Music for York House

Relative price

typical

Among the 29 preamplifiers in the catalogue, this one is typical.

A band places a component against its peers and carries no price. It is deliberately the only price indicator on this page: a second one, measured against a different set, would narrow the two together far enough to give the figure away.

What it is

Cyrus flagship preamp in XR series. Half-width 215mm die-cast aluminium chassis — distinctive Cyrus form factor that two-stack with matching half-width power amps (Power-XR, Stereo 200, Mono X). Touch-sensitive controls + colour LCD. Designed and manufactured Huntingdon, UK.

Built-in QXR DAC (2nd gen) with 7 filter alignments, USB to 768kHz/DSD512. Built-in MM phono stage. Headphone amp.

Topology: RCA-only inputs but XLR + RCA outputs. Cannot accept balanced sources directly. Output side is excellent: balanced XLR drive enables partnering with high-end power amps including Naim NAP 250/350.

What the reviewers said

40-series Cyrus preamp with PSX-R2 PSU compatibility Cyrus Pre-XR positioning· Presence & articulation

energetic and dynamic... satisfying HiFi & Music Source (Wilce) 2022· Micro-dynamic resolution

identify the separate instruments HiFi & Music Source (Wilce) 2022· Spatial resolution

little is added or taken away HiFi & Music Source (Wilce) 2022· Tonal consistency

How it scores

Clarity

• Electrical noise floor 90 from specification
• Spatial resolution 76 from listening evidence

Voice

• Presence & articulation 71 from listening evidence

LowerVolume

• Low-level noise floor 90 from specification
• Micro-dynamic resolution 76 from listening evidence
• Tonal consistency 70 from listening evidence

Specifications