Greetings from The Wirral

[psej71]

Good afternoon all

Paul here from The Wirral in Merseyside.

Second attempt at writing my welcome. I’d just finished my first very informative post and when I went to post apparently I’d timed out and when logged back in the post has disappeared. Very disappointed as it’s taken me a good hour!!!

So just to give you my current system details and get this posted before it times out. I’ll add more detail later or tomorrow!

Cyrus CD XT Signature
Cyrus DAB 8.0
Cyrus DAC XP+ (and PSXR)
Cyrus XPower x 2 (running in mono)
Spendor S5e

All housed in Custom Design Milan stand with iRAP platforms

Music wise, quite eclectic, from cheesy pop, 80s , female vocalists, jazz, a bit of country, classical, opera and musicals. Anything really that I find and end up liking. Find a lot of new artists from amazon music and also reading reviews of kit and like to check out the testers demo tracks and often find brilliant stuff that way that perhaps I’d never come across normally (such as Safri Duo).

Like I say I wanted to get this posted quick so I don’t lose it again! I’ll post my original post later or tomorrow as I thought it was a good story!

Wishing you all a safe evening, whatever you are doing and with whomever you are doing it with!!

Cheers

Paul

[biffo]

Hello Paul also live on the Wirral

[psej71]

This is what originally I intended to post earlier!! You can understand why it probably timed out!!! Lol....I know it’s long winded but I liked to share my journey......hope you enjoy!

I’ve dipped In and out of the wonderful world of HiFi every since I was 17 years old and got myself a job at Nat West Bank. I secured a cheap staff loan and armed with the dosh marched right into my local HiFi shop in Liverpool and told the sales guy that I wanted a HiFi! I didn’t have a clue, and he could have sold me anything! But credit to him, clearly a passionate fella who knew his stuff, worked with my budget and put together a great package for me. I walked out of that shop with a Denon Tape Deck, Tuner, Rotel TT, Cyrus One mk2 amp, Mission Electronic loudspeakers (stand mounts..I want to say 852s??) and a pair of generic speaker stands (oh and no change :-)). Looking back I have no idea how I got that all home in my mini , let alone fitted into my very modest bedroom (luckily it wasn’t the box room - that honour fell to my little bro!). I remember a bit of shock and protest from “The Olds”, but secretly I think my old fella was impressed!! Got to say I loved that system and felt like I had the dogs proverbials set up loud and proud in my own little world. A few years after that I left the UK and floated about the world for years and all my stuff was put away in the loft!! Don’t know why the olds didn’t use it themselves? But my bro moved out of the box room the day I left and I reckon I was horrible and said it had to go into storage as I didn’t want him knackering it!! Lol �� (they probably did keep it out for sometime until it became unfashionable or they wanted a modern all in one system!! Oh what fools! ����).

Skip forward to 2005 when I had a Denon mini all in one box system and I wanted to better the sound. I remembered my old kit that I hoped was still at mums, so bobbed over and came away with the speakers and amp. I decided to see if I could get the amp serviced and was surprised that Cyrus did in fact offer this. So off it went. Sadly the old missions had seen better days as the rubber had all disintegrated, but I found a kit online to fix them up and replaced the rubber surrounds. When the amp came back , I connected the Denon as a source and used the Cyrus and speakers. I was completely blown away at the differences I could hear! And this is on kit that was almost 20 years old! And that folks was the start of my journey back into true HiFi.

In 2008 I found out that Cyrus had created the new 8SE CD players and off I went to my local retailer armed with my Cyrus 1 amp to see how good it actually was!! He was a good salesman, I came home armed with my 8SE and the Spendor S5e’s that I still have to this day! And so then begun the upgrade”itus” that I’m still afflicted with to this day!! :-) I first changed the old amp to a pre XVS and old power (keeping the old amp running the Denon with the missions in another room). Then when I had more money I got my first Xpower, followed by the 2nd (running in mono) and this really made the old Spendors sing like I’d never heard! Next up was a PSXR for the 8SE, then the pre went and the DAC XP+ came. Finally the many derivatives I had of the 8SE (best not to get into that whole ugly discussion!!) got replaced with the CD XT Signature and the PSXR now helps the DAC XP+ raise it’s game to its current level! So quite a journey and I’ve got to say that although a fairly modest system compared to a lot of others, I feel like I once again am the proud owner of the dogs proverbials, although now it has pride of place in my lounge and not my little bedroom! So that’s my journey to date and current system as it stands.....

I say as it stands as I’m just about to embark on a new chapter! Remember the old Rotel I mentioned.....well back in 2012 I had an idea to resurrect it. Off I trotted to my mums loft....and there it was just as I left it in 1990! I brought it home , got a cheap phono amp , and tried it out! Oops...time hadn’t been kind and it was dreadful. Anyhow, not one to give up, I did a bit of research, found a shop who could service it and off it went. Came back like new , new cartridge (Ortofon 2M Red) installed and it sounded great in the shop. Sadly due to personal reasons I never got a chance to install it at home, and along with most of my stuff, it was carted off to mums garage where it has laid in storage until Boxing Day of this year!

So second time lucky, I retrieved from my mums on Boxing Day, still mint and heavier than I recalled! I had to move a few bits about at home but now it’s sitting on the top shelf of the Milan stand just waiting to be plumbed in. The DAC XP+ does not have phono stage so I’m now on the look out for a decent phono stage and whilst I’m at it, I’m looking for a headphone amp to resurrect my AKG 702s as well. I lost my headphone output when I got the DAC XP+ and never bothered to sort it. Thought I found the perfect solution with a Cambridge Audio Duo Phono stage that has a headphone output....but luckily when I thought about it, all that’s going to do is provide the vinyl output and not my other sources! So I’m back to the drawing board and gaining people’s thoughts and recommendations, plus on the lookout for decent 2nd hand items. Had a Rega Fono III and a Graham Slee Gram Amp 2 SE in my sights but both were already gone! And the headphone amp I’ve got my eyes on was a Rega EAR (probably due to the aesthetics of having matching boxes more than anything! - a bit of OCD here! Lol :-)). However I’m now thinking that as long as both new bits of kit are the same colour that’ll be ok. Together on same shelf won’t look odd with the rest of my Cyrus gear or TT (which are all black!).

So hopefully being on this forum I’ll get some advice with things I might not know to even consider. Not looking to spend too much as I am aware that the TT is not even middle of the range , and I expect I’ll end up with the upgrade bug on that too! So do I go cheap with amps until upgrade time or do I get a more middle of the road amp that’ll then be ok when the TT gets upgraded (if it does) or would a decent amp help the old TT sound better than a more modest basic one now would!!

Anyway folks, thanks for getting this far (if you have) reading my witterings. Be great to hear from you with thoughts, comments etc. I’m looking forward to being a part of the community. Until then, hope everyone has a good night.

Cheers

Paul

[psej71]

Hello Paul also live on the Wirral

Great �� Cheers biffo....good to have fellow enthusiasts who are local ��

[southall-1998_mk2]

Howdy! Welcome to AOS.

Have fun.

S.

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Paul,

Enjoy the Forum
Barry