Cambridge Audio gear unreliable/unsupported?

[matthewpiano]

My old 650cd player failed after four years. Bought new 651c. The first two had faulty loading mechs, changed in shop, the third one has a slight loading problem but I am living with it. If I paid full price for it I would not be happy at all. Half price tho, so I'm thinking good value. It could have been early batches tho as it was bought just when the product was released.

All the amps I have encountered have been impressive tho.

I'd expect a CD player to last more than 4 years.

 

[Tannoyed]

I have bought 3 items from made by CA. The amp and digital tuner have been fine but the cd player was awful with a terrible power supply buzz when the volume was turned up on quiet pieces. I took it back and got a replacement which had exactly the same 'fault'. I concluded it must be a design defect and lived with it-it was a spare cheap system for a work room.

I won't be buying any more of their products though

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

Had a fair bit of CA gear in the past & never had any go faulty on me, the humble Topaz amp which is the only CA unit I now have which is used with my PC has been fine - Thinking back in the 40 odd years I've been buying hi-fi (some low) the only problem I've ever had with anything was with the plaited cables breaking on the small woofer on a pair of Videoton Minimax speakers about 4 decades ago & that's it, most everything I've bought I've either sold on or donated to members of my family lower on the hi-fi ladder, some from years back still in use such as a pair of Castle Durham 1's.

 

[radiorog]

My old 650cd player failed after four years. Bought new 651c. The first two had faulty loading mechs, changed in shop, the third one has a slight loading problem but I am living with it. If I paid full price for it I would not be happy at all. Half price tho, so I'm thinking good value. It could have been early batches tho as it was bought just when the product was released.

All the amps I have encountered have been impressive tho.

I'd expect a CD player to last more than 4 years.

Yeah,me too really. Looking back at the op,I did actually have a similar situation in that I sent the first faulty one away (the 650c) and it came back with ca saying there was no fault. I took it home and the problem was immediately still apparent. So I took it back again and it got sent away.it came back again with nothing done and richer sounds saying again there was nothing wrong.the documents from the repairs team was left on the side of the box,which I opened in the store and it read "the customer does not know what he is talking about". Imagine my amazement! Using this letter as very poor customer service I managed to get an upgrade at half price,hence my now 651c. This is a huge upgrade from my last player sonically,but as mentioned the first two were faulty and the third has intermittent fault s with loading and reading. I just hope it doesn't get any worse because if it does,I have no trust in richer sounds to fix the problem.really I should have taken the third player back but I was fed up with constantly having to do this,and just hoped that this one doesn't get terminal.

 

[db2015]

I was given a Minx go as a present, it has great sound but every time its turned on it will open my itunes and start playing one particular song - even if my mac book has the lid down and is in a different room which is really annoying especially when using with a different device. I did contact Cambridge but they were not very interested beyond thinking it was quite funny. They offered me no help.

 

[db2015]

I was given a Minx go as a present, it has great sound but every time its turned on it will open my itunes and start playing one particular song - even if my mac book has the lid down and is in a different room which is really annoying especially when using with a different device. I did contact Cambridge but they were not very interested beyond thinking it was quite funny. They offered me no help.

 

[hybridauth_Google_114519455645657274431]

Completely lame manufacturing. The same can be said of their customer support AND tech support. My unit failed with light use over a relatively short time. My support requests were underwellmed by their apathy to my problems. Makes me think Cambridge Audio is just a telephone and a room. They're laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[record_spot]

If you bought it in the USA, then you're stuffed by your local dealers who often will leave you high and dry based on what I've heard. In the UK, the responsibility is with the shop or dealer who sold you the product as that is who your contract is with. What Cambridge support is in the US I don't know. You should take it up with whom you bought the gear, then pursue that way. If you bought it in or from the UK, then your contract of sale is with the retailer/dealer or online retailer.

 

[Sinclairjsy@supanet]

Dragged a 20-odd year old dual mono bloc Cambridge power-amp out of a skip last month, (it hadn't been raining for ages), checked it over, turned it on in the garage first just in case. It is now sitting between my Marantz KI pre-amp and Monitor Audio speakers, fingers crossed but it sounds good; more defined bass, everything more 'spacious'. NOt recommending skip- derived electrical goods however!