This all-British stereo hi-fi system goes a few notches up from our great-value £1600 turntable and streaming system. This is a thoroughly modern all-digital system that takes those ones and zeroes and maxes them out to 10; or maybe that should be 11?
The system
CD player: Cyrus CDi (£1595/$1899/AU$2499)
DAC/Streamer: Chord Mojo2/Poly (£995/$1600/AU$1998)
stereo amplifier: Rega Elex Mk4 (£1199/$1875/AU$2499)
Speakers: Neat Iota Alpha (£2025/$2150/AU$3300)
Total: £5814 / $7524 / AU$10,296
Compact Disc Player: Cyrus CDi
We start with the main source. Reports of the death of the compact disc have been greatly exaggerated in recent years – in part, admittedly, because of the turntable’s stubborn, miraculous refusal to reverse its impressive upward trend. But when you consider that most streaming platforms, especially the most popular ones, don’t offer music with the quality that a CD offers, it’s clear that there’s still plenty of life left in the silver disc.
The Cyrus CDi currently sets the benchmark for its price. And if the consistent flow of Which Hi-Fi? Awards won over the years since the CDi’s launch can confirm that it has been a perennial leader in its field.
It presents the unified, articulate and intuitive presentation we expect from a more expensive player. There’s a tremendous amount of detail and precision: every layer of a track is precisely unpeeled, with each instrument coming through with a coherent flow and tact.
However, it is the rhythmic talent of this fine CD player that raises our eyebrows. Pace and momentum are exercised with articulation and liveliness, and we’re entertained by the Cyrus’ dynamic agility and neutral balance in a way that’s rare at this price point.
DAC and streaming module: Chord Mojo2/Poly
Our second digital source is a bit more unusual than the CD player in the system. Chord is one of our go-tos for digital to analog converters, featuring Which Hi-Fi? Awards come out of his ears for his high-quality DACs. The Mojo 2 is Chord’s entry-level offering, and it’s a delight, appropriately enough – the name Mojo comes from an amalgamation of ‘mobile fun’.
We’ve married the Mojo 2 here with its Poly partner, a nice little attachment that opens up streaming capabilities for the DAC, in the form of DLNA, AirPlay, Bluetooth and microSD card playback.
And in terms of musical marriage, the Poly and Mojo could be gearing up for their silver anniversary. Sonically, this is a match made in hi-fi heaven.
We absolutely loved the original Mojo, but Chord has progressed in just about every sonic area with this sequel. The soundstage has been opened up and that extra depth and dimension is filled with a greater resolution that is not only unmistakably present thanks to a big boost in clarity, but also more accurately placed. Listen to Ludovico’s Roll like a ball in hi-res is enough to tell us so much; the leading edges of piano notes are sharper without compromising the flow of the piece, while harmonic subtleties are more easily discernible.
Indeed, the improvements over the original Mojo (which we absolutely loved) are enough for us to recommend the upgrade to the second generation, even to owners of the first iteration.
Integrated amplifier: Rega Elex Mk4
Of course, all the genius of those two sources for our music would come to naught without an amplifier to make the most of their capabilities, to amplify the signal they delivered and send it to the speakers with the power to make the whole lot sing .
Enter Rega’s latest Elex amplifier. The Elex Mk4 is the successor to our multi-award winning Rega Elex-Rone of our favorite amps of the past decade.
As we say in our review of the Elex Mk4, this isn’t a flashy amp; it doesn’t try to artificially grab your attention or hide any shortcomings behind metaphorical jazz hands. It just handles every element of the music in an incredibly confident and elegant way. This is an amp that knows what it’s doing and wants you to just sit back and listen.
The way the Rega handles music – delivering it as a cohesive whole rather than individual elements – is done effortlessly. We struggle to focus on certain strands or frequencies to critique, and instead we’re content to listen track after track and marvel at how the Elex turns its hand to each track. It simply doesn’t impose itself on the music – that’s a huge achievement.
It does have a rather thin character, which works in its favor in terms of timing. Agile and agile, it can be as fast or steady as needed, arrange musical elements with authority, and understand complex rhythms with ease.
Revealing and faithful, the Elex Mk4 is capable in ways that far exceed our expectations at this mid-range price. The addition of digital inputs and a headphone port is a big step in the right direction from Rega; that’s not something of immediate concern in this particular setup, but it does give more flexibility in how you could listen to this great amp.
Stereo Speakers: Neat Iota Alpha
The final piece of the puzzle in this fine British hi-fi system comes in the somewhat unconventional form of the Neat Iota Alpha loudspeakers. Little knee-high floorstanders, slanted to allow for that little stance, are brilliant performers that won’t dominate a room.
By the way, they’re not particularly picky about placement: they need a bit of reinforcement from a back wall – we’ll place them about 30cm into the room, with a slight angle to the listening position.
And the position of the tweeters gives extra room for tweaking. Leave them on the outer edges and you’ll get a wider dispersion of sound. Leaving them on the inside adds that little bit more focus. Optimal placement will depend on your room and system, so you’ll have fun experimenting and tweaking.
Set everything up just like that and you’ll enjoy a surprisingly comprehensive and spacious presentation from these little boxes that wouldn’t look out of place with rivals twice as high. There’s a good degree of precision and the presentation remains steady even when the music gets demanding. The Neats sound much bigger than expected and convey a sense of authority and solidity that is totally out of keeping with their size. With eyes closed, we would never guess that the speakers are so small.
The Alpha’s presentation is beautifully cohesive, the three drivers are seamlessly integrated and the sound is attractively robust. Dynamics are also strong, with large-scale dynamic shifts handled with confidence, even at higher volumes.
While there’s a decent amount of low-frequency action, it’s fair to say that larger, comparably priced traditional floorstanders from the likes of Black and whiteFine Audio or Q Acoustics will dig deeper and hit harder. It would be unrealistic to expect such compact speakers to completely fill a larger room, but in a small to medium sized room they are great for anything below a nightclub level.
Pronunciation
Each of the components in this British stereo system is a masterpiece in its own right. As a team, however, they work wonderfully together to make your music, whether from CD or stream, heard at its best. It will provide many years of listening pleasure; and after all, that’s what it’s all about: enjoying and sharing the music we love.
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