Cambridge Audo set for first system

[ele101]

I'm looking to get my first separates system. I've been offered the following for £200: Cambridge Audio Azur 640a, 640t and 640c plus TDL Nucleus KVL1 speakers Is this a good deal?

I was thinking of buying the Marantz PM6004, CD6004 and Monitor Audio BX2s new but they will be around £600 all in.

This whole business is very confusing!

thanks for any help!

 

[Overdose]

I'd go for it and look to spend a bit on some different speakers, if your budget is up to £600, then you have up to £400 for speakers and if buying used, would get something very nice.

THESE in fact.

 

[iQ Speakers]

£200 for the CA system is a great deal.

I have recently bought a pair of overdose's recommendation they are brilliant, highly enjoyable.They sounded very good with my old Rotel RA 04 as well.

Speakers seem to make the biggest difference to sound quality.

 

[plastic penguin]

I'm looking to get my first separates system. I've been offered the following for £200: Cambridge Audio Azur 640a, 640t and 640c plus TDL Nucleus KVL1 speakers Is this a good deal?

I was thinking of buying the Marantz PM6004, CD6004 and Monitor Audio BX2s new but they will be around £600 all in.

This whole business is very confusing!

thanks for any help!

It's advisable to audition first. My favourite Cambridge amp was the 840. Very powerful but lacks the subtlety of other brands IMO. But for £200 seems a good deal, but Cambridge do have a disticntive presentation.

 

[ele101]

£200 for the CA system is a great deal.

I have recently bought a pair of overdose's recommendation they are brilliant, highly enjoyable.They sounded very good with my old Rotel RA 04 as well.

Speakers seem to make the biggest difference to sound quality.

Thanks for the advice. I've thought about buying new speakers but then I wondered if I'm buying new speakers I may as well buy the PM6004, CD6004 and BX2s for £600 as they are new. That's why I'm confused! Not sure what to do now.

 

[Leeps]

I used to own the Cambridge set-up you describe (for many happy years!!) and still own the CD player.

I'd highly recommend the Cambridge set-up, but you do need to be careful when partnering speakers. If you spend your money wisely on speakers, you'll have a super system.

The Cambridge's presentation is fast and very detailed, so rhythmically they draw you very much into the music. They're also excellent for classical music. Their potential Achilles heel if wrongly matched with speakers is that they CAN have a tendency towards brightness in the treble. This is where speaker matching is so important. I used to partner the Cambridge system with Ruark Epilogue II's. They also majored on speed and detail, but with certain types of music (notably anything with quite screechy electric guitar, or poorly recorded music), they could sound over-bright.

So as long as you partner with speakers that are also rhythmically fast (so you don't lose this strength of the CD/Amp) but have a slightly rounded off sweeter treble, then you'll have a system that will bring big smiles to your face. I'm a big Radiohead fan (mainly their new electronica style stuff), and their well-mastered but complex layered sounds sounded absolutely awesome on the Cambridge system - much better than I would have expected in that price bracket. Anything with any kind of foot-tapping rhythm, percussion and acoustic guitar, again sounded jaw-droppingly good.

If I were you (and I'm obviously not) I'd snap up the Cambridge and spend your money on some fab speakers that'll squeeze the very best out it. FWIW I believe the Marantz set-up has rather similar traits (of speed and detail but airing toward a harsh treble if partnered badly), so if you did go the Marantz route, you'd probably need to look at quite similar speakers anyway.

Any decent hifi shop near you should happily let you take the amp and CD in and demo a range of speakers. I'd strongly recommend you do this. I'd also recommend good quality copper speaker cable - steer away from silver cable which exacerbates the treble weakness I mentioned.

Let us know how you get on. Hope you find something that brings as many smiles to you as the system did to me!

 

[CarlDW]

Cambridge Audio do great budget kit (I had an A1 amplifier many moons ago) so for that price I would snap it up.

As mentioned by others, get down to your local hi-fi dealer and audition some speakers to make the most of the equipment. You could look at some Q Acoustics Concept 20 speakers for £350, which will also withstand future upgrades (they sound great with budget stuff but get even better with more high-end gear).

Good luck!

 

[Shanka]

Hi,

Friend of mine is looking to get a cheap amp and speakers set up and the Cambridge 640a was one of the amps we discussed ( other two if found cheap were Arcam Alpha 8 and NAD c350).

Apart from the suggestion above can anyone advise a good matching floorstander for the 640a, would be buying s/hand so demo not possible but fortunately he's not as fussy as me, mainly rock and electronica are his tastes.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[steve_1979]

I don't know about the speakers but it's a good deal for the Cambridge Audio gear.

Go for it I say. You can always swap the speakers later on if you want to.

 

[ele101]

I used to own the Cambridge set-up you describe (for many happy years!!) and still own the CD player.

I'd highly recommend the Cambridge set-up, but you do need to be careful when partnering speakers. If you spend your money wisely on speakers, you'll have a super system.

The Cambridge's presentation is fast and very detailed, so rhythmically they draw you very much into the music. They're also excellent for classical music. Their potential Achilles heel if wrongly matched with speakers is that they CAN have a tendency towards brightness in the treble. This is where speaker matching is so important. I used to partner the Cambridge system with Ruark Epilogue II's. They also majored on speed and detail, but with certain types of music (notably anything with quite screechy electric guitar, or poorly recorded music), they could sound over-bright.

So as long as you partner with speakers that are also rhythmically fast (so you don't lose this strength of the CD/Amp) but have a slightly rounded off sweeter treble, then you'll have a system that will bring big smiles to your face. I'm a big Radiohead fan (mainly their new electronica style stuff), and their well-mastered but complex layered sounds sounded absolutely awesome on the Cambridge system - much better than I would have expected in that price bracket. Anything with any kind of foot-tapping rhythm, percussion and acoustic guitar, again sounded jaw-droppingly good.

If I were you (and I'm obviously not) I'd snap up the Cambridge and spend your money on some fab speakers that'll squeeze the very best out it. FWIW I believe the Marantz set-up has rather similar traits (of speed and detail but airing toward a harsh treble if partnered badly), so if you did go the Marantz route, you'd probably need to look at quite similar speakers anyway.

Any decent hifi shop near you should happily let you take the amp and CD in and demo a range of speakers. I'd strongly recommend you do this. I'd also recommend good quality copper speaker cable - steer away from silver cable which exacerbates the treble weakness I mentioned.

Let us know how you get on. Hope you find something that brings as many smiles to you as the system did to me!

Thanks for all the great advice. I think I'll go for it. I'll see how the speakers are maybe go for some Q Acoustic 2020i speakers later.

I will be adding a turntable so will need a preamp. I know everyone recommends the Rotel preamp but I think the price is a bit steep. Do you something like this would be good enough: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000H2BC4E/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

 

[John Duncan]

If they're in working order, I'd buy them, that's an excellent deal. I don't know the speakers but if you have more money to spend later there are plenty of options. Q Acoustics would be a great start but there are some second hand bargains you could look out for as well.