track to be revealed, and delivers a sound that is highly engaging and musically addictive, easily on par with similar high-end phono-preamplifiers, such is the quality.

On side 3 of the second LP, there is also a brilliantly composed ambient/chill track which goes on for 24 minutes and 5 seconds. I love how the Cyrus 40 Amp creates a huge soundstage, with electronic sounds moving across it at lightning speed and retrieving so much detail from this record. The MM phono stage is genuinely excellent, enabling you to get the best out of your turntable.

My time with the new Cyrus Audio 40 Series Integrated Amplifier has been incredibly enjoyable, and I've grown to absolutely love this new design. Still, it is the stunning sound quality and performance that Cyrus is renowned for, as well as the amplifier's musical ability, and the 40 Amp has it by the bucket load, which is what I have always enjoyed so much about this brand.

Conclusions and Final Thoughts

The Cyrus Audio 40 Amplifier is most certainly one of the most competent and highly spec'd Integrated amplifiers that I have had here for review. It really is the Swiss Army knife of amplifiers, being able to do it all and do it all so well, no matter what the source is, it is not fussed delivering music with all the musicality and energy that I have known and loved from the Cyrus Audio brand for so many years now. They have clearly improved the performance and the sound quality with the new 40 series. Its updated look brings it bang up to date with all the latest technology squeezed into the half-width size, but with plenty of power to deliver stunning results. With the ability to upgrade it with the 40 PSU, this makes it even more appealing and most certainly should be on your shortlist. 

The Speaker Shack awards the new Cyrus Audio 40 Amp with an Outstanding 5-star award and stamp of approval.

Price at time of review: £3,995

Web - https://cyrusaudio.com/