The Cambridge CXC is an actual signal of the instances on the planet of hi-fi. A CD transport, slightly than a CD participant, this unit does the very important work of studying the data held on a compact disc, however doesn’t waste its effort in turning that digital sign into an analogue output.
As with many items of stand-alone hi-fi, the speculation goes that utilizing separate items of equipment to do particular person jobs will nearly all the time present a superior sound. This, it appears, is the case with the Cambridge CXC.
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Construct
First issues first, although. The CXC is a properly made piece of kit, its machined-metal chassis feeling each penny of the £300 you’ll pay for it. It’s constructed, not unreasonably, to match the remainder of Cambridge’s spectacular CX vary, together with the CXN streamer and two built-in stereo amplifiers, the CXA60 and the CXA80.
In addition to wanting good, the CXC has some first rate parts in it, together with the single-speed transport and proprietary S3 Servo that it shares with the Cambridge Audio Azur 851C (£1200).
In some ways it is a optimistic, nevertheless it does imply that the CXC is restricted to doing one factor: studying CDs – no SACDs or MP3 CDs right here. Fortunately, it does that one factor very effectively.
On the rear are ports to attach the transport to different members of the CX household, and two digital outputs – one S/PDIF coaxial, and a Toslink optical digital. You should use this transport, then, with any DAC that you just would possibly already personal.
After a few days’ operating in, we match the CXC with the Award-winning Arcam irDac (£400) – they usually make a fairly formidable pairing.
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Efficiency
Listening to a CD of The Darkish Knight OST we’re instantly impressed with the precision of the sound the pair present. Crisp, exact treble is married to a quick, well-defined bassline that basically drives the music alongside.
There’s an actual musicality to the piece that may get misplaced on lesser gamers, with natural, fluid interaction between devices.
We’re so impressed that we glance to our £1000 reference Naim CD5Si CD participant to make a comparability. The Naim simply trumps the CXC/irDAC mixture for outright musicality, however there’s a good value hike between the 2 as effectively.
As a distinction, we additionally measure the combo towards the Award-winning Marantz CD6005 (£300). This can be a CD participant with its personal DAC on board, so you’ll count on the CXC and Arcam pair to outdo it, however the enchancment in sound of the separates pairing over the all-in-one participant is straight away apparent.
Timing and the interaction between devices are higher, extra natural, extra fluid, extra expressive. And the Marantz, bear in mind, is a slightly sensible £300 CD participant.
Does that imply we’d take the Cambridge over the Marantz? Not essentially. The 2 models are equally priced, however the Cambridge CXC is ineffective with out a DAC to marry to it.
Verdict
And that’s the place our remark about it being a contemporary product for a brand new hi-fi world is available in. The as soon as humble digital to analogue converter is changing into a ubiquitous and more and more very important hi-fi part.
And when you’ve already acquired a great DAC, we’d not hesitate to advocate the Cambridge CXC over a standalone CD participant to hyperlink to it. You’ll should spend a great deal greater than £300 to match the sound high quality it provides.
Learn all our Cambridge Audio information and opinions
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