advertisement


Cambridge CXC

wylton

Naim and Mana member
I recently bought a Cambridge CXC cd transport for the office system upstairs. I thought long and hard about the purchase, because others had suggested buying a used Rega cd player, but I rather liked the idea of a new piece of equipment rather than an old one, partly because I rarely buy new hi-fi these days and also because the Cambridge is dedicated to the task of getting as much from the silver disc as possible. I ordered it before Christmas, but then was too ill with a viral infection to collect it. A phone call to the Richer Sounds store, had it in the post with free delivery and it arrived promptly and safely.

I’m knocked out with it TBH, but firstly a couple of downers. It takes an age (relatively speaking) to read a disc, compared to the ancient Naim CDS downstairs and it’s a bit disc fussy too. The old CDS is a trifle disc fussy (it doesn’t like CDRs or any disc that has any DC offset), but already I’ve found a couple of CDs that the CXC just won’t read. I assume, that like the CDS, this is in some way due to the disc not being up to the red book standard.

Now to the good bit; even with the cheapo Maplin DAC, it sounds great! It sounds open and detailed with nicely controlled bass, good projection and timing; maybe a touch bright, but it’s early days and I will at some point try other DACs.

A few weeks ago, I went to see the Ben Crosland Quintet, playing the Ray Davies songbook and I came away with a couple of CDs (one of which, the CXC wouldn’t read), so a good chance to hear how it compared to the live event (within the realms of my limited aural memory of course). I was quite taken aback at how snappy and detailed this thing sounded; it really did take me back to that evening at the Jazz Club! The way it handles the cymbals too; quite difficult because they can either sound muted or too splashy, but not here.

I played a bunch of other stuff too:

Be-Bop Deluxe – Drastic plastic (an old vinyl demo fave).

Frank Zappa – Hot rats

Di Meola, McLaughlin, De Lucia – Friday night in San Francisco

Sly & Robbie – Meet Bunny Lee at the dub station

Joan Armatrading – Starlight

Eno – Another day on Earth

Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band – Trout Mask Replica

The latter, I’ve heard a thousand times on vinyl, but the first time in ages that I’ve listened to it all the way through in one sitting and the CXC coped very well.
 
thanks for the update , nearly bought one before christmas as they offered a good price and free cover if it goes wrong . appreciate your honesty re not reading some discs . i tried loading a disc in the shop and it seemed fairly fast to me . i would be worried about any product that did not read discs .
 
The two discs it wouldn't read:

Ben Crosland Quintet - The Ray Davies Songbook (Jazz Cat - JCCD 116)
Grimm Grimm - The ghost of madam Legros (Tip Top - promo single)

Regarding the loading speed; I guess I'm a bit impatient, but it's not as quick as the CDS, though then again it does show more disc info than the CDS. The other issue is that you can't select tracks directly with the CXC. Although there is a numeric pad on the remote, that isn't for the transport, so once the disc is loaded, you have to skip through to the track that you want. These aren't an issue for me, especially given that I have another CD player downstairs. I'll post up if there are any other discs it won't read
 
I have owned mine for a couple of years and never had it reject a disc. This includes red book product and discs recorded on a Pioneer 509. I agree it is rather slow to read a disc but not as slow as reading SACDs on an old Sony player. I use mine with a Cambridge Audio DacMagic and together they produce very good quality sounds.
 
I have owned mine for a couple of years and never had it reject a disc.

Interesting, difficult to say if mine has a fault or if I'm just unlucky with the choice of discs. When I have time, I'll have a session of checking loads of CDs to see if they read or not.
 
It’s great. Mine has read every disc including the CD layer of every SACD. And to preempt Keith, it measures pretty much perfectly apparently. The remote on the other hand...
 
The remote for a Rotel 965 CD player operates the CXC, including individual track selection. Other Rotel remotes might work as well.
 
Can’t find one of those without buying the player. Any idea of other remotes (with numbers on) that are available?
 
No idea. I have a Rotel 965 and just happened to notice its remote was operating both machines.
 
Oh well, should your 965 ever die I’ll know who to ask. Ironically, I used to have one myself; the CXC might die first.
 
I was never really happy with my CXC
Clunky drawer and plastic feel.
Ok the price was reasonable.
Tried three different dac's, amo Chord & Rega.

I much preferred my Rega players, used as transport only or as a single player.
In fact I'm amazed how well the latest Apollo fare against my old (serviced) Saturn.
 
Just an update.


I've been running the CXC for a few weeks now. I tried 100 CDs and it rejected 8; some would work the 2nd time, conversely, some that worked the first time wouldn’t read a 2nd time. Also, on some disks, reading time was quite long; I timed one and it took 22 seconds. I rang Richer Sounds, and they said that as it was within the 28 days, they could swap it out for a new one. They didn’t have one in stock, so the new one would be delivered to me. This time around, I made sure to take out the 6 year supercare, because I’m a bit concerned about the reliability of this machine!


On the plus side, some of the discs I played today, sounded really good:

Neil Young – Out on the weekend (Harvest) sounded so spacious and detailed; I just love his voice.

And Down by the river, from the re-mastered Greatest Hits album, again so open and detailed.

Frank Zappa - Zoot allures (Does humor belong in music), a good example of a typical CD sound! Detailed, though lacking in warmth. Quite forward, lacking somewhat in depth. Not a fault with the CXC as such, more to do with my general preference with vinyl.

Similar comments with Zappa’s – Heavy duty Judy (The best band you never heard in your life).

So, I’ll wait for the new machine to arrive and will give it another spin. Hopefully, it will read discs a little quicker and more reliably.

A couple of other issues to mention. I found, that you can hear clicking sounds through the loudspeakers while the CXC is reading a discs. I also found the remote unresponsive on a couple of occasions; the disk would eventually read, but when I hit play, zilch.
 
Last edited:
There was a time I was thinking of getting one of those things. I contacted them about spare mechanisms and told me they wouldnt supply me with one. So I looked else where ( Audiolab, who were willing to sell me a spare mechanism )
 
I seem to have read a lot of negative experiences with the CXC, which is a shame. Of course most folk only write up negative experiences, so it’s all skewed, but nonetheless there’s more than the usual level of background noise on these it seems.
 
I’ve just bought one as CA are flogging refurbished units on eBay for £200. Should be interesting to see if it makes a difference over my Oppo 4k player.
 
Of course most folk only write up negative experiences, so it’s all skewed...

That's why I've tried my best to put forward a balanced view. Obviously, in my case, it looks as if I have a faulty machine.

It is a bit of a quandary isn't it? Based on sound quality alone, they are on to a winner. To an extent, I can put up with the operational quirks, because in this case, the CD player is part of a second system, but if I hadn't taken it back today, the 28 days would have been up and I wouldn't have been able to swap it out. The fact that people have had a different experience with the CXC, points to the fact that it's built to a price, in China, with poor quality control. The fact that CA are flogging refurbished units on eBay would seem to prove this fact. It's a shame because, at it's best it sounds really special.

Still, I have a new machine on the way, so we'll see how it goes!
 
Had one for 3 years now. Use it daily and it has never let me down; played all discs.

The remote is frustrating, especially when one wishes to go back to the beginning of a track.
 
That's why I've tried my best to put forward a balanced view. Obviously, in my case, it looks as if I have a faulty machine.

It is a bit of a quandary isn't it? Based on sound quality alone, they are on to a winner. To an extent, I can put up with the operational quirks, because in this case, the CD player is part of a second system, but if I hadn't taken it back today, the 28 days would have been up and I wouldn't have been able to swap it out. The fact that people have had a different experience with the CXC, points to the fact that it's built to a price, in China, with poor quality control. The fact that CA are flogging refurbished units on eBay would seem to prove this fact. It's a shame because, at it's best it sounds really special.

Still, I have a new machine on the way, so we'll see how it goes!

Hope it’s perfect for you! Let us know...
 


advertisement


Back
Top