AlexM
11-07-2012, 20:40
Hi All,
I posted earlier that I was lucky enough to get an almost free upgrade from the 840c to the 851c. As I have now racked up a few hours on the unit, I thought that I'd post a few preliminary impressions.
Build and styling
Firstly, the cosmetics of the unit have been improved somewhat from the 840c, with the face, side plates and top plates all now with a brushed finish. The top panel now features some trapezoidal mesh vents to aid ventilation. The gray on light gray LCD panel of the 840c has been replaced by a white-on-back LCD panel that is a lot more visible from a distance. The unit feels well assembled and looks very well finished, as is commensurate with it's significantly higher price, and at 10Kg, the chassis feels substantially built.
The Cambridge Audio Azur remote is a traditionally shaped affair, but the aluminium face plate gives it a more classy, upmarket feel.
Connectivity
The rear panel of the Azur 851c is absolutely festooned with different input and output connections. It has a total of four ditigal inputs - an AES/EBU input, two other inputs with both Coax and Toslink connectors, and an asynchronous USB type-B input that can be configured for either USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 operation. Interestingly, there is a ground-lift switch for the USB input that provides for disconnection of the USB ground should a hum-loop occur. I didn't encounter any untoward noises using my SB Touch into the USB input. 24/192 is supported via Coax, and AES/EBU inputs, with 96khz on the toslink inputs.
The outputs are via either balanced or unbalanced connections, and there is also coax, optical or AES/EBU digital output from the upsampling converter. The output bitrate and depth is selectable by the user.
Other Features
The CA Azur 840C was one of the first CD players to provide digital inputs to allow other devices to make use of the upsampling DAC stage. The 851C adds a couple of new tricks:
Support for asynchronous USB 1.0/2.0 input
Switchable digital pre-amp (volume and balance) to allow direct connection to a power amp
Switchable digital filters (Linear Phase, Minimum Phase, Steep)
Custom ARM microcontroller-based CD mechanism servo controller
For all digital inputs and the CD player, the Dac stage upsamples the input to 24 bit 384Khz using the Anagram technologies ATF2 code running on a Blackfin DSP chip. The output of the upsampler and digital filter is converted to The Dac chips are Analogue Devices AD1955 chips running in a 'mono' mode. The Anagram sampler promises very low jitter of <10ps for spdif and <20ps for USB.
Sound impressions
When I first tried the player it was using my SB Touch as a digital source, initially via USB and then predominately via SP/DIF. I was using the SB Touch with Triode's enhanced digital output plug-in, which enables USB 1.0/2.0 dacs and allows for playback of 24/192 files via SP/DIF and USB. I don't use any other software or hardware mods with the SB Touch.
I listened to the following source files via the SB Touch because they are well known to me. All source files were ripped from CD to FLAC via DBPowerAmp, apart from the 2L recordings FLAC that was a download from their website.
Marc Johnson - Bass desires
Brian Bromberg - Compared to that/Wood
Donald Fagin - Morph the Cat
Chicane - Giants
Royksopp - Senior/Junior
2L records Sampler @ 24/192
I was keen to find out if the 851c worked as a USB2.0 dac with the SB Touch and the EDO plug-in. After configuring the 851C in USB 2.0 mode, it was detected immediately and worked perfectly without use of an intermediate hub.
First up was the 2L 'nordic sound' sampler. I chose this predominantly to check for any playback issues at 24/192, but I found myself enjoying the smoothness and detail of the strings, deep and wide sound stage, and presentation of the acoustic that each recording was made in. It was immediately noticeable that the presentation was neutral and balanced, but instruments and voices in the mid-range were exceptionally well deliniated, and placed within a wide and deep space. It was a little analogous to the effect of seeing actors spot-lit on the stage in that each instrument is clearly discernible within the ensemble, and for multi-track recordings any processing associated with a single multi-tracked instrument (e.g. guitar effects or vocal reverb) was clearly audible, and distinct within the overall mix. It wasn't a distraction, but I did find myself noticing new production details that were previously unnoticed despite many previous plays. Clearly the DAC was extracting a lot of information from the recordings, and seemingly adding little in terms of colouration or distortion.
The bass end of the spectrum is always something that I listen to closely, and as an ex-bassist I am very familiar with the sound of various electric and acoustic bass players and their various instruments.
Listening to Brian Bromberg's double bass on Wood was revealing in that the 'texture' of the instrument, it's woody character, the pitch and intonation and dynamics of the instrument were very well portrayed. Small details such as the odd string or fret buzz of his playing of electric bass on 'A little new old school' added significantly to the impression of realism, and the clean, delineated representation of each instrument was maintained, together with a sense that louder instruments didn't mask quieter ones, and each existed as a separate element of the composition. Interestingly, I found that this raised my appreciation of the musicians playing together as an ensemble, rather than a forensic dissection of the performance. This is quite an impressive trick. Cymbals sound clean, undistorted and have a clear sense of the brush strokes and dynamics that the drummer is employing rather than the 'enveloped white noise' impression one can often hear from digital audio.
Moving on to electronica, I found that the bass-line to Royksopp's 'The Robot' was represented with very good pitch. There is a pitch bend on some of the low notes that I often cannot hear on some systems, but hear it was very clearly listenable. The rest of the track bopped along quite snappily, but perhaps it wasn't the most dynamic or 'in-your-face' presentation that I've heard. Again, the texture and dynamic envelope of the instrument lines was clear and easy to follow which helped my enjoyment.
While listening to 'The Drug' from Senior, the sound stage was very wide and deep, and the bass growled with an appropriately dark and menacing feel. Bass power and weight was impressive, with the very low notes retaining good pitch and dynamics rather than descending into an undifferentiated lump of bass energy.
I have experimented with the different filters, and find that although the effects are fairly subtle, 'minimum phase' gave the best balance in my system, whereas linear phase made most recordings a little too 'polite' and smooth for my tastes. It did vary from recording to recording though, and it is nice to be able to tweak the presentation slightly to accommodate different moods, volume levels and recordings.
I found that listening via the USB input caused a thickening and slight loss of detail in the bass and mid that wasn't noticeable via SP/DIF. It did have a very smooth and 'analogue' sound, but I found the balance slightly dull in my system. In my system at least, I found the SP/DIF output gave a very clean, consistent and balanced sound that gave me the best of all worlds; smooth, refined, precise, and very detailed. Sound staging and imaging is very impressive, and the best that I have heard from a digital source. It is clearly better than my Audiocom-modified 840c ever was, and is altogether more detailed, sophisticated and engaging than the 840c was. The slight 'grey' character of the 840c is also missing here. The overall character of the sound is clean, crisp, and detailed, without sounding harsh or forward. Bass is impressively natural and accurate and seems to be in very good balance with the rest of the spectrum. The sound is clearly 'high-res', without being distractingly forensic in nature.
As you can see, I am really rather taken with this device, and I think that it will work well in a wide range of systems, and with a broad range of musical genres. It has an amazingly comprehensive feature set, good build quality and a refined, detailed and sophisticated sound that is certainly commensurate with it's now significant pricing. I would say that it is a high-quality product and represents very good value at it's price point. It is certainly the last CD player I ever plan to buy, and it's flexibility in integrating with other digital sources means that it is a digital jack-of-all-trades providing high quality d/a conversion for all of my digital sources and platforms. I recommend it firmly, and suggest that you put out of mind your preconceptions w.r.t the rest of Cambridge Audio 'entry-level' components. This device is a breed apart, and clearly incorporates the best of their technologies to deliver a wonderful, highly resolving, natural and balanced sound that is one of the best I have heard.
Regards,
Alex
I posted earlier that I was lucky enough to get an almost free upgrade from the 840c to the 851c. As I have now racked up a few hours on the unit, I thought that I'd post a few preliminary impressions.
Build and styling
Firstly, the cosmetics of the unit have been improved somewhat from the 840c, with the face, side plates and top plates all now with a brushed finish. The top panel now features some trapezoidal mesh vents to aid ventilation. The gray on light gray LCD panel of the 840c has been replaced by a white-on-back LCD panel that is a lot more visible from a distance. The unit feels well assembled and looks very well finished, as is commensurate with it's significantly higher price, and at 10Kg, the chassis feels substantially built.
The Cambridge Audio Azur remote is a traditionally shaped affair, but the aluminium face plate gives it a more classy, upmarket feel.
Connectivity
The rear panel of the Azur 851c is absolutely festooned with different input and output connections. It has a total of four ditigal inputs - an AES/EBU input, two other inputs with both Coax and Toslink connectors, and an asynchronous USB type-B input that can be configured for either USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 operation. Interestingly, there is a ground-lift switch for the USB input that provides for disconnection of the USB ground should a hum-loop occur. I didn't encounter any untoward noises using my SB Touch into the USB input. 24/192 is supported via Coax, and AES/EBU inputs, with 96khz on the toslink inputs.
The outputs are via either balanced or unbalanced connections, and there is also coax, optical or AES/EBU digital output from the upsampling converter. The output bitrate and depth is selectable by the user.
Other Features
The CA Azur 840C was one of the first CD players to provide digital inputs to allow other devices to make use of the upsampling DAC stage. The 851C adds a couple of new tricks:
Support for asynchronous USB 1.0/2.0 input
Switchable digital pre-amp (volume and balance) to allow direct connection to a power amp
Switchable digital filters (Linear Phase, Minimum Phase, Steep)
Custom ARM microcontroller-based CD mechanism servo controller
For all digital inputs and the CD player, the Dac stage upsamples the input to 24 bit 384Khz using the Anagram technologies ATF2 code running on a Blackfin DSP chip. The output of the upsampler and digital filter is converted to The Dac chips are Analogue Devices AD1955 chips running in a 'mono' mode. The Anagram sampler promises very low jitter of <10ps for spdif and <20ps for USB.
Sound impressions
When I first tried the player it was using my SB Touch as a digital source, initially via USB and then predominately via SP/DIF. I was using the SB Touch with Triode's enhanced digital output plug-in, which enables USB 1.0/2.0 dacs and allows for playback of 24/192 files via SP/DIF and USB. I don't use any other software or hardware mods with the SB Touch.
I listened to the following source files via the SB Touch because they are well known to me. All source files were ripped from CD to FLAC via DBPowerAmp, apart from the 2L recordings FLAC that was a download from their website.
Marc Johnson - Bass desires
Brian Bromberg - Compared to that/Wood
Donald Fagin - Morph the Cat
Chicane - Giants
Royksopp - Senior/Junior
2L records Sampler @ 24/192
I was keen to find out if the 851c worked as a USB2.0 dac with the SB Touch and the EDO plug-in. After configuring the 851C in USB 2.0 mode, it was detected immediately and worked perfectly without use of an intermediate hub.
First up was the 2L 'nordic sound' sampler. I chose this predominantly to check for any playback issues at 24/192, but I found myself enjoying the smoothness and detail of the strings, deep and wide sound stage, and presentation of the acoustic that each recording was made in. It was immediately noticeable that the presentation was neutral and balanced, but instruments and voices in the mid-range were exceptionally well deliniated, and placed within a wide and deep space. It was a little analogous to the effect of seeing actors spot-lit on the stage in that each instrument is clearly discernible within the ensemble, and for multi-track recordings any processing associated with a single multi-tracked instrument (e.g. guitar effects or vocal reverb) was clearly audible, and distinct within the overall mix. It wasn't a distraction, but I did find myself noticing new production details that were previously unnoticed despite many previous plays. Clearly the DAC was extracting a lot of information from the recordings, and seemingly adding little in terms of colouration or distortion.
The bass end of the spectrum is always something that I listen to closely, and as an ex-bassist I am very familiar with the sound of various electric and acoustic bass players and their various instruments.
Listening to Brian Bromberg's double bass on Wood was revealing in that the 'texture' of the instrument, it's woody character, the pitch and intonation and dynamics of the instrument were very well portrayed. Small details such as the odd string or fret buzz of his playing of electric bass on 'A little new old school' added significantly to the impression of realism, and the clean, delineated representation of each instrument was maintained, together with a sense that louder instruments didn't mask quieter ones, and each existed as a separate element of the composition. Interestingly, I found that this raised my appreciation of the musicians playing together as an ensemble, rather than a forensic dissection of the performance. This is quite an impressive trick. Cymbals sound clean, undistorted and have a clear sense of the brush strokes and dynamics that the drummer is employing rather than the 'enveloped white noise' impression one can often hear from digital audio.
Moving on to electronica, I found that the bass-line to Royksopp's 'The Robot' was represented with very good pitch. There is a pitch bend on some of the low notes that I often cannot hear on some systems, but hear it was very clearly listenable. The rest of the track bopped along quite snappily, but perhaps it wasn't the most dynamic or 'in-your-face' presentation that I've heard. Again, the texture and dynamic envelope of the instrument lines was clear and easy to follow which helped my enjoyment.
While listening to 'The Drug' from Senior, the sound stage was very wide and deep, and the bass growled with an appropriately dark and menacing feel. Bass power and weight was impressive, with the very low notes retaining good pitch and dynamics rather than descending into an undifferentiated lump of bass energy.
I have experimented with the different filters, and find that although the effects are fairly subtle, 'minimum phase' gave the best balance in my system, whereas linear phase made most recordings a little too 'polite' and smooth for my tastes. It did vary from recording to recording though, and it is nice to be able to tweak the presentation slightly to accommodate different moods, volume levels and recordings.
I found that listening via the USB input caused a thickening and slight loss of detail in the bass and mid that wasn't noticeable via SP/DIF. It did have a very smooth and 'analogue' sound, but I found the balance slightly dull in my system. In my system at least, I found the SP/DIF output gave a very clean, consistent and balanced sound that gave me the best of all worlds; smooth, refined, precise, and very detailed. Sound staging and imaging is very impressive, and the best that I have heard from a digital source. It is clearly better than my Audiocom-modified 840c ever was, and is altogether more detailed, sophisticated and engaging than the 840c was. The slight 'grey' character of the 840c is also missing here. The overall character of the sound is clean, crisp, and detailed, without sounding harsh or forward. Bass is impressively natural and accurate and seems to be in very good balance with the rest of the spectrum. The sound is clearly 'high-res', without being distractingly forensic in nature.
As you can see, I am really rather taken with this device, and I think that it will work well in a wide range of systems, and with a broad range of musical genres. It has an amazingly comprehensive feature set, good build quality and a refined, detailed and sophisticated sound that is certainly commensurate with it's now significant pricing. I would say that it is a high-quality product and represents very good value at it's price point. It is certainly the last CD player I ever plan to buy, and it's flexibility in integrating with other digital sources means that it is a digital jack-of-all-trades providing high quality d/a conversion for all of my digital sources and platforms. I recommend it firmly, and suggest that you put out of mind your preconceptions w.r.t the rest of Cambridge Audio 'entry-level' components. This device is a breed apart, and clearly incorporates the best of their technologies to deliver a wonderful, highly resolving, natural and balanced sound that is one of the best I have heard.
Regards,
Alex