Poorly designed and implemented Cambridge Audio 650BD player

[admin_exported]

I purchased the Cambridge Audio 650BD player last year and could hardly live with it for a few months. It has a very poorly designed remote that is impossible to operate at night because of no illumination, and all remote buttons are of same size (which makes it even harder to operate in a home theater environment). Any Blu-ray disc that loads up with heavy use of Java programming seems to take an eternity to load initially, and some discs even require a disc ejection and reinsertion for the disc to run.

The 650BD is a very crudely designed blu-ray player manufactured in China with thin inexpensive and cluttered PCB and low quality parts taken off other manufacturers bin. Picture quality is no better than the least expensive Panasonic player. Color cast is poor, with a substantial graininess, flat image, and lack of lushness. Set-up menu is poorly explained in the operating book. Overall, I would give it 3 out of 10 marks. Wake up Cambridge Audio! This equipment is a shock to the system after the 840-E pre-amp that I love.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Aizad:The 650BD is a very crudely designed blu-ray player manufactured in China with thin inexpensive and cluttered PCB and low quality parts taken off other manufacturers bin. Picture quality is no better than the least expensive Panasonic player. Color cast is poor, with a substantial graininess, flat image, and lack of lushness. Set-up menu is poorly explained in the operating book. Overall, I would give it 3 out of 10 marks. Wake up Cambridge Audio! This equipment is a shock to the system after the 840-E pre-amp that I love.

In a word, nonsense.

 

[if...]

In a word, opinion?

 

[Petherick]

Hi Aizad. I'm not going to try to defend the 650BD as you obviously have a fairly strong opinion, but can you give more details of what you've compared it to and how the other units were better? Since I got mine I've been very impressed with all aspects of it. Before buying I compared it to Sony, Panasonic and others and decided it was more 'the complete product' (3D notwithstanding). I agree up to a point about the remote, but don't really find it a problem to use. Illumination would be handy, though; my Sony AV amp's remote has glow-in-the dark buttons which does help.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Id have thought it being his/her first post would have alarm bells ringing

 

[Anonymous]

hi aizad i think you must have got a faulty one i have the bd650 and i think it is superb picture quality and the sound is fantastic my other bluray player is the sony bdp-s760which i had before the bd650 picture is just a bit better on the bd650 but the sound is in a differant class on the boxed set of aliens when she is in the loader it bounces you out of the seat. because there is 2 versions of film it is a bit slow. when i put films in both players the sony 760 is very noisey the cambridge is very much quiter. for me the cambridge is the best player. and they can keep the 3d players i love the sound and picture i am very happy.with my cambridge. and build is better than my sony bdp-760. most players are made in china.

glyn 21

 

[Andrew Everard]

if...:In a word, opinion?

Not all of it. Some of it was a series of statements of 'fact', which were nonsensical

 

[The_Lhc]

No sign of the OP again either, a classic drive-by trolling, textbook stuff!

 

[Anonymous]

Bravo Aizad!! Never be afraid to point out a bad product! Regardless of what 'the powers above' think!

I find most of CA's stuff to be bad Chinese tat. Bloody bright and agressive sounding to boot.

[edited by mods - no need to make this personal]

I still remember the days when CA launched the A2 amp with the transformer wired incorrectly, hastening the launch of the A3!

Seriously any manufacturer (and whichever Chinese mass production line made the stuff that week) that makes such a fudamental ** up, is surely only displaying, breeding, and inviting incompetance

 

[hunnyy]

glyn21, I also have the Sony 760, and was wondering, when you talk about the BD650 sound being much better, is that bitstreaming via HDMI to the amp?

Thanks.

 

[Andrew Everard]

AlanNorak:I find most of CA's stuff to be bad Chinese tat.

AlanNorak:(and whichever Chinese mass production
line made the stuff that week)

Please keep a lid on your racist rantings.

 

[Anonymous]

dont care if he is a 'troll' or whatever. truth is Cambridge Audio is tat and it took me 3 returned dvd players and a couple of amps to realise. couple of friends were also duped into buying CA products as well when they went into 'that shop'. this is the main reason why i dont go into 'that shop' anymore because i kinda like getting impartial advice. their salesman are told to push the products for obvious reasons.

 

[Andrew Everard]

simonNFL:dont care if he is a 'troll' or whatever. truth is Cambridge Audio is tat and it took me 3 returned dvd players and a couple of amps to realise. couple of friends were also duped into buying CA products as well when they went into 'that shop'. this is the main reason why i dont go into 'that shop' anymore because i kinda like getting impartial advice. their salesman are told to push the products for obvious reasons.

Because Richer Sounds is the distributor of Cambridge Audio in the UK?

 

[Anonymous]

hi the answer to your question is most definightly not hdmi. it is wired up useing mark grant coax and G1000 interconects. i just wonder what paul benson or chris frankland would have to say about pluging everthing bar the kitchen sink because they want every thing switching. before i was taken terminaly ill with big c i used to work in the pro side of the music. if when we put cables out from foh mix position if lamppies put there leads any where near ours we used to play hell up with them. a friend who works in the usa was telling me that the BD650 was well thought of over there and most people use the 5-1 inputs not wanting to put rf distortion in to there amps. he was telling me that ayre have a universal player out with 2 hdmi sockets on1 for hdmi a/v the other hdmi audio blank screen on video. it is based round the oppo BDP83 which the cambridge is also partly based also i think you will find the cambrige gear is more exspensive in the usa. and in reply to the other gentleman who was slaging cambridge off i would prefer something made in china than malaya or other sweet shop countrys. a friend had a sony 360 made in malaya it sounded like there was a little man in nocking to get out. i am not certain about amps you where talling about but they could come from the time when it was a british company.before julian richer bought the name. most musos and othet people that have heard my systems think they are both superb..( i think that will put the cat amongest the pigions) with not been able to work any more i have plenty of time on my hands to listen to both my systems. the mark grant G1000 cable did not get a good review in this mag BUT in my system they work superbly over the last 40 years i have had a lot of gear in my room shearching for that bit of magic which i think i have found

glyn 21

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew Everard:
simonNFL:dont care if he is a 'troll' or whatever. truth is Cambridge Audio is tat and it took me 3 returned dvd players and a couple of amps to realise. couple of friends were also duped into buying CA products as well when they went into 'that shop'. this is the main reason why i dont go into 'that shop' anymore because i kinda like getting impartial advice. their salesman are told to push the products for obvious reasons.

Because Richer Sounds is the distributor of Cambridge Audio in the UK?

[edited by mods - no personal attacks please]