Cambridge CXN V2 – Does it actually do everything?

Cambridge Audio, a brand constantly moving forward!

Brought up on HiFi of the 70’s and 80’s, Cambridge wasn’t a brand that featured in my ‘audio learnings’. This was probably due to the fact that it was flailing, with ‘revolving’ ownership and somewhat rudderless. I’m not even sure the brand was imported into Australia at that time. Wow, how things have changed! The rudder was reattached in 1994, with the purchase of the Cambridge Audio label by Audio Partnership. Since that day, Cambridge has moved forward with an ever-expanding range of quality, affordable stereo gear. This growth occurred at a time when it seemed other brands were beginning to flail.

Cambridge currently offers four product ranges, kicking off with the entry level Topaz range of CD players, amplifiers and receivers. The range tops out with the ‘Edge’ pre streamer, an integrated amplifier and a power amplifier. The CX range sits in the lower middle, representing perhaps the most sound quality for the least bucks. The CX range consists of two integrated amplifiers, the CXA61 and CXA81; a CD transport known as the CXC; and the streamer being reviewed here, the CXN. I should also mention that the CXN I’m testing is the latest version, V2.

The CXN has been around in one form or another for many years. Cambridge got in early on the idea of removing the PC from the listening space but keeping the advantages it brings. Initially the NP30 waved the flag for Cambridge branded streaming. A year or two later it was followed by the bigger chassis sized Stream Magic 6, and then in quick succession, the first version of the CXN. Cambridge have had 10 years to hone the performance of this product and is now highly featured and rather slick.

What does it do?

The short answer is, a lot! You can play music the following ways –

1) External digital sources such as a CD player, DVD player, TV sound or a PC. As per a normal DAC via Coaxial, Optical or USB inputs.

2) Internet radio.

3) Stream subscription services such as Spotify and Tidal, with Tidal being controlled within the Cambridge app, known as ‘StreamMagic’.

4) Stream your own digital files from either a USB stick or USB HDD, or over your local network (files stored on a PC or NAS) connected either with ethernet or wirelessly.

5) Airplay, Chromecast and Roon capability or compatibility is also on offer.

6) Bluetooth is an ‘option’ with the addition of a Cambridge BT100 USB plug-in dongle. The BT100 will in fact plug into various other Cambridge Audio products and add BT functionality (including AptX compatibility). Having previously tested one and finding it to work perfectly I didn’t try one with the CXN during this review. I assume Cambridge have made this an optional plug-in unit for two reasons. One could be that a Bluetooth transceiver needs to be in a plastic housing and the CXN is crafted from pressed steel, making it very hard for radio waves to escape. The second possibility being that Chromecast and Airplay offer improved fidelity making Bluetooth somewhat redundant. There are few households where a CXN might live that will not have a WiFi network and in turn the residents phones will almost certainly be connected to it. This makes Chromecast and Airplay the best solutions to get music out of your phone or tablet and into a HiFi system.

7) It has the option of a variable output, effectively making it a digital pre-amp. This output is either via unbalanced RCA connectors or balanced XLR connectors. The digital outputs can not be made variable, so perhaps it’s not a ‘true’ digital pre amp? You can either use the CXN with an integrated amplifier such as the CXA81 OR in fact, with a simple power-amp. This then allows you to build an all-in-one system (but in 2 boxes so not all-in-one at all, really). If you were to use the power amplifier option, you would take advantage of the variable output function. This combination would end up being physically larger than say the Naim Atom, but would require a smaller cash investment.

In fact the only downside to playback compatibility I can think of is the lack of FM radio or any analogue inputs of any kind.

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You can control the CXN V2 in many different ways. In a very old school way, you can drive it from the front panel using the sometimes volume knob as a curser controller and enter button in one (the knob pushes in for enter). The built-in screen shows the menu. The handful of buttons surrounding this display allow functions to be accessed that the main knob can’t handle such as ‘return’, ‘home’ etc. I can report that these front panel controls work flawlessly, even allowing very easy inputting of WiFi passwords. A similar result could also be achieved with the supplied remote control handpiece. This remote has plenty of buttons, also allowing control of other CX series components and has a nice feel and quality look to it. There is also the Android and iOS compatible app, known as ‘StreamMagic’.

The Stream Magic app

This app ‘thing’, is where many brands have failed in their attempts at creating an intuitive and enjoyable streaming experience. Cambridge have been updating and improving their control apps since the Stream Magic 6 streamer was released approximately ten years ago. I reckon they now have it working rather well (not that it was ever truly bad). I installed the StreamMagic app on my iPad mini and my now rather old iPhone 6s without trouble. Apologies to those in the Android camp, but my previous experience with this app would suggest that Androids also work well. Functions-wise you can control pretty much everything from the app including all the settings. Inputs can be selected on one page, the next offers up a stack of internet radio stations. and the search function allows you to find the other 68,000 not displayed by default. Another page shows all your media sources such as Tidal or a NAS drive and these are also just a click away.

Once a file or radio station is playing, clicking at the bottom of the screen pops up another window offering transport controls. A swipe left or right brings up either a volume control or the ‘queue’ options. For me this is where the app is a little less than intuitive.

In the end I feel I got into the head of the Cambridge software engineers, by treating the main music selection menu as just that. You select tracks to add to the queue, then enter the queue (pop up menu and swipe right) and select what you want to actually play. Otherwise, when a song ends it jumps back to the last item in the queue, rather than the next track of the album. This is bloody annoying as you probably just listened to the last item in the queue. However, it makes complete sense once you understand it. It’s really only the difference between ordering chicken at KFC versus Red Rooster.

I suggest clicking on the app screen-shot gallery below for further notes on the ins and outs of this highly featured app. It worked perfectly 99% of the time. The only time the app lost it’s way was when the music stopped, causing the CXN to sleep (20 minute setting) and my iPad was locked. The fix was nothing more than closing the app and re-starting. It’s hardly surprising really under those circumstances when everything has ‘gone-to-sleep’. I think Cambridge’s IT team have done a great job and I imagine they are working on a fix (if it even needs one). At the time of writing there have been more than 10 revisions of the Stream Magic app in the last year or so. Some of these updates are because of feature additions but clearly they are are keen to get it right and are responding to users issues.

BUT there is now a further option available to control your CXN V2 and improve the listening experience at the same time – ROON !

I know Roon exists, I have heard it mentioned in audio circles many times, always seemingly in a positive light but I have not dabbled with it, at all. I feel it has been an obvious gap in my HiFi knowledge and experience so here goes!. The time is now to investigate this all-conquering, music-streaming and multi-room control system. What is it? How does it work? More importantly in the context of this article, how does it work with the Cambridge CXN V2. Well here goes! ……….. I think within minutes, I had signed up with Roon, downloaded the software and installed it. I installed the ‘core’ software on the very laptop I am typing on now, pointed it towards my folder of FLAC files, logged into my tidal account and ta-da! Roon found the CXN immediately and I had sweet music playing. There was some confusion regarding the variable volume output (Roon considers it’s volume range as 0 – 30 versus the Stream Magic app’s 0 – 100). I rate the whole Roon experience as 10 out of 10 for integration, simplicity and the interface. I guess I have joined the ranks of Roon fans just like that. Yet another subscription in my life, of $12.99 per month…

Check out this gallery of StreamMagic app pics and comments.

And the sound?

What’s not to like? A very slightly warm balance with a shred less detail and clarity up top than some much more expensive competitors. Or is it that the competitors shine an unrealistically bright light on the top end, that doesn’t actually exist in the real world of live musical instruments? I tested it in a variety of ways attempting to discover where the limitations, if any, might reside. I didn’t have another ‘competitor’ as such handy but I did have a well-known do-everything all-in-one streamer/DAC/amplifier on hand. It sells for 3-4 times as much as the Cambridge and you would expect it to maybe wipe the floor with the CXN, but this didn’t happen. In fact, feeding the digital output of the Cambridge into the coaxial digital input of the all-in-one (Naim Star) and using the Naim’s DAC while comparing Tidal tracks was illuminating. So, effectively one streamer’s digital-out versus another. Although, being in the same box, the Naim may have held a small advantage in some kind of obscure, digital-timing kind of way.

As a bit of a believer in ones and zeros being uncorruptable, I shouldn’t be surprised that for me the two sources sounded exactly the same! On the other hand, my belief is often crushed by what I can easily hear. One example was playing High Resolution files from a USB stick. Initially I tested it with the stick in the CXN. I switched between the analogue output and digital out with both plugged through the Naim’s respective inputs. What I heard was very high quality sound. However, when using the Naim’s digital in and therefore it’s DAC, there was a slight improvement in clarity and focus across the spectrum. I then plugged the thumb drive directly into the Naim, in effect comparing the drives through the Naims DAC. Playing the same files I was surprised to hear the sound became somewhat more focused with the stick playing in the Naim. Further evidence that my quite shakey belief in ones and zeros being always, well ones and zeros, is flawed. HiFi life would be so simple if it wasn’t this complicated!

So the USB drive input in the CXN sounds great but bizarrely not as good as the Naim one? I suspect this difference is down to some kind of sampling/bit rate, up-sampling, down-sampling hocus pocus. I moved on, to try other inputs… A pattern developed with the CXN’s ‘sound’ being of a very slightly ‘mellow’ nature.

I also spent some time checking out sound quality with the USB streaming audio input. For me this is a pretty clumsy way to enjoy music, but there is the potential for first class sound from High Bitrate files. It took an hour or so of fiddling around installing the type 2.0 USB driver and finding the setting in the menu, (where you flick the USB from type 1.0 to type 2.0). I then installed Foobar (for the first time in 15 years, but it looks the same) and configured it and the ASIO driver etc, blah blah, blah. The results were less than amazing. I wrote the whole experiment off as an old world solution that almost no one is going to bother with anymore. I’m going to guess USB streaming works rather better with a Mac than my Windows 10 laptop. What I did hear didn’t match up with playing the same files off a thumb drive. A thumb drive is so simple. Just drop some files on the drive, plug it in to the front and play via the app. It all happens flawlessly. My guess is that the high-resolution-audio capabilities of Roon eclipse anything USB streaming offers and in a solution where the computer doesn’t need rack space next to the CXN.

I tested the internet radio and found it to be the equal of anything else I have ever used for this task. The inbuilt DAC will be an upgrade for many sub $1000 CD players too, judging by what I heard.

So to summarise my thoughts on the sound quality of the CXN V2.

The much more expensive Naim is just a touch more focused. The music appears to arrive off a slightly darker background, has a slightly more dynamic nature to it and is perhaps a smidge cleaner. The difference between it and the CXN is so small that there is no way in a blind test I could pick it every time. The reality is unless your system is a sporting a seriously first class pair of speakers and a pretty fancy amp you shouldn’t concern yourself. As a percentage of the difference between two very good loudspeakers, the difference here is a tenth or less. Most readers’ systems will have far bigger issues to resolve before this tiny difference becomes ‘the’ issue stopping a lot of listening enjoyment.

So overall in regard to the sound its a solid 9 out of 10 without even considering the price. I now fully understand why the Cambridge CXN V2 is a big seller. It’s a first class, reliable all-rounder with incredibly pleasant sound. In fact, it does seem to do, everything! Happy Listening!

Click on any image above to enter the gallery and enjoy high resolution images of the Cambridge CXN V2.

• For – An extremely competent, fully featured, terrific sounding all-rounder.
• For – Rather nicely made good looking piece that could blend into almost any existing system aesthetically.
• For – Incredibly easy to use. In the time honored male fashion I didn’t read a single instruction except when trying to get the USB streaming audio up and running.
• For – Great upgradability in a number or directions – The balanced analogue outs, the ability to use it as a pre amp, the Roon compatibility, to name a few.
• Against – App is not the most intuitive or prettiest but it ultimately does the job very well.
• Against – USB streaming audio config is tricky with a windows PC but who cares when Roon is wiping the floor with such olde worlde-ness.
• Against – No Bluetooth may annoy some in certain situations. The add-on BT100 dongle will resolve this though.
• Against – Nothing else.
• Dimensions – 430mm wide x 85mm high x 325 deep including front panel knob and rear sockets that sit proud.
• Weight – 5.5kgs.
• Price – $2099.
• Optional BT100 Bluetooth Adapter – Price $199.
• Imported and distributed in Australia by – Synergy Audio Visual
• Tested with – Falcon Acoustics Silver Badge LS3/5A, mounted on SQ402 stands, Naim Star and music from – 10 Hot Demo Tracks