It's a nicely made bit of kit too, with a machined-metal chassis that feels solid and a design than matches the rest of Cambridge Audio's impressive CX range, including a streamer and integrated stereo amplifier. The natural question then becomes, ‘why would anyone want to buy “half” a CD player?’ The answer is similar to the reasons why people buy separate preamps and power amps instead of integrated amplifiers. Part of it is sound quality and part of it is flexibility. In theory, the CD transport and separate DAC each has a dedicated power supply instead of being shared and there will be less interference (noise) affecting each unit. Of course, theory is theory and reality is reality. Yes, a CD transport and separate DAC may indeed sound better than a one box CD player, just as a separate preamp and power amp can sound better than an integrated amplifier; but in audio, there are rarely absolutes. A short digression here: quite often I have found a CD copied to CDR via either a pc or a dedicated SCSI duplicator to sound better than an original, example Chandos 9785 Organ and Orchestra in Liverpool Cathedral. With the CXC there is no difference between a copy and original. I don't pretend to be an expert in computers, but it seems to me that the interpolation routines and reading ability of pc's are usually better than those of most CD players. This difference was not only heard on the Jolida but on two Meridian players also.

Using this separate bit of kit to do one specific job makes for better sound quality. There’s a real musicality here that can get lost on lesser players, with organic, fluid interplay between instruments. Although the CXC is restricted to doing one thing – it only reads CDs, not SACDs or MP3 CDs – it does that one thing very well. The key features that make this product best in your eyes for your extreme taste in music are described as follows. Optimised for operation with other Cambridge Audio CX series devices, but works fine outside that environment Arcam A39 – good, but compared to the Roksan seem a little medicore. Not much separating them really, and cant describe it as bad, just not exceptional.When you open the box, the elegant designs of this masterpiece CD player make you its fan. The quality material used in its construction doesn’t let the spot of oil or stain stay on it.

For customer satisfaction surveys and to allow us to improve your experience should you need support from one of our experts; If you want to stop receiving marketing from us (sometimes called "opting out"), you can do so at any time by: Insofar as a CD transport contributes to (or detracts from) sound quality, audio quality was top notch While streaming undoubtedly has the convenience factor compared to physical media, many of us still prefer owning a physical object – something that digital files can't replicate. And that's why we still regularly review CD players and CD transports, and have done so ever since 1983.

Using the Cambridge Audio CXC CD transport

Denon 3910 CD | HD-CD | SACD | DVD-A |DVD player (connected via digital coax and Audio out RCA to compare Denon’s Burr-Brown and CXA60’s Wolfson DACs)