Picked up the Cambridge CXN about a week ago and have been playing with it since. The review on the main website pretty much captures the character of the beast. What was really striking was the punchy attack of notes, especially in the bass department. Somehow it manages the trick of providing more control whiile freeing up the music. And it really seems to get to the heart of the music.
Where this was most evident was with material I knew from through streaming bluetooth on the Arcam Miniblink. There was a hell of a lot of music there that I loved which it seems I have never properly heard. Now my ears have been opened and I can't get over the detail I had been missing.
Where I was more surprised was the more subtle improvement in CD playback when hooked up through the CXN. Take for example the Rory Gallagher album Deuce. It is one of my favourite albums, which I've owned for donkey's years. It was recorded in the early seventies pretty quickly and intentionally left rather unpolished. The CXN exerts a certain control, providing a structure which lets details I've never heard before come out. Again, the bass is the big beneficiary but there are vocals I can make out that I've never made out before, background screams of "yeah" like at a live show that I've never picked up on.
Rumour has it that if your system is revealing enough you can hear the numbers from a bingo caller in the hall next to the studio. I haven't got there yet!
The CD player is connected with a spare RCA cable I had about the place and seems to work fine. However, I thought the character of the streaming was somewhat edgier and rougher than the CD. Had a look in the basement and found that the spare ethernet cable I had there was Cat 6 and not Cat 5 as I thought. Result: the wiring in the gaff isn't obsolete yet!
Looking at picking up a tool and some connectors to make a length to replace my gnarly, cheap-ass, supermarket cable it turned out to be more economic by half to buy some ready made Cat 6 for €12 by a French company called Real Cable. Now I've the same sonic signature Streaming as playing CD.
I like the remote control too. It can also control the volume on my amp, which is a completely different brand. That's a real bonus as the remote for the amp was a poxy, credit-card sized thing that could only control the volume. I kept losing it too so that's one less thing cluttering up the coffee table. I actually got rid of the Cambridge app too and just play CD and Spotify for the moment. Maybe other owners can get back with any advantages i'm missing out on there.
Airplay doesn't seem any worse than bluetooth (though a real comedown from the wired connection) but I've no real need for it except for YouTube where, bizarrely, there are sync issues: the sound coming a good two seconds after the image. Don't know if this is an Airplay thing or a CXN thing.
Overall I'm really impressed. I'm also really surprised at the difference that the source can make in the digital era. Obviously it is still an important part of the whole sound, but more so than I had thought. This has given extra bite and muscularity to my system, making the sound darker than it had been before. After a week of getting used to the change I'm sitting here with my foot tapping out a beat and a stupid grin on my face.
Where this was most evident was with material I knew from through streaming bluetooth on the Arcam Miniblink. There was a hell of a lot of music there that I loved which it seems I have never properly heard. Now my ears have been opened and I can't get over the detail I had been missing.
Where I was more surprised was the more subtle improvement in CD playback when hooked up through the CXN. Take for example the Rory Gallagher album Deuce. It is one of my favourite albums, which I've owned for donkey's years. It was recorded in the early seventies pretty quickly and intentionally left rather unpolished. The CXN exerts a certain control, providing a structure which lets details I've never heard before come out. Again, the bass is the big beneficiary but there are vocals I can make out that I've never made out before, background screams of "yeah" like at a live show that I've never picked up on.
Rumour has it that if your system is revealing enough you can hear the numbers from a bingo caller in the hall next to the studio. I haven't got there yet!
The CD player is connected with a spare RCA cable I had about the place and seems to work fine. However, I thought the character of the streaming was somewhat edgier and rougher than the CD. Had a look in the basement and found that the spare ethernet cable I had there was Cat 6 and not Cat 5 as I thought. Result: the wiring in the gaff isn't obsolete yet!
Looking at picking up a tool and some connectors to make a length to replace my gnarly, cheap-ass, supermarket cable it turned out to be more economic by half to buy some ready made Cat 6 for €12 by a French company called Real Cable. Now I've the same sonic signature Streaming as playing CD.
I like the remote control too. It can also control the volume on my amp, which is a completely different brand. That's a real bonus as the remote for the amp was a poxy, credit-card sized thing that could only control the volume. I kept losing it too so that's one less thing cluttering up the coffee table. I actually got rid of the Cambridge app too and just play CD and Spotify for the moment. Maybe other owners can get back with any advantages i'm missing out on there.
Airplay doesn't seem any worse than bluetooth (though a real comedown from the wired connection) but I've no real need for it except for YouTube where, bizarrely, there are sync issues: the sound coming a good two seconds after the image. Don't know if this is an Airplay thing or a CXN thing.
Overall I'm really impressed. I'm also really surprised at the difference that the source can make in the digital era. Obviously it is still an important part of the whole sound, but more so than I had thought. This has given extra bite and muscularity to my system, making the sound darker than it had been before. After a week of getting used to the change I'm sitting here with my foot tapping out a beat and a stupid grin on my face.
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