Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Get a sneak peak at Cambridge Audio’s 2015 home theater gear

By

Last week at CES 2015, we got a sneak preview of the brand new CX series home theater lineup from the folks at Cambridge Audio. The British brand is looking to continue its mission  of creating high quality gear at an attainable price point in 2015, and with a stout lineup of new pieces, including affordable receivers and amplifiers, and a premium network player that lands just below the $1,000 water mark, it looks like this could be a good year to go Cambridge.

CXN Network player ($999)

With premium internal components, hi-res audio support, and multiple ways to go wireless, the CXN Network Music Player is a fantastic choice for those looking for a convenient method to curate their entire audio library. The system offers playback of WAV, ALAC and FLAC files at up to 24bit/192kHz resolution, and claims to upscale low resolution tracks up to an effective 24bit/384kHz resolution. Beneath the sleek brushed-aluminum exterior lies a host of premium components, including a pair of  the hallowed Wolfson WM8740 DACs for brilliant analog transference from the digital realm.

The device serves as a high-end pre-amp, and can be directly connected to an amplifier via analog outputs, either RCA or balanced XLR. Other features include an on-board LCD screen with album art display, Bluetooth streaming, and the latest version of the Cambridge Connect app for Android or iOS devices. The app offers intuitive remote control of your catalog, whether the music is hard-lined via USB, streamed from a smartphone or a UPnP media server, or auditioned from cloud services like Spotify Connect, Pandora, or other Internet radio sources. The CXN also supports AirPlay.

CXC CD Player ($499)

Going in the other direction, Cambridge’s CXC player is for those users who still like the old school playback capabilities of those shiny plastic discs. Features for the player include low-jitter playback, premium components, and clean digital output via toslink or optical connections designed for use with a premium amplifier.

CXA80 ($999) and CXA60($799) Integrated Stereo Amplifiers

At 80 and 60 watts of power per channel respectively, the A80 and A60 are designed to be the ultimate power plants to drive Cambridge’s new devices. Both units are claimed to have been designed from scratch, with new Class A/B amplifier circuitry for high efficiency. Both units are designed with separate symmetrical circuit paths to limit crosstalk between stereo channels, and the CXA80 is set up in a dual mono design, with separate transformers for each channel for ultra-clean power from each individual channel.

The A60 offers 9 inputs, including 5 analog and 4 digital, while the A80 adds an additional analog input, and an asynchronous USB input with a top input resolution of 24bit/192kHz. Both amps also send their digital input signal through a Wolfson WM8740 DAC for high-quality transference.

CXR 200 ($2,499) and CXR 120 ($1,999) AV receivers

At the top of CX heap are the CXR200 and CXR120 AV receivers. The CXR200 offers 120 watts per channel in a 7.2 output or 200 watts in stereo. The 120 offers about half the power, including 60 watts across 7.2 channels, or 120 watts in stereo. Both units offer a front panel HDMI input with MHL for mobile device connection and power, Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio decoding, as well as 4K video passthrough and upscaling of 1080p content.

Like the Network Player, both devices offer wireless access to multiple streaming services like Pandora and Spotify Connect, Bluetooth streaming, and control via the Cambridge Connect app.

The CXR200 brings on an additional HDMI input than its sibling for a total of 8, and adds on dual zone configurations, allowing for a full 5.2 channel zone two setup, or even bi-amping for front channels.

All of Cambridge’s sleek new CX series pieces are slated for availability within the first quarter of 2015.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Ryan Waniata
Ryan Waniata
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…
You have until June 9 to save $500 off an 85-inch Samsung The Frame TV
A painting being displayed on a Samsung The Frame QLED.

Looking for great TV deals? You still have time to save $500 on the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV when you head over to Samsung. It usually costs $4,300, but right now the popular and stylish TV is down to $3,800, making it more affordable than before. If you’re keen to invest in a large TV but love to save money too, this is a good opportunity. Here’s what you need to know about the TV before you decide to buy.

Why you should buy the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV
One of the best QLED TVs around, the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV is a delight in so many ways. At its core, it’s a fantastic QLED TV with 100% Color Volume with Quantum Dot technology saturating the screen with a billion colors. QLED adds a layer of quantum dots to a TV’s LED backlight with these dots, once exposed to light, emitting their own light with a high level of efficiency to provide great picture quality.

Read more
It’s your last chance to get up to $1,900 off a Samsung OLED TV
The Samsung S90C in a living room environment.

There’s still a little time left to snap up one of the best TV deals available today, with Samsung still selling the 83-inch S90C OLED TV for $3,500 instead of $5,400. The $1,900 discount is a pretty vast one and one that you certainly don’t want to skip. If you’re looking for a great new TV for your large living space, you’re going to love this deal. Let’s take a look at how great the Samsung S90C OLED TV is.

Why you should buy the Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV
Samsung makes some of the best TVs around and we’re huge fans of the Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV. It has an OLED panel so you get self-lit pixels which can light up independently of each other. That means that you can enjoy the deepest blacks and the brightest colors all on the same scene, ensuring you never miss a detail. The Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV uses a Neural Quantum Processor with 4K upscaling so its AI-powered processor can transform whatever you’re watching. There’s also HDR OLED which uses AI deep learning to analyze each scene, detecting areas that need to brighter, darker, or simply richer in color.

Read more
This Sonos Bluetooth speaker has a discount in time for beach weather
Sonos Roam SL in black on a rainy rock outdoors.

A day out at the beach. Cooking outside using a discounted grill or smoker. Pool party madness. What do they all three have in common? A lot of fun, but also a great chance to get any sound equipment ruined by a sudden downpour or a splash of inevitable water. That's why there are models of waterproof Bluetooth speakers, of which the Sonos Roam SL is one. And the good news is that you can get yours at a discounted rate before summer officially gets here. Right now, the Sonos Roam SL is just $127, which is $33 down from its typical price of $160. To get yours, all you need to do is tap the button below. Consider also reading below, as we examine the speaker and see why it is considered an easy pick up.

Why you should buy the Sonos Roam SL
The Sonos Roam SL is an easy-to-use, compact speaker for wherever you roam. Connect to it easily over Wi-Fi at home or Bluetooth on the go, giving you easy options to control the sound in a way that makes sense for you and your location. If you're at home and connected to your Wi-Fi system and have other Sonos speakers, you can even get the Sonos multi-room experience, which syncs everything in a nice way. So, you can keep the Sonos Roam SL out on the patio (where it might get rained upon) and keep the best Sonos speakers indoors and have a really cool, worry-free party experience that not many others will be able to replicate.

Read more