740a missing?

[Tesler]

Can I just ask you guys at What HiFi towers a question? You have very nice reviews on this site
on the line up of Cambridge Audio amps, except that you have the 740a missing from the line up?

Have you not done a review on it at all?

 

[HDNumpty]

I will for you mate..."if it's anything like the 840a, bloody marvellous!"

There you go - welcome to the club

*****

 

[Tesler]

HDNumpty:I will for you mate..."if it's anything like the 840a, bloody marvellous!"

*****

Wouldn't it be great if all reviews were as straight to the point like this?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

HDNumpty:I will for you mate..."if it's anything like the 840a, bloody marvellous!"

There you go - welcome to the club

*****

Well, it won't be as good as the 840 but I'm sure it's a solid performer. HDNumpty, are you glad you bought it then??!

 

[Tesler]

Gerrardasnails:HDNumpty:I will for you mate..."if it's anything like the 840a, bloody marvellous!"

There you go - welcome to the club

*****

Well, it won't be as good as the 840 but I'm sure it's a solid performer. HDNumpty, are you glad you bought it then??!

OK, How would you describe the sound of the 840?

The 740 is well detailed and appears to have a sense of space and depth. I'm hearing sounds that I've not previously noticed before particularly in the upper mid frequency range. Vocals are superb and the bass is tight and yet rich. Is the 840 something like that?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Tesler:Gerrardasnails:HDNumpty:I will for you mate..."if it's anything like the 840a, bloody marvellous!"

There you go - welcome to the club

*****

Well, it won't be as good as the 840 but I'm sure it's a solid performer. HDNumpty, are you glad you bought it then??!

OK, How would you describe the sound of the 840?

The 740 is well detailed and appears to have a sense of space and depth. I'm hearing sounds that I've not previously noticed before particularly in the upper mid frequency range. Vocals are superb and the bass is tight and yet rich. Is the 840 something like that?

It is indeed Tesler. In a word the 840A is effortless.

 

[HDNumpty]

Absolutely. When it's on song (needs about 50 mins to warm up) has a lovely 'clean' sound, plenty of depth, detail and space between the instruments. Looks great, has lots of useful features. A proper 21st century product for those who want one. Mid-range instruments such as keyboards, strings and brass instruments in particular sounds superb. Try listening to anything by the Divine Comedy, Joby Talbot's arrangements go on forever...I'm sure there's a small animal playing the triangle at the back there...

 

[Tesler]

Yup! I have definately got a similar animal, with a triangle at the back, appears about 3 feet behind the speakers, stunning.

 

[Tesler]

Thanks to you guys for your replies.
But what I actually meant was, In the reviews section on this Website, click on Amplifiers, Type in Cambridge Audio in the Show me Select brand box and you get the 340, 540, 640, and 840 but no 740.

Can I just ask what factored in the decision to leave the 740 out of the review list? Can I ask the powers that be on this website why you chose to omit this particular amp from the list?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Either:

a) It's a global conspiracy, orchestrated by our mysterious interglacatic masters, 'the greys'

or b) we haven't got round to reviewing it - we don't have the time or the space (at least in the magazine) to review every model in every range from every manufacturer, much though we'd like to

 

[Tesler]

Andrew, MMMMM Yes Ok,
Richard Melville goes to some length explaining the codes to us in the buyers guide of the current issue, FT, GT, ST, First test, group test and so on.

So looking in the buyers guide in the current issue of the magazine under integrated amplifiers, I see the 740a has FT next to it, so this means that What Hifi must have reviewed it a some point in the past?

This then means that answer (b) cannot be correct.

This then just leaves answer (a). Now this must be the correct answer then?

I don't know who the "Greys" are but are very small beings that tangle up all the cables behind your HiFi in the middle of the night, and then either hide remote controls down the back of sofas, or nick batteries out of the remotes in the middle of the night ?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Ah then in that case we have tested it in the magazine, but have not yet uploaded it to the website, which doesn't yet have all the tests carried in the magazine. More will be added when we have the time and resources to do so.

Find out more about the sinister intergalactic masters behind this decision by reading here.

 

[Anonymous]

Similarly, have yuo never reviewed any Arcam amps? I don't see their brand name in the drop down....

 

[Andrew Everard]

The only current Arcam integrated we've tested that's missing is the A70.

The A38 is being retested due to Arcam discovering the review sample was faulty, and will appear when we have satisfied ourselves of the performance of the replacement.

The other models we've tested were reviewed a very long time ago - we concentrated on getting the most current reviews on the site as an initial priority.

 

[HDNumpty]

I'm pretty sure that the 740a (& the whole Cambridge range) was reviewed in the 'Hi-Fi special'.

What, my review wasn't up to scratch? 🙂

 

[Andrew Everard]

Andrew Everard:The only current Arcam integrated we've tested that's missing is the A70.

Which we've just discovered is being replaced, as reported here.

 

[Andy Clough]

Just to re-iterate what Andrew says, we aimed for 1000+ reviews online when the new site was launched, across all product categories. This we more than achieved, but there are still some older reviews of products in the print Buying Guide that we are in the process of uploading to the site. We didn't include the Arcam A70 as it's just been phased out.ÿ

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

How about the rega r3 and r5, is it just that rea have never sent you any?

 

[Andy Clough]

Have tested the Rega R1 (Jan 08/four stars: "Direct, but lacking in bass with treble overkill"), but not the R3 or R5.

 

[JoelSim]

Tesler:HDNumpty:I will for you mate..."if it's anything like the 840a, bloody marvellous!"

*****

Wouldn't it be great if all reviews were as straight to the point like this?

No as you would then read the whole mag in 3 minutes which wouldn't be great value for money, would it!!! (I already whip through the hifi too quickly and end up with the far less interesting 5.1/TV b'larks.

More hifi reviews, make them even longer. Get Michael Howard to review as he uses 100 words when one would suffice.

 

[Anonymous]

JoelSim:Tesler:HDNumpty:I will for you mate..."if it's anything like the 840a, bloody marvellous!"

*****

Wouldn't it be great if all reviews were as straight to the point like this?

No as you would then read the whole mag in 3 minutes which wouldn't be great value for money, would it!!! (I already whip through the hifi too quickly and end up with the far less interesting 5.1/TV b'larks.

More hifi reviews, make them even longer. Get Michael Howard to review as he uses 100 words when one would suffice.

A couple of snippet wine recommendations would be good too... 🙂

 

[Andrew Everard]

JoelSim:Get Michael Howard to review as he uses 100 words when one would suffice.

Is the former Conservative leader a hi-fi reviewer, too?