Cambridge Audio Azur 840C CD Player

[music again]

There are only two posts I was able to locate regarding the Cambridge Audio Azur 840C CD Player, one being . . .

Joe,

I had not heard of Cambridge audio gear before. I just looked them up and well their gear looks excellent. I am glad to hear it sounded great as well.

http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/content.php?COID=14

I particularly liked the Azur 840c player.

I recently purchased a pair of Vantages with a Descent i sub. I'm looking upgarde my system a bit further and my dealer suggested my best bet would be my CD player, which is an ancient Sony 5 disk player! I'd like to keep this purchase at a more reasonable level, as I'd also like to upgrade my 1980's equipment: amp (Hafler DH200) and preamp (Hafler DH-110) somewhere down the road.

The 840C just received a great review in the current issue of Absolute Sound (September), page 76. It received TAS' "TOP VALUE" award, which is a new award for them. Robert Harley quotes: "The best CD playback under $5k for . . . . $1,499".

Cambridge Audio may not be up the level of a lot of the other gear I see on this thread, but if it's a good as what this review says for under $1,500 I would consider it, especially since I have a "gift card" for Tweeters, and they carry this piece. Audio Advisor also sells the 840C for under $1,400.

Does anyone own this CD player or have an opinion of it?

THANKS!

JM

 

[Diamonds]

There are only two posts I was able to locate regarding the Cambridge Audio Azur 840C CD Player, one being . . .



I recently purchased a pair of Vantages with a Descent i sub. I'm looking upgarde my system a bit further and my dealer suggested my best bet would be my CD player, which is an ancient Sony 5 disk player! I'd like to keep this purchase at a more reasonable level, as I'd also like to upgrade my 1980's equipment: amp (Hafler DH200) and preamp (Hafler DH-110) somewhere down the road.

The 840C just received a great review in the current issue of Absolute Sound (September), page 76. It received TAS' "TOP VALUE" award, which is a new award for them. Robert Harley quotes: "The best CD playback under $5k for . . . . $1,499".

Cambridge Audio may not be up the level of a lot of the other gear I see on this thread, but if it's a good as what this review says for under $1,500 I would consider it, especially since I have a "gift card" for Tweeters, and they carry this piece. Audio Advisor also sells the 840C for under $1,400.

Does anyone own this CD player or have an opinion of it?

THANKS!

JM

This CDP is great! It is replacing people's reference CDPs in their system. I think you would need to go to Esoteric or EMM Labs to get better.

 

[music again]

Esoteric and CA follow up

This CDP is great! It is replacing people's reference CDPs in their system. I think you would need to go to Esoteric or EMM Labs to get better.

I was looking at the Esoteric SA-60 which lists for $4,500 and their DV-60 which lists for $5,600! That seems like a lot of money, to me anyway, for a cd/dvd player. I know some of the members here have them and I'm sure they sound great, just a bit too much for me right now. I did notice in the Absolute Sound September issue on page 89, Music Direct's advertisement features a new esoteric SA-10 CD/SACD player for $3,499. We're getting there. . .

. . . . but this CA Azur 840C has my attention right now. On paper it looks to have been well thought out and well designed, which should translate into great sound, for the money. I'm in Ohio and it looks like the closest dealers are in NY and PA.

Do you own this CDP or have you listened to it at a store or someone's home? What do you like about it most? Least?

Thanks!

JM

 

[Pcar928fan]

Another one that is less expensive and also gets rave reviews are the now year old versions of the Rega Apollo. I think you could get a good one on A'gon for less than $700...

As for an interim Pre/Amp upgrade you might think about some Rotel gear. They are kind of the bottom of the Hi-Fi market and you can also find some great deals on those on A'gon!

I am running a full Rega set up w/ Prodigy, Ascent, Script, Theater, Descent and it is very nice! I have the RB1090 amp for the Prodigy and everyone else is powered by the RMB1095... each around or just under $1k on A'gon...

 

[music again]

Thanks James!

I do recall reading through your system a couple of weeks back.

AWESOME system!

I'll have to read through the entire thing when I have a little more energy! I'm going to do a little listening right now and turn the computer off! I've been researching audio stuff for the past 2.5 hours!

My dealer carries Rotel, Classe', Sunfire, BAT, Cary and more. There's plenty to chose from that's for sure. It's a matter of how much I can afford, but I guess that's the case for most of us!

JM

 

[DrJRapp]

Cambridge Audio makes exceptional CD players, especially considering their price point. I used to own a 640C and loved it until I upgraded my system out of Rotel to higher end gear. I have a friend who recently had a 840C in his home for an extended time but chose to return it for an Esoteric SA 60. While he thought that the CA was great, he feels the Esoteric is really special, which it should be for it's cost.

I had an 840C on order last year but when the unit was delayed I purchased a Benchmark DAC1 ($975) and a used Theta Data basic transport ($350 on Agon) and the resulting pair performs on par with an Esoteric XO3 which is nearly $7K.

 

[Pcar928fan]

AWESOME system!

My dealer carries Rotel, Classe', Sunfire, BAT, Cary and more. There's plenty to chose from that's for sure. It's a matter of how much I can afford, but I guess that's the case for most of us!

Thanks JM, of all those listed Rotel will be the most affordable. Be sure to check out Audiogon.com and look for stuff there too. I don't want to hose your dealer out of a sale, but money is money and most of the gear you listed is just as good and cheaper on the secondary market. The Rotel stuff would be particularly good way to go if you want to do a more comprehensive upgrade all at once. That is exactly why i went with the Rotel gear. It happens to be very good too.

Also keep in mind that most of the Rotel stuff will have a good value when you are ready to part with it as well. Heck, you might not even loose a dime on the turn around when you upgrade again! YMMV!

 

[eknuds01]

I think I listened to that player at Tweeter a ways back. I didn't compare to anything directly, but I thought it was fine when I was listening to some classical music with the Vantages.

I posted a review about a Sony 900v player I had modified by tube research labs (tuberesearchlabs.com). So that's another way to go. The tricky part is finding a player the various 'modders' can upgrade. I am very satisfied with that CD player. It sounds better by the day!

Also, anything by Rotel is decent. I forget the model of their 'entry-level' player (I think it's $600-$700) but I have listened to that several times and never walked away disappointed.

Personally, I wouldn't go nuts on a CD player. Just listen to some dynamic material when evaluating the player. In my opinion, a good player just gets out of the way...

Erik

 

[greg_slo]

i too love the 840C. the hi-fi store i work at uses this player for pretty much all our 2ch demo's in the "high end" room. we brought in cambridge audio to replace rotel (after rotel dropped us, and half the US as a dealer) and cambridge keeps up with rotel, if not outperforms rotel in the CDP department.

~greg

 

[FatJ]

I'll chunk my two cents in on this one... I have been more than pleased with the performance of the 840C. We had been using the SACD Standard from Krell (retail 4 g's) in our showroom until it died. We replaced it with the 840C and never looked back. I'm sure I'm gonna get flamed on this one... but I actually prefer the sound of the Cambridge unit. I liked it so much that I immediately bought one for myself. I'm also using mine as a DAC for my Fireball and it made a big difference on the performance of that unit too. Call up your Tweeter saledude and have him set you up!

 

[Gordon Gray]

Audition the Cary CDP1

Hi JM,

This unit lists for $2K and I love it. Has 5 different upsampling settings, which allows one to really dial in the sound from a tonal / dimensionality perspective. I've settled on the 512 setting after many hours of listening. I have no idea why but per my dealer that I bought from (Ron Hedrick / Marigo Audio), unit needs 500 hours of play time before it starts to work its magic.

So, if you audition one, make sure it has plenty of hours on it.

Good luck.

GG

 

[Joey_V]

This is definitely interesting. I will be sure to audition the 840C next time I have time to make it to Tweeter.

Thanks for the thread and the heads up on what seems to be a good CDP.

Joey

 

[twich54]

We had been using the SACD Standard from Krell (retail 4 g's) in our showroom until it died. We replaced it with the 840C and never looked back. I'm sure I'm gonna get flamed on this one... but I actually prefer the sound of the Cambridge . /QUOTE]


No flaming at all !! In fact I think the 4k Krell is one of the most overrated and over priced pices out there. On can easily do better by spending less vs. buying the Krell. The 840c as well as modded players costing half that amount are prime examples.

 

[Huey]

We had been using the SACD Standard from Krell (retail 4 g's) in our showroom until it died. We replaced it with the 840C and never looked back. I'm sure I'm gonna get flamed on this one... but I actually prefer the sound of the Cambridge . /QUOTE]


No flaming at all !! In fact I think the 4k Krell is one of the most overrated and over priced pices out there. On can easily do better by spending less vs. buying the Krell. The 840c as well as modded players costing half that amount are prime examples.

ok..but does that count for the amps???

 

[Audioseduction]

It seems to lack SACD support.

 

[twich54]

ok..but does that count for the amps???

No, but it's highly unlikely that I will ever have them in my system.

 

[FatJ]

No flaming at all !! In fact I think the 4k Krell is one of the most overrated and over priced pices out there. On can easily do better by spending less vs. buying the Krell. The 840c as well as modded players costing half that amount are prime examples.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. That thing drove me nuts! It loaded about as fast as a blu-ray player

When ours crapped out we sent it in for service and never got it back. I have no clue what ever happened to it. I'm guessing that it couldn't be repaired and Krell just bought it back??

 

[Crawdaddy]

I'm also using mine as a DAC for my Fireball and it made a big difference on the performance of that unit too.

Interesting. I heard the top end Cambridge had digital inputs. Can you elaborate on how this works? Simple button on the remote to switch between the CDP and the external source?

Can you give some details on the DAC and its performance?

How does it compare with stand alone DAC's (such as Benchmark, PS Audio CI Audio, Lite, etc)?

 

[FatJ]

Yes sir! The 'select' button on their remote control toggles you through the CD Player-->Input 1-->Input 2 and then back to CD. I haven't spent too much time trying to disect their codes to see if they have discrete input codes available, but I don't believe there are any. You can anchor the input selector back to the CD player by sending out a 'play' command if you need to build a reliable macro for a universal remote. That's how I'm using mine.

I was really impressed with the difference that this made. A friend of mine told me about this piece before my company picked up cambridge so once I had the option to purchase one at a discount it was a no brainer for me. If you haven't had a chance to check out the upsampling system they use you should pull it up here:

What is Q5 upsampling?

The DAC is a better quality than the cheesy ones built in to my fireball and they upsample to 384k! On top of that, they use one for each channel. The piece offers both RCA and XLR outputs. I'm running the XLR on mine with the AudioQuest Diamondbacks to my preamp. The end result is stunning!!! The noise floor is much lower and the sound stage is wider and more precise. I love this piece.

This is the first experience I've had with an outboard DAC and I'm sure you can get great results from the others you have listed. I just can't compare them for you. Maybe someone else here can help us out with that. I'd like to know how it stacks up too.

 

[Crawdaddy]

Does it decode .FLAC files?