[Larkston Zinaspic]

I've seen some mild grumblings on the forums about this manufacturer, usually mentioned in passing along with Murano and D-sonic as an affordable ICE Power alternative, but I haven't found any ringing endorsements or reviews yet. Their ICE Cube 200-SX Series looks interesting:

http://www.wyred4sound.com/ICE_CUBE_200SX/Icecube200SX.html

http://www.cullencircuits.com/78073/news/news.html

Their other company, Cullen Circuits, has apparently been modifying and repairing PS Audio components, as well as modifying many units for Underwood HiFi.

Any thoughts, comments?

[batmanslc2]

I have the same question,  anyone with experience??

[ger546]

We had the opportunity to home audition the D-Sonic ICE powered 500 watt per channel dual mono for a couple of weeks. It was a wow!!  Wife said, "I want it, period".  Very, very detailed and revealing, absolutely black background, and bass slam that was startling. No edge, no bad habits, no color, totally neutral, everything was right.

A comment was made by a fellow AudioCircle member during a listening session
"doesn't sound exactly like solid state, doesn't sound exactly like tubes, but some place in between"....

A no contest buy.  Ah and what did it replace?  A cap upgraded Odyssey Stratos.
Sorry Klaus.  Anyone interested in a Odyssey Stratos?

Ger

[WYRED 4 SOUND]

Hello All,

Firstly, I would like to mention that this post is not for the purpose of selling anything, but rather to answer the question on which this thread was created for.

I am one of the partners in WYRED 4 SOUND, and the production manager for CULLEN CIRCUITS.  All of the products we offer are world class.

I'm sure that most of you have heard of Underwood Hifi, and if you haven't you should check him out.  Walter is one of our best customers who has first hand experience with our amps.  If you are looking for a source with background, he would be a great person to call http://www.underwoodhifi.com/

To expand on who we are; we have manufactured COUNTLESS units for many other companies (customers) which are Genesis Technologies, California Audio Technologies, Amplifier Technologies, BGW Systems, Spread Spectrum Technologies, PS Audio, and Pelonis Sound to name a few of our larger ones.  We have many other smaller companies that also we manufacture for which are mainly one man bands.  We specialize in manufacturing products with ICEpower modules as well. 

We have a couple of the best consultants in the biz, James Bongiorno, and Baskom King.  These two are a few of our close allies whom always lend a hand when need be. 

We have released our new Multichannel which offers a built-in electronic crossover for Bi-amping purposes, and modular design that allows for expansion for up to 7 channels.  It also houses Dual IEC's that really unleash the power from the modules.  Trigger in, trigger out, balanced F.E.T. input stage, XLR/RCA inputs, silver wire paralleled with 99.9%OFC powering each binding post, and no degrading switches for the signal to go through are just a few of the characteristics of our amplifier. 

Anyways, I came across this post and though that I should speak up to fill in a little of the unknown.  Everyone please feel free to check out our websites, and let me know if there is anything that I can do help.

Thank you,
EJ
www.wyred4sound.com

[Rocket]

Hi EJ,

Whilst I haven't heard your modifications I do know that the ps audio hca - 2 responds very well when parts are upgraded.  These sell units sell for about $700us secondhand.

I have a Spread Spectrum Technologies 'Son of Ampzilla' that I haven't used for a while and I'm wondering if you modify these amps and whether they respond well to modifications?  I have a slight preference for my modified hca - 2 in my system at this stage.

Regards

Rod

[WYRED 4 SOUND]

Hello Rod,

Yes, the HCA-2 does respond very well to modifications, and we have done many of them.  The HCA's are surprisingly still a hot item that people still desire, so that must tell you something to how they sound in the stock form.

If you're talking about one of the newer 'Son of Ampzilla' that is made by SST, and Not GAS, then we haven't had the chance to modify one yet.  Looking at the schematics of the unit, I know that it should have a much greater improvement that the HCA would because of the intricate design, and amount of parts the signal goes through.  James designed the unit with good parts in mind, which your unit already has, but we have some tricks up our sleeves that I'm sure we could do.  The only down side is that the Son has probably 10 times the amount of parts in it, and is ridiculously hard to work on which would take some time to do.  All of the extra parts and labor would add up to a much higher price to mod, compared to the HCA.  I would also note that the Son is probably about 3 times more reliable than the HCA.  We've never had a single Son come back for failure issues.

We always let the customer ultimately decide which route to go because we feel that sometimes they're pushed to go one way, and was thinking of going the other the whole time.  If you are preferring an HCA right now, you may want to follow through with it?

EJ
www.wyred4sound.com

[TRADERXFAN]

I have the modded PS audio C-100 from wyred4sound/cullencircuits since about Thanksgiving. I have been running it almost around the clock. It took a while for the treble to open up, but its very nice now. So I think its almost entirely broken in

I must say I am extremely happy with this piece and with the very good customer service and quick turnaround time that was provided to my by Wyred4sound and Rick Cullen. Unfortunately there are 3 complications that make me unable to give you the kind of feedback on the unit that I would like to - right now.

1) I think there is some kind of problem with my current speakers. (Also, these have built in powered subwoofers so I cannot confirm the quality of the bass control that has been reported by others.) I am in the process of building a set of GR-research O-3's. I will post a follow-up when they are put together and broken in.

2) This unit is not in a dedicated sound room where I am used to listening. I have it in my living room which isn't treated and the speakers aren't setup optimally.

3) I haven't had any other comparatively priced gear to directly compare it to.

I do have an Onix SP3 in the dedicated sound room, and despite the limitations above, this c-100 has much better detail and richness. If you read the review on the 10audio.com site on the gcc, I feel that same description would be for the c-100 in the way he describes the clarity.  I can hear much more of the tone and timbre of the instruments, guitar body, piano resonance, etc. It gives me much richer music than I have ever had in my home.  To quote one line from the review of the gcc unit that "rang" true to me: "When you hear a triangle ring longer and do a slooooow fade into silence just one time, you’ll know that you are not losing data" -This was a perfect description for what I am experiencing!

I can also share with you another person's point of view. Recently I had the satellite installation guy in my home for a repair of the satellite dish. I had music on, and while he was asking me to sign the final paperwork, he asked where I got my surround sound system from, it sounded incredible -the thing is that I am running only a 2 channel setup.  He was shocked. The system is onix cd-5, with the ps audio c-100, and the mini-strata speakers, anti-cable interconnect, blue jean speaker cables, panamax conditioner (only on source components).

Hope that helps.

[WYRED 4 SOUND]

I'm glad to hear that the C-100 is working out for you!  It should only get better with time.  With modified units, we have noticed that it takes longer for the unit to completely break in.  The components in modifications allow the product to become more musical, and detailed, and it takes time for all the parts to reveal everything they can.  When you have a stock unit, you normally get slight improvements fairly quickly.

Yes, we had to slightly raise the stereo, and larger mono's price for the new year.  $799 for a stereo is still REALLY desirable, and the other mono is slightly more than half of comarable units.  We don't have any future plans for pricing increases, just a lot more units to add to the line.

Happy Holidays,

EJ
www.wyred4sound.com

[prsalsa]

I have had krell's, ps audio hca-2, sunfire, vtl, sonic frontier, mcintosh and I am here to tell that I have two wyred4sound 200s amps one of them was upgraded by EJ of cullen/wyred 4 sound as my xmas present. These amps are just phenomenal specially the one I upgraded for my fronts. I regrett that I did not purchase their ref monoblocks. In my opinion the 200s I have will definately outdo the krell showcase I had, certanly all my mcintosh 2105 vintage gear, the sunfire is just not as musical ditto for the vtl st85 intergrated and specially the sf 2 I had. I will recommend any of the wyred4sound amps specially the way they are buil internally. Just about every other hi end brand competitor such as bel canto, red dragon, nuforce,audio magic etc all they do is install the modules in a chassis (pretty) and connect the inputs/outputs/IEC. just checkout positive feedback 2007 for audio majic review and others check out the internals. In all fairness they do sound good but the added input buffers and other things that wyred4sound do just takes in to another level. The fact is that these units compare to the others are already upgraded. To finalize if you want to upgrade/mod the amps they will do it for you and take it just another several levels like they did mine.

[MT POCKETS]

I have a pair of the SX-500 mono's with mods done by Rick Cullen. The build quality of these amps are top notch. Internally only quality parts are used. As for the sound well I did a direct comparison with a pair of H20 signature mono's and the SX-500's at less than half the price of the H20's were as good if not better than the H20's. The mids were much warmer and the top end seems to go on forever, bottom end is deep and tight.