Cambridge Audio CXU user review

  • My Thoughts on the Cambridge Audio CXU

    Forget the Oppo's, this is the one to own if you want a player that is extraordinarily good sounding on audio discs AND is amazingly good with both DVD and BluRay video discs. I have an Oppo BDP-95D and the CXU is significantly better with audio and slightly better with video than my Oppo BDP-95D.

    Initially, I was leaning towards the Oppo BDP-105D and I almost ordered one, but I'm glad I waited. One reason Oppo discontinued the 1xx series players was that MediaTek, the vendor for one of the chips in the 105D, ceased production of the chip they were supplying to Oppo. This chip provided HDCD decoding for the 105D (and all the other Oppo models).

    HDCD decoding for HDCD encoded discs is important to me. Almost all Joni Mitchell and Grateful Dead CD's are HDCD encoded. And many artists (The Doors, The Rippingtons, Willie Nelson, among others) continue to release HDCD encoded CD's, but they are often not flagged as an HDCD disc. So what's the big deal about HDCD? Well, the HDCD encoding process adds an additional 4 bits of information to a CD. Standard Redbook CD's are 16 bit discs (16/44), but HDCD discs are 20 bit discs (20/44), and these extra bits add additional dynamic range to the recording. The result (IMHO) equals the sound quality of a SACD (Super Audio CD). And I hear no loss of sound quality if I play back an HDCD disc on a good non-HDCD player: The disc sounds like any other Redbook 16/44 CD. Microsoft bought the rights to HDCD several years ago but they've made no effort to market it to the major music labels.

    When I made the decision to add a newer player to my system I wanted a player that sounded good with music. About 75% of my listening is to Redbook CD's, some HDCD's, and a small number of SACD's and DVD-Audio discs. The other 25% is used to view DVD and BluRay movies.

    No one in my area (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) had any Oppo BDP-105D's left in stock, but I found a couple of on-line retailers that had a few 105D's. I liked everything about the Oppo BDP-105D: I have their BDP-95D, and an older Oppo DV-970HD and and an Oppo DV-981D, and they have been fantastic machines. I've never had a problem and Oppo's customer service is legendary. And the 105D has the ESS Sabre 9018 DAC chip which is one of the best available. And the 105D has received stellar reviews for both its audio sound quality and its video playback.

    [NOTE: I believe it was a fair comparison to match the stereo output of the Oppo BDP-95 against the stereo output of the Cambridge Audio CXU. An Oppo engineer told me the stereo output circuit in the BDP-95 was identical to the stereo output circuit in the BDP-105D.]

    I was about to order the Oppo, but then I read a review of the Cambridge Audio CXU in "What HiFi," a British publication. They gave the CXU very high praise in their review, and they noted both the audio reproduction and the video playback was BETTER than Oppo's BDP-105D, which they had previously reviewed. I then did more digging in various Internet audio and video news groups and forums, and I found many people who thought the CXU sounded better on music and was slightly better on video when compared to Oppo's BDP-105D and BDP-95D. The only negatives people noted with the CXU were: (1) No headphone jack; (2) No balanced XLR outputs; and (3) No Netflix app, and general criticism for the few apps that came with the CXU. None of these were important to me. I have a separate headphone amp for headphone listening, I don't use balanced XLR connections in my system, and an inexpensive Roku device provides NetFlix and many more apps than any universal player on the market.

    Since music (and HDCD decoding) is important to me, I took a chance and ordered the CXU from Amazon. I would be able to compare it to my Oppo BDP-95D, and if the CXU disappointed me, I was going to return it and order the Oppo BDP-105D. About two months have gone by and the CXU is a keeper! Music and film soundtracks on the CXU are more realistic, the CXU has more depth and "soundstage," and the CXU sounds much less digital than the BDP-95. Even my wife noticed the difference, and she began pulling some of her CD's out of our collection for me to play.

    I'm not sure how Cambridge Audio is able to get such great sound out of the CXU. The CXU uses five Wolfson 24 bit WM8740 DAC's (Wolfson has newer DAC chips that could have been used), and the CXU upsamples all data before it is sent to the Wolfson DAC's. Cambridge Audio says this upsampling reduces jitter and latency. And the CXU uses these five Wolfson DAC's for music decoding versus a single ESS 32 bit 9018 Sabre DAC used both by the Oppo BDP-105D and the BDP-95 for stereo music decoding. So the Oppo should sound better than the CXU since it uses a newer 32 bit ESS 9018 Sabre DAC versus the older 24 bit WM8749 DAC used in the CXU. But it doesn't: Music (and film soundtracks) sound much more real on the CXU than on the BDP-95D, and the superior sound quality of the CXU trumps the Oppo BDP-95D.

    All of you know Oppo is now selling 4K players. The Oppo UDP-203 is the replacement for the BDP -103D and Oppo's UHD-205 is the replacement for the BDP-105D is coming soon. I've not read any reviews yet of either of the new Oppo's, but they DO NOT decode HDCD. So they are not something I will buy. And I'm not convinced 4K Ultra High definition BluRay discs have a future. More people are streaming, more 4K streaming content is becoming available, and physical media sales continue to decline. And Hollywood is now asking retailers to stock THREE versions of popular movies: (1) 4K UHD BluRay; (2) "Regular" BluRay; and (3) Standard DVD. And the new 4K UHD BluRay's are not cheap. This is an untenable business model and I don't think the new 4K UHD BluRay's have a future. Most average customers can barely tell the difference between a DVD and a BluRay of the same movie, and there is not that much difference between a 4K UHD BluRay and a regular BluRay unless you have a 4K projector and a high-definition screen (both are quite expensive) or a 70" or larger 4K UHD TV. IMO, the market will slowly grow for 4K UHD streaming content, but I think the future for expensive 4K UHD BluRay physical media is bleak.

    Cambridge Audio uses the same MediaTek chip set in the CXU that Oppo used in their BDP-1xx series and their BDP-9x series players, so once they go through their remaining inventory of MediaTek chips, they will have to have a replacement for the CXU. The retail price of the CXU has been lowered in England (their home base) as well as in the US. This suggests to me that they, like Oppo, are discontinuing the CXU because the MediaTek chip set with HDCD decoding was discontinued.

    The Cambridge Audio CXU is a really good unit. It has the best video performance of any standard BluRay player on the market, and its audio quality is extraordinary. I believe you would have to spend more than $20,000 on a CD player (yes, there are some that cost this much, and more) to get something that sounded at least as good on music. Buy one while they are still available! As always, YMMV. :rockon::rockon::rockon::rockon::rockon:
    This item was purchased for $749.00 from Amazon in 2017 . The reviewer still owns this product.

    Pros

    • Superb audio quality playing back CDs, HDCDs, SACDs, and DVD-Audio discs.
    • Excellent video playback of DVDs and standard BluRays.

    Cons

    • No headphone output.
    • Very few on-line apps available.

    Scores

    10
    10
    10
    5
    10
    9
    10

    Comments

    I tried to buy a CXU but the Richer Sounds salesman put me off saying they had many problems with the player which could not be resolved. Price is now £629 for an ex display one, yet some time ago they were selling new ones for £499 ?
     
    I won a CXU in a magazine competition, at a time they were going for £900 retail! Considered replacing my Oppo 95 with it, but the XLR connections (ironically to a Cambridge 851A Amp) and the Oppo's dedicated Android app persuaded me to put the CXU in my loft room system instead. However, I can't fault its performance with either BDs or music. Have had absolutely NO problems with its operation either. If I'd known how good it is, not had one already, and seen it at £499, I'd have snapped it up!
     
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Cambridge Audio CXU

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Vinyl Rules
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