- Sep 13, 2020
- 1
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- 525
Hi guys,
my sound system is a combination of a CXA81 and Spendor A4.
I purchased the set around 1,5 years back and used it almost daily ever since. (For listening to music but also for watching movies with my sound system or playing games.)
I am playing my music mainly on Qobuz or if somethings not available there with whatever other source I have like soundcloud or youtube.
I play the music on my laptop which is connected via bluetooth which already delivers a great sound experience.
The interesting thing is that this comparably simple setup is completely user friendly and at least for me I do not see any reason to by a e.g. a streamer from the same line in Cambridge Audio.
I came across the setup by more ore less accidently noticing how greatly they were appreciated in basically every review that was done on both the components.
So I was very curious to listen to them live and how they would sound combined.
I listened to the CXA81 at a show room in combination with a different speaker. (Don't remember the model.)
Later on I was also able to listen to the Spendors but never was able to hear both in combination.
I was pretty convinced by both but was unsure how they would match especially for a small room.
So I still decided to pair them and I was convinced by the system from the beginning since it produces a really incredible sound stage and depth if positioned correctly. (At least for me it is astonishing.)
It took me many attempts and different runs to find what i consider as a quite optimal position and orientation of the speakers. (There might be a better one out there, but who knows. 🙂)
In the beginning I was still a bit disappointed with the performance when playing some lesser quality songs, since the performance was just missing some depth and the sound stage was not that great.
I heard many things about running in etc. with all the pros and cons but I have to say only NOW after around 1,5 years I would say the system is really run in well.
The performance got better and better during the whole time, which I would have never expected.
The same songs from the same source that sounded flat and just not really alive in the beginning are just having a great crispness to them now, with well positioned instruments opening up a great sound stage. (Setup and speaker position has not changed for many, many months now.)
Noticing this increase of performance over such a long time really kind of blew my mind. (I mean the base was already impressing. 🙂)
I saved for many years to afford this set up and I have to say it is literally worth every penny since whenever I turn this thing on it just puts a smile on your face. You just cant get used to the quality this thing delivers. :-D The only ones who are not happy are my neighbours. 😛
So guys just wanted to let you know about my experience with the system and that at least in this case it was worth the risk of matching a system that you never heard in combination before.
If any one of you have experience with the same setup or the single components I would be really interest to hear your reviews on their performance.
One other thing I noticed is that when playing music over bluetooth it sounds WAY better then when playing it via USB audio using the Cambridge Audio ASIO driver and a relatively short (3 m) usb audio cable for around 30 €.
THe music played via cable just misses a lot of depth and warmness and does not bring across the emotion of the music well, I hope you can understand what I mean by this description. 🙂
Since USB audio supports bit perfect quality and higher quality than bluetooth I am still confused with this phenomenon and not sure what might go wrong there.
(I heard that a good USB cable can cost several 100 €, so maybe this is the problem here. But going by the performance the system delivers via bluetooth already I do not have much motivation to spend that amount of money on a cable that in the end is less easy to connect than bluetooth. 🙂)
I am pretty sure that I run my Qobuz via the ASIO driver correctly, since I can pick the output option in the lower end of the Qobuz app.
Any of you have experienced something similar or can tell me if the cable might be the issue?
So as my last words for this post: Hats of to these two masterpieces of british sound engineering. I am amazed what quality of sound you get for (honestly still quite a lot) of money nowadays. 🙂
Cheers
my sound system is a combination of a CXA81 and Spendor A4.
I purchased the set around 1,5 years back and used it almost daily ever since. (For listening to music but also for watching movies with my sound system or playing games.)
I am playing my music mainly on Qobuz or if somethings not available there with whatever other source I have like soundcloud or youtube.
I play the music on my laptop which is connected via bluetooth which already delivers a great sound experience.
The interesting thing is that this comparably simple setup is completely user friendly and at least for me I do not see any reason to by a e.g. a streamer from the same line in Cambridge Audio.
I came across the setup by more ore less accidently noticing how greatly they were appreciated in basically every review that was done on both the components.
So I was very curious to listen to them live and how they would sound combined.
I listened to the CXA81 at a show room in combination with a different speaker. (Don't remember the model.)
Later on I was also able to listen to the Spendors but never was able to hear both in combination.
I was pretty convinced by both but was unsure how they would match especially for a small room.
So I still decided to pair them and I was convinced by the system from the beginning since it produces a really incredible sound stage and depth if positioned correctly. (At least for me it is astonishing.)
It took me many attempts and different runs to find what i consider as a quite optimal position and orientation of the speakers. (There might be a better one out there, but who knows. 🙂)
In the beginning I was still a bit disappointed with the performance when playing some lesser quality songs, since the performance was just missing some depth and the sound stage was not that great.
I heard many things about running in etc. with all the pros and cons but I have to say only NOW after around 1,5 years I would say the system is really run in well.
The performance got better and better during the whole time, which I would have never expected.
The same songs from the same source that sounded flat and just not really alive in the beginning are just having a great crispness to them now, with well positioned instruments opening up a great sound stage. (Setup and speaker position has not changed for many, many months now.)
Noticing this increase of performance over such a long time really kind of blew my mind. (I mean the base was already impressing. 🙂)
I saved for many years to afford this set up and I have to say it is literally worth every penny since whenever I turn this thing on it just puts a smile on your face. You just cant get used to the quality this thing delivers. :-D The only ones who are not happy are my neighbours. 😛
So guys just wanted to let you know about my experience with the system and that at least in this case it was worth the risk of matching a system that you never heard in combination before.
If any one of you have experience with the same setup or the single components I would be really interest to hear your reviews on their performance.
One other thing I noticed is that when playing music over bluetooth it sounds WAY better then when playing it via USB audio using the Cambridge Audio ASIO driver and a relatively short (3 m) usb audio cable for around 30 €.
THe music played via cable just misses a lot of depth and warmness and does not bring across the emotion of the music well, I hope you can understand what I mean by this description. 🙂
Since USB audio supports bit perfect quality and higher quality than bluetooth I am still confused with this phenomenon and not sure what might go wrong there.
(I heard that a good USB cable can cost several 100 €, so maybe this is the problem here. But going by the performance the system delivers via bluetooth already I do not have much motivation to spend that amount of money on a cable that in the end is less easy to connect than bluetooth. 🙂)
I am pretty sure that I run my Qobuz via the ASIO driver correctly, since I can pick the output option in the lower end of the Qobuz app.
Any of you have experienced something similar or can tell me if the cable might be the issue?
So as my last words for this post: Hats of to these two masterpieces of british sound engineering. I am amazed what quality of sound you get for (honestly still quite a lot) of money nowadays. 🙂
Cheers
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