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So after a couple of weeks of consideration and assessment that spanned from using Apple TV (that I already possess) to getting an old Airport Express, to a more vanguard streaming solution in Bluesound Node 2i, to a lateral choice of a DAP like Astell & Kern Kann, i finally decided upon the Cambridge CXN V2 streamer to add to my living room stereo system. A slight worrisome situation on stockout (and Cambridge being distributorless in India for a while) almost pushed me into buying an older CXN V1, but for providence and a very friendly and proactive dealer from Bangalore, Audio Note (Mr Palani, the owner) came to the rescue. He had a last piece of CXN V2 from previous lot that he was willing to ship to Mumbai, but figured out the new shipment was arriving in a day and instead got me one shipped directly from the new distributor in Mumbai. I can wholeheartedly recommend Mr Palani to anyone in Bangalore.
It has been one week since I added the CXN V2 to the audio chain and it seems to have burnt in now. But before I share my experience, let me tell what tilted my decision in its favour. First of all, I considered and ruled out the jugaad options like Apple TV and Airport Express as I realised I wanted no compromise in usability or quality of sound. Especially with high res streaming like Tidal I wanted something that didn’t depend on AirPlay, but had native support. That left me with options like Bluesound Node 2i, CXN V2 and Elac Discovery. The last was a bit over my budget as well as I gathered it’s software wasn’t that friendly. Of course Elac comes with Roon essentials. I took a trial of Roon and didn’t like it, so the feature wasn’t of relevance to me. Elac seemingly has best sound of the three, but CXN was close as I gathered from reviews. Bluesound was attractive at its price point, but the average DAC would have meant I’d have had to keep using my Schiit Bifrost DAC. On the other hand with Cambridge CXN V2 I could used the analog output and release my Schiit back to my desktop system (with the Valhalla 2 and Beyerdynamic T1). The price difference over Bluesound (roughly 30k) was thus easily justified. Also, I was getting two features that meant a lot to me. One, the display screen - and I am quite hooked onto it - esp when you play natively. And secondly the wonderful jog dial - it’s just takes the user experience into a different league for me. With the dial and the screen I interact more with the equipment, something I love to do. Another advantage the CXN had over Bluesound was that it played internet radio natively. The Bluesound was dependent upon the Tune In app over iPad/iPhone. I can’t think of operating a radio from a tablet - the CXN allows me to play it just like a radio - through the jog dial or the remote control. I wanted something that could transport me back to the Worldspace days, and how well it has been able to! Of course I had to let go of Tidal MQA as CXN doesn’t have MQA decoder, but based on Tidal trial (have posted my experience in another thread) I didn’t find the improvement over FLAC/CD quality as significant and relevant (most of the music I like is from 60s to 90s and not much of it is available in MQA).
So how has it been using the CXN v2 so far? A delight! in short. Nothing less. Let me first start with the installation. It was breeze getting it connected both wired and wifi (I prefer using wired for stable connection) and setting up the Cambridge Connect app and pointing it to the Tidal and Spotify a/cs (both played natively, the latter via Spotify Connect).
Coming to the sound, while it showed promise on day one, it has completely opened up in a week’s time (about 50 hr of run in) and I can attest that the sound is better than that from my Schiit Bifrost DAC (when connected to the same source - the Cambridge CXC transport). The Schiit’s soundstage is a tad better, but the CXN trumps it in both tonal quality and the frequency range. The Schiit had a higher roll off in comparison as my ears tell me. Some of you with brighter systems might find the brightness accentuated, but it well complemented my otherwise warmer chain of Lyrita DHT pre, Audiolab 8200A (poweramp mode) and the Castle Knight 2 speakers.
As for the streaming, Spotify Connect takes to the CXN like fish to water. I could easily see how Spotify 320 sound run natively was distinctively better than the Apple Music played over AirPlay (there’s no native Apple Music support on any steamer to my knowledge). Tidal of course is native and runs with absolutely no lag, even when you scrub the songs. I am quite happy with their FLAC quality and am glad that I wouldn’t need to buy as many CDs as I used to. That itself should pay off the CXN in a year or two.
What takes the cake though is the Internet Radio. The CXN allows you to scan the tens of thousands of radio stations out there with a good enough navigation over the jogdial and screen, made further easier through the CA Connect app on the iPad. In about 3 days I also discovered and added the 7-8 FLAC radio streams available (most notably Radio Paradise) as well as some high quality compressed streams like Linn and Naim Radio to the 20 presents. Believe me when I say that you wouldn’t be able to make out I am streaming them when you hear them being played on the system unless you did a A/B comparison with the CD. Not just the FLAC streams, but even the 128-320 kbps ones - the CXN’s polynomial upsampling surely removes the edginess of the compressed mp3 and makes it sound much better than otherwise.
I am not looking at it for playing the ripped files, but I could get it easily to play files on a external hard disk connected via the USB port. It has all the possible inputs and outputs you’d need.
As for improvements possible, I feel Cambridge can easily improve the feature of the CA Connect app, let’s see if they do through the firmware upgrades to bridge the gap with Bluesound OS. But even without that this is definitely a far superior streamer. If you are looking for a streamer that doesn’t look geeky and goes well with your hi-fi deck and have budget around 80-90k, the CXN could very well be in your consideration. It has consistently been getting best reviews (both expert and user) since the V1 version and you can’t go much wrong. There good possibility that you’d be delighted with it like I am. Here’s leaving you with some pics.
It has been one week since I added the CXN V2 to the audio chain and it seems to have burnt in now. But before I share my experience, let me tell what tilted my decision in its favour. First of all, I considered and ruled out the jugaad options like Apple TV and Airport Express as I realised I wanted no compromise in usability or quality of sound. Especially with high res streaming like Tidal I wanted something that didn’t depend on AirPlay, but had native support. That left me with options like Bluesound Node 2i, CXN V2 and Elac Discovery. The last was a bit over my budget as well as I gathered it’s software wasn’t that friendly. Of course Elac comes with Roon essentials. I took a trial of Roon and didn’t like it, so the feature wasn’t of relevance to me. Elac seemingly has best sound of the three, but CXN was close as I gathered from reviews. Bluesound was attractive at its price point, but the average DAC would have meant I’d have had to keep using my Schiit Bifrost DAC. On the other hand with Cambridge CXN V2 I could used the analog output and release my Schiit back to my desktop system (with the Valhalla 2 and Beyerdynamic T1). The price difference over Bluesound (roughly 30k) was thus easily justified. Also, I was getting two features that meant a lot to me. One, the display screen - and I am quite hooked onto it - esp when you play natively. And secondly the wonderful jog dial - it’s just takes the user experience into a different league for me. With the dial and the screen I interact more with the equipment, something I love to do. Another advantage the CXN had over Bluesound was that it played internet radio natively. The Bluesound was dependent upon the Tune In app over iPad/iPhone. I can’t think of operating a radio from a tablet - the CXN allows me to play it just like a radio - through the jog dial or the remote control. I wanted something that could transport me back to the Worldspace days, and how well it has been able to! Of course I had to let go of Tidal MQA as CXN doesn’t have MQA decoder, but based on Tidal trial (have posted my experience in another thread) I didn’t find the improvement over FLAC/CD quality as significant and relevant (most of the music I like is from 60s to 90s and not much of it is available in MQA).
So how has it been using the CXN v2 so far? A delight! in short. Nothing less. Let me first start with the installation. It was breeze getting it connected both wired and wifi (I prefer using wired for stable connection) and setting up the Cambridge Connect app and pointing it to the Tidal and Spotify a/cs (both played natively, the latter via Spotify Connect).
Coming to the sound, while it showed promise on day one, it has completely opened up in a week’s time (about 50 hr of run in) and I can attest that the sound is better than that from my Schiit Bifrost DAC (when connected to the same source - the Cambridge CXC transport). The Schiit’s soundstage is a tad better, but the CXN trumps it in both tonal quality and the frequency range. The Schiit had a higher roll off in comparison as my ears tell me. Some of you with brighter systems might find the brightness accentuated, but it well complemented my otherwise warmer chain of Lyrita DHT pre, Audiolab 8200A (poweramp mode) and the Castle Knight 2 speakers.
As for the streaming, Spotify Connect takes to the CXN like fish to water. I could easily see how Spotify 320 sound run natively was distinctively better than the Apple Music played over AirPlay (there’s no native Apple Music support on any steamer to my knowledge). Tidal of course is native and runs with absolutely no lag, even when you scrub the songs. I am quite happy with their FLAC quality and am glad that I wouldn’t need to buy as many CDs as I used to. That itself should pay off the CXN in a year or two.
What takes the cake though is the Internet Radio. The CXN allows you to scan the tens of thousands of radio stations out there with a good enough navigation over the jogdial and screen, made further easier through the CA Connect app on the iPad. In about 3 days I also discovered and added the 7-8 FLAC radio streams available (most notably Radio Paradise) as well as some high quality compressed streams like Linn and Naim Radio to the 20 presents. Believe me when I say that you wouldn’t be able to make out I am streaming them when you hear them being played on the system unless you did a A/B comparison with the CD. Not just the FLAC streams, but even the 128-320 kbps ones - the CXN’s polynomial upsampling surely removes the edginess of the compressed mp3 and makes it sound much better than otherwise.
I am not looking at it for playing the ripped files, but I could get it easily to play files on a external hard disk connected via the USB port. It has all the possible inputs and outputs you’d need.
As for improvements possible, I feel Cambridge can easily improve the feature of the CA Connect app, let’s see if they do through the firmware upgrades to bridge the gap with Bluesound OS. But even without that this is definitely a far superior streamer. If you are looking for a streamer that doesn’t look geeky and goes well with your hi-fi deck and have budget around 80-90k, the CXN could very well be in your consideration. It has consistently been getting best reviews (both expert and user) since the V1 version and you can’t go much wrong. There good possibility that you’d be delighted with it like I am. Here’s leaving you with some pics.
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, I am not much of a believer in a run-in for a pure solid state device like your CXN and probably more to do with your brain getting used to the new sound.
