I am currently on a personal Hi-Fi journey, building my own ideal system from scratch. Turntable, amplifier and speakers are now sorted and my eyes and ears now turn to the CD element (pardon the pun you’ll see what I mean in a bit). There are a couple of schools of thought with this side of Hi-Fi, some believe CD is dead and go fully down the streaming route…

There are some great products out there like the Bluesound Node and the Innuos range of ripper, hard drive streaming units, which are really accessible and easy to use, teamed with a great choice of high quality streaming services at your fingertips. Myself, I still love the CD format, plus there’s nothing like getting that CD from your local record shop and having the physical item In your hands. This is of course a large part of the thought process when buying music on vinyl as well, not just the sound quality but the tactile experience too. I have a massive CD collection and I feel it’s such a shame to let them sit there gathering dust and also the fact a lot of what I have is still not available on vinyl. I have a love for vinyl, but I be-grudge getting rid of my CD’s.

So, this leads me to looking for a CD player that works with my system and sounds right to me. I’m a fan of good detail and warmth of tone, hence the amplifier I own, the Rega Elex-R.

The Rega Elex-R is a class AB amplifier and very much has that warm tone I desire. As we know there are a couple of ways to go about adding a CD player to an existing system. One way is going for a CD transport with an outboard DAC (Digital to analogue converter) such as the amazing Chord Electronics Qutest which I’m a big fan of. The other school of thought is the integrated route where the CD player has an internal DAC. A large number of CD players out there have an excellent on-board DAC and if you're anything like me struggling for space, this is a perfect way to go.

The question is, “Which integrated CD player to go for?” as there are so many great ones to choose from. I have personally narrowed down my choice to….. (Drum roll please) the Cyrus CDi XR CD player and the Leema Acoustics Elements CD player.

So down to the details of these two titans…

First up, the Leema Acoustics Elements CD player. Leema continues their innovative design with this small but classy looking CD player. With its TEAC dedicated transport it reduces levels of jitter and also has the Leema inbuilt Quattro Infinity 24 bit DAC. The CD player itself is super quiet so good news it doesn’t sound like a tractor on loading up and playing. Outputs on the back panel include balanced XLR, RCA for unbalanced and COAX or optical for digital output. This CD player also includes the Leema lips socket for seamless connection to other units in the Leema Elements range of products. Oh, and I forgot to mention, it’s made right here in Wales!

Now onto the second CD player in this shoot-out the Cyrus CDi XR integrated CD player. The XR range is considered to be the crown jewel of Cyrus CD player range and I think they are right. Cyrus XR CD players are amazingly quiet, sporting an almost silent servo loading mechanism which also helps with how this CD player reads the vital information. The principle is to read as much information as possible from the disc, giving you better reproduction when listening to your music. Also, onboard it has the legendary QXR 32 bit 2nd gen Cyrus DAC, giving incredible precision and detail to render the finest output possible. Internally Cyrus has upgraded components along with intelligently designed circuits using ‘counter-current’ methodologies to reduce noise. On the back panel we have RCA for analogue and COAX or Optical connections for digital.

My home system consists of the following:

Rega Planar 6 turntable with an Ortofon 2m black cartridge
Rega Elex-R amplifier
Nytech Audio CDP122 moving magnet phono stage
Acoustic Energy AE300 speakers
Chord Clearway interconnects and speaker cables

Who will be the champion?

So, what music did I use:

1st Metallica: Album: Master of puppets: 1986
- Track: Orion
2nd Rival Sons: Album: feral roots: 2019
- Track: Too bad
3rd David Bowie: Album: Scary monsters: 1980
- Track: Ashes to ashes

Up first, the Leema Elements CD player. This CD player has a real analogue vibe to it. It plays all three test tracks really well producing good detail and real engagement especially on the Rival Sons track, Too Bad. The Leema Quattro DAC converts digital to analogue incredibly well.

Up second is the Cyrus CDi XR. Repeating the same tracks gave me a very different listening experience. I found the Cyrus drew more detail from the disc especially from the instrumental track Orion found on Metallica’s Master Of Puppets album. I could hear a lot more of what was going on. For instance I could hear more of the melody from Cliff Burton’s bass, in fact the bass was more controlled on every track. This CD player really lives up to its name being the flagship of their range. The QXR DAC stands testament to what the guys at Cyrus can do. In short, this CD player gave me a really exciting and engaging listening experience.

cyrus audio cdi XR in phantom black finish

In summary

Both CD players are fantastic at their price points, the Leema at £1495* and the Cyrus CDi XR at £2195*. Both brought great things to the table but also very different at the same time. The two CD players have excellent build quality and both have superb DACs on board. For my ear the Cyrus does have the leading edge due to the overall clarity but the Leema does have a warmer analogue sound to it. In conclusion I will more than likely go for the Cyrus. Everybody’s listening experience is different. What is important is that the music engages you and makes you want to play more. For me the Cyrus does this a little better than the Leema and I found myself digging through my collection and revisiting music I may not have listened to for a little while.

Why not pop into our store and listen for yourself and check out these stunning CD players out and tell us what you think. You may not agree with me.

We are currently offering the Cyrus XR series spring trade-in promotion on all Cyrus XR products. You can save up to 20% on the Cyrus XR range of amplifiers and CD players. This offer is running from the 4th April to the 6th June. You can check out our website for details.

Contact us anytime about any of the products seen here or if you would like a demo contact us on 02920 228565 or email us at cardiff@audio-t.co.uk

Thank you for reading

Matt, Nick & Kerrin - Audio T Cardiff

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