The Cyrus story began in the early 1980’s when Cyrus was part of the loudspeaker company Mission, who applied the Cyrus brand name to specialist stereo amplifiers engineered to complement Mission’s loudspeakers. Over the ensuing 20 years, the unique "shoebox" half-size chassis has become an instantly recognisable Cyrus trade mark. The first products to appear under the Cyrus brand name were hi fi amplifiers, which were launched in July 1984. The Cyrus One and Two models quickly gained a reputation for their high quality of audio engineering and outstanding performance. Over the years, Cyrus was developed by the current management team from a sibling brand of the speaker company into a high-performance home entertainment brand.

In 1982, a revolution occurred in the audio world when record buyers discovered the newly launched compact disc format. The shiny discs quickly became the media of choice for most consumers, despite a large movement within the audio fraternity that remained convinced LP’s remained superior. The Cyrus R&D team didn’t see this as a polarised choice, but rather as a fresh opportunity to embrace a new technology and immediately set to work on the first audiophile CD players. Between 1983 and 1990 Cyrus made a series of amplifiers based on two circuits known simply as the Cyrus One and it’s more powerful brother the Cyrus Two. The Cyrus One became extremely popular for a generation of students building systems on a skin-tight budget. The Cyrus Two was the more powerful sibling and, significantly, included an option to add a separate power supply that provided a big boost to performance. This upgrade enhanced the amp’s power and was the beginning of an upgrade philosophy that allows Cyrus owners to retrospectively upgrade almost all models in one way or another.

Over the years to 1997 Cyrus gained a world wide reputation for delivering excellent sounding amplifiers, often featuring a radical approach to audio design. When, in 1992, we added a modern digital communication system to the new Cyrus 3 amp, it enabled us to link our production PC network to every product made and analyse down to component level during production, thus removing any possibility that any amp could deviate from the reference.

This technology is more visible to the consumer as our proprietary "Master Control BUS" (MCBUS) as a way to simplify the command and control of our systems. The 1992 Cyrus 3 launch was a turning point in our industry, as the inclusion of MCBUS and a stunning hand-finished, die-cast alloy enclosure, firmly establishing Cyrus products at the forefront of aesthetic as well as audio design.

By the mid 1990’s the original audio company had become very successful, purchasing several famous British audio brands to create a large public company with an extensive, well-funded, central R&D facility. Out of this exciting centre of excellence came many exciting ideas, one of which developed into a new loudspeaker technology licensed from the British military research establishment and floated on the London stock market in 1995. As NXT Plc took off, the group sold the audio subsidiaries and, in 2004, the management of Cyrus purchased the assets of Cyrus Electronics from NXT to form Cyrus Audio Ltd.

In 2004, exactly 20 years after the first Cyrus products appeared, Peter Bartlett (then the Division Manager of Cyrus Electronics) formed a new company, Audyus Ltd, and purchased the assets of Cyrus Electronics Ltd from NXT Plc. Happily, all the staff moved across to Cyrus Audio, enabling the new company to continue its work. In fact, in the year of the buyout we also developed and launched seven new models, whilst also managing the not insignificant workload of an MBO. Many of the Cyrus team have made the journey over the last 20 years together and remain as enthusiastic about audio as ever. The MD continues to work with the R&D team, tuning and retuning every model under development, until satisfied that a component raises the bar.

Today, Cyrus Audio designs and manufactures one of the widest ranges of high performance audio components from its UK headquarters for sale globally. We are totally focused on providing the most exciting and acoustically excellent audio products in the world. The range now includes CD players, amplifiers, hard disk media servers and the widest possible range of upgrade options. Ultimately, a ‘green’ product is one that lasts. The mass-produced electronics that quickly move from store to landfill offer very poor long term value and are considered by many to damage our environment. Every Cyrus product built is expected to remain useful for many years and, therefore, provide outstanding value.

Today’s R&D Department is brimming with new projects, only time and cash restrain us. The next ten years will see Cyrus chasing the illusive full colour, wide band, high octane sound that we strive towards every day. The digital age is all around us, but attention to "acoustic precision and technical advancement" remain as important today as it did 20 years ago. A sincere thank you to those reading this who has invested in one of our products over the years, we are proud of all of them. We hope you continue to enjoy listening and that we may serve you with an upgrade in the near future.