The Cyrus CDt-XR CD Transport Review

The CDt-XR has no analog outs, so it expects to have its outputs fed to a DAC or a preamp. Think of it as a CD transport.

For this part of the review, I listened to the player feeding non-Cyrus components. Some say the CD is dead, and sales have dropped. Certainly, vinyl surpassed it for a few years, but of late the CD is coming back and sales are, if not robust, good. Billboard reported CD sales were up 21% in 2021, off a bit in 2022, but not taking the deep dive we’ve seen in previous years as it competes with vinyl and streaming. The pandemic seems to have boosted CD sales (lots of people at home), but as we enter the post-pandemic era CD sales are slipping again.

Still, most of us have large collections of CDs, and CD quality is only outperformed by file-based playback at higher resolutions, and arguably, by good-quality vinyl recordings. I’ve come to believe that the recording itself is more important than the delivery format of the recording. I’ve heard many CDs that blow away high-resolution recordings, and great high-resolution recordings that are clearly superior to CDs.

At any rate, the Cyrus CDt-XR rendered my best CD recordings with aplomb, playing back through an Emotiva home theater preamp with Emotiva amps, an Anthem AVM-90 home theater processor with Emotiva amps, and a Denon multi-channel receiver. All my listening was in stereo, with all the multichannel options disengaged. I also disabled room correction features.

I thought the sound was smooth and dynamic and there was an absence of mechanical noise from the player, as well as no electronic noise, no hum, and no high-frequency hiss. Using the optical output (the CDt-XR only offers digital output), I was dependent on the DAC of my processor, and I did not find any negative effects from the DACS.

I thought the CDt-XR was slightly better than my reference Oppo BDP-203 in terms of dynamic range and stability of the stereo image. The difference was easily audible on almost every recording. The Oppo was also connected through the optical outputs, to keep everything as equal as possible.

As I mentioned, CDs are struggling, but for many of us, they are still our primary format for listening to music, either directly from the disc or the ripped FLAC file at full resolution.

In my home system, I have all my content sitting on a Roon Server, so I seldom pull out a physical disc, but I’ve got at least a thousand ripped CDs on that server along with hundreds of high-resolution files I’ve purchased over the years.

Of course, for this review, I’m listening to physical discs played back on this Cyrus CDt-XR player.

The CDt-XR disc player shares its styling with other Cyrus components, including the i9-XR. It’s all very British, and you may like or hate the subdued design. As with the Cyrus integrated amplifier, the dimensions are narrow at the front, and deeper in depth, giving a diminutive appearance from the front. Some will like this. Others will prefer components designed for rack mount.

The player is a slot loader. You bring the disc up to the slot, insert it and the mechanism grabs it. Some like this approach as it eliminates the drawer that opens and closes found on most optical players. I find the slot load a bit finicky. Sometimes a disc is grabbed, sometimes not and you have to reinsert it. It’s not a big problem. Maybe over time, I’ll get the insert motion just right, or maybe the player should accept a broader range of insert motions.

The player integrates nicely with the i9-XR integrated amp and can be connected via the digital outs but we’re not using the integrated amp here.

Like the other components from Cyrus, the CDt-XR is well-packed with foam surrounds on each end of the player. A cardboard box contains a power cord (U.S. plug for buyers in North America) and a remote with batteries. As mentioned, it’s the same remote as the one included with the i9-XR amplifier. Either remote can control both devices when the components are used in the same system.

Since the disc player is a transport only, I used both optical outs but usually used the coax out. That was plugged into any of my three home systems, letting the DACS on those components do the processing. I listened on a Denon receiver, and an Emotiva RMC-L processor, along with an Anthem AVM 90 processor. To remind you, I only listened in stereo, turning off any room correction.

This player is a dream to audition. Played through my home components it slightly betters the sound of my reference Oppo player, which is no slouch at playing silver discs.

What are the differences? I would say the Cyrus sounds ‘British’. It has a smooth top end, obvious in the strings and some percussion, whereas the Oppo has a slightly elevated high end.

Some listeners would prefer the Oppo, because of the slight boost in treble, but the Cyrus is simply more realistic at creating the sound of live music. I’ve attended plenty of live concerts, and symphonic music is more closely mimicked by the Cyrus.

Additional Music auditioned.

How to judge a $3500 disc player? I think the value is high when you to entrust it to perhaps a collection of maybe hundreds or thousands of CDs. When I buy anything expensive, I look at my cost per hour. Something that cost a lot that is never used is very, very expensive. But something expensive that is used all the time has a very low cost per hour.

The Cyrus CDt-XR Disc Player is a superb component on its own placed into any high-end system. It performed admirably in three systems in my home. This is not an inexpensive player, but I think it brings out things to the degree where you’ll believe you are hearing your discs for the first time. In terms of playback, it’s really impossible to fault. You can use it with the DACS in your equipment, or pair it with an external DAC of your liking.

Physically, I think there are some issues. Like the Cyrus integrated amplifier, the touch buttons do not always work as expected. While I appreciate the intent, I’d rather know for sure a button has been pressed and get physical feedback from a switch. I also think the front loader mechanism sometimes suffers from indecision on whether to ingest a disc or not. It may be me, but I think the mechanism could be improved. It should work the first time, and every time thereafter. Otherwise, frustration mounts.

I’d also like to see this player be SACD-capable. I’d be happy if it were only two channels of SACD output, but if you were considering a disc player at this price, you likely have SACDs in your collection. I realize SACD would have to be licensed through Sony, and few other players do it. I think Cyrus should have done that. Why should I have to play my high-resolution discs on a lesser player?

I could easily envision a purchase of the CDt-XR Disc Player to listen to things in my collection in a new way, hearing more details, and savoring the dynamic range and the very musical sounds. Emphasis on “musical” in that sentence. There’s no extending the highs or pumping up the bass. This player wants to be used with high-end components to hear what it can do.

The next review in this series will be the PSU-XR external power supply plugged into the i9-XR integrated amp. I’ll also have some thoughts on all 3 Cyrus components when used together.