Ordered Cyrus CD8SE in UK

Not really anything to do with your Cyrus CDP Han, but might be of interest, don't know.

I have owned an Esound E5 Signature for around 2 1/2 years and to me, while it sounded pretty good, it did not seem to live up to the glowing reports I had seen of it.

Now it may be that I am slow on the uptake and everybody else knows this stuff, but while I have paid attention to fitting vibration absorbers under my valve amp and tube rings to reduce microphonics and paid fair attention to turntable supports etc, I had never considered putting anything under a CDP, I had read of such things and sort of put them in the "hmm maybe" basket.

In the course of yet another cable comparison trial as a result of a conversation with an amp builder recently, I followed a whim and fitted a set of foculpods (20GBP inc postage) under my CDP (I had these to hand for a trial under a Technics SL1200 yet to be done).

The effect was rather surprising (to me at least) - the player now exhibited the characteristics that had been described in the glowing reports.  Deep and powerful bass foundation, a full liquid midrange that I had never heard in my system other than from vinyl, improved "focus" and soundstage/imaging and a very definite "boogie" factor - the improvement was such that had it been the result of an upgrade I would have been well pleased.

What I would add is that the maximum improvement came with additional mass on top of the player - this is in line with the foculpod recommended loading of 5kg per pod, a total of 20kg - my player is 14kg and I set a tuner weighing around 6kg on top.

Being thrilled with this result, I did a little more research and discovered a deal of discussion of vibrapods, a similar product but differing in that it is available in a range of load bearing capacities and can be further enhanced with cones on top.

I purchased a set of the appropriate rating and a set of cones from a local dealer and the effects previously noticed were retained and in some aspects enhanced.

Again, not an expensive product, with a remarkable effect if my experience is anything to go by, I have been rediscovering CD's for days now.

Strutting it's stuff now with FritzS recommendation Cyminology "Bemun" - have yet to give it a severe flogging with heavy orchestral which will be the "acid test" but have yet to see any downside to this "tweak".

There is a review on 6moons for anyone interested.