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You have the right to access, update and amend personal information that we hold about you. If the law in your country allows us to impose a fee for giving you access, we will communicate this to you in response to your request. Its a bit of arms race, but I feel I got on the right ‘plane’, where major compromises in sound weren’t a factor. For customer satisfaction surveys and to allow us to improve your experience should you need support from one of our experts; The disc drive in the CXC was originally developed by Cambridge Audio for its high-end 851C CD player. It’s our renowned ‘S3’ servo design, and it has class-leading levels of jitter rejection and error correction – no multi-purpose drive is able to compete with the the CXC’s levels of precision and stability.
More usually found on 'reference' hi-fi and professional equipment, the CXA81 boasts balanced XLR inputs. When connected to a suitable source, this gives a fully balanced, hot/cold, connection for the ultimate analogue signal quality. Now a standard fitment, Bluetooth offers simple, wireless music streaming from your mobile, tablet or laptop. Stream stored music or popular music streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music. The Bluetooth receiver is compatible with aptX HD, giving the highest quality sound possible from Bluetooth, right up to 24bit/48kHz. You also get the benefit of the sound passing through the ESS Sabre DAC, meaning precise, detailed sound from all your streamed music. as long as you are happy for us to do so) send you more relevant and interesting marketing communications.
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Paired with the K3 I also heard the Roksan CD player, but was persuaded by my daughter to not buy it as she thought I was much more likely to stream it than use a CD. Would I be right in thinking that 24 bit Tidal would be better than CD? And how does 16 bit Spotify compare with CD? In the end, playing CDs strikes me as a lifestyle choice. Spending time with the Cambridge CXC was a very pleasant reminder that real time and attention spent listening to music pays dividends and sometimes having less to choose from makes the experience more thoughtful. Devoting one’s time and attention to listening to an album at a time, coupled with the experience of having and holding a real object in hand that includes artwork and liner notes in addition to pits and lands, allows for a different, and potentially deeper, connection to the music beyond sound. We collect personal information in the country in which you live. We then host and store that information in the European Economic Area (EEA). Those third parties that we share your personal information with may handle or transfer your personal information outside of the UK, and outside of the EEA, to other countries in which they have facilities. The differences I heard when comparing playing CDs on the CXC to playing music stored on my Synology NAS to the Pi 4 and converted to Coax out by the Denafrips IRIS II DDC were, for all intents and purposes, not worth mentioning. I’d have been hard pressed to know which was which when listening to the exact same music that was playing from the CD or playing from the file I ripped from that very same CD. They sounded, through the Denafrips ARES II DAC, more or less identical.
What Hi-Fi? said:Cambridge Audio opted for a ground-up rebuild for its CXA81 amp – and it has created a thing of lasting beauty. Denon 3910 CD | HD-CD | SACD | DVD-A |DVD player (connected via digital coax and Audio out RCA to compare Denon’s Burr-Brown and CXA60’s Wolfson DACs) A likeable all-round performer that isn't a class-leader, but for those who are keen on the NAD sound, the C 538 is definitely worth considering at this price. While the laser uses light to read the disc, everything going on inside the box, as it were, makes for a perfect storm of electrical and mechanical noise that’s intent on traveling. So its also the job of every CD transport or player to deal with said noise and keep it from contaminating our precious and susceptible analog signal. The Cambridge Audio CXC is a CD transport. Its sole purpose is to spin up CDs to the correct and stable speed so that a laser can read the pits and lands that are encoded into the polycarbonate layer of the disc. Then, by way of the CXC’s digital outputs (Coax or Toslink), that data is sent to a digital to analog converter to turn bits into analog waves. This analog signal is then sent on to your amplification device(s) of choice. Done!
We will only send you marketing communications when you have told us that you are happy for us to do so. As well as the personal information you share with us about yourself and your Cambridge Audio product, we may collect and handle personal information directly from your Cambridge Audio connected products and Cambridge Audio apps (for example "Melomania App", "StreamMagic App"). A connected product is a Cambridge Audio product that is “smart”, internet enabled or operated through a Cambridge Audio app. And because many such brands also sell budget and lifestyle ranges, they make more profit and therefore have larger research and development budgets, access to the latest and greatest technology and equipment, and the ability to finance the very latest manufacturing techniques. It’s an expressive and punchy performer that builds its performance around a solid framework of surefooted rhythmic drive and expressive dynamics. Details levels are good, but it is the confident way this unit organises that information into a cohesive and musical whole that really impresses. But here’s the thing — I will never live without streaming, ever again. I am addicted. I am addicted to music discovery on a scale I never would have dreamed of when I spun my first record in the 1960s, or my first CD in the 1980s. Using Roon as my guide, specifically Roon Radio, I come across music that is new to me every single day, and twice on Sunday. OK, more than twice on most days.
The CXC is part of CX Series 2 range of Cambridge products that includes the CXA81 and CXA61 Integrated Amplifiers, and the CXN (V2) Network Player. They all share the same machined metal chassis with an aluminum faceplate finished in Lunar Grey. It’s worth noting that both CX Series integrated amplifiers also contain DACs, which makes a CD Transport make sense, especially in Series. Things often move fast in the world of hi-fi, but great sound never ages. If you have a system to make the most of the CXA81, it’d be folly not to scrawl the name of this multiple What Hi-Fi? Award (and Product of the Year) winner at the top of your list. If you already own an external DAC, we would not hesitate to recommend the Cambridge CXC over a standalone CD player. You’ll have to spend a good deal more than this to match the sound quality it offers. Software update: To provide software upgrades to your devices we use the unit ID and model number to select what software the device should be running. We also aggregate upgrade data to allow us to monitor the update to software updates. If you want to stop receiving marketing from us (sometimes called "opting out"), you can do so at any time by:Whether I make them or not, there are always sounds to be heard and all of them are excellent.” ― John Cage I can’t find fault with the CXC’s sound. It’s notably free of the digital artefacts that plague many budget-oriented models, and it responds well to a change in DAC. Personally I feel that the DAC will have a more profound affect on the sound; so providing a CD transport delivers the 0s and 1s to where they need to go with minimal error, it’s doing a top-class job.
Streaming features UPnP, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, internet radio, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Roon Ready So, if you are looking for a device which is multi-room, network ready - you may wish to look elsewhere. If you are looking for an amplifier to go with your CXNv2, you may wish to look elsewhere (probably just buy a power amp and let the CXNv2 pre-amp handle volume).It's important to us that we judge all products, including CD players, on a strict pound-per-performance basis, making sure to emphasize value and tell our readers how good something is for the money. Accordingly, we compare all products we review against similarly-priced class leaders to help us settle on the most accurate rating.
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