Well, there’s been quite a pile of demonstrator/as-new/whatever boxes of Cambridge Audio piled neatly in his shop, so he suggested I try them out; no point risking me with something actually brand-new. I’m new to Cambridge, so I thought it was a reasonable idea. I hired a small semi-trailer.

When I arrived, the top amplifier, the “Azur 840A (Version 2)” in black was humming along, precariously sitting on top of some source. Each of these bits of aural fun are tested by the likely lads at his shop, after which  an almost illegible note is attached to the box outside like “slight scratch on back”, “ok”, “as knew” and other little yellow observations, which actually add up to a good way to buy stuff – as new, and tested, and cheaper-than-new. A bit like Ebay, but here you actually get to see the goods, and they actually have serial numbers.

The 840A was packed in a Yamaha box (don’t ask), and, along with various other devices in blue and white containers, I headed for home.

This week, I’ll tell you about listening to the 840A and Cambridge Audio’s am/fm tuner. To simply talk about an amplifier without some source is a bit of a mute point. Ha ha.

Unpacking is always fun, and I plugged the solid 840A into my old faithful Paradigm 100s, found my fm antenna plug, and connected everything together. Of course, I didn’t read the manuals, because life should always be an adventure. After a small period of time, nice noises appeared.

Before I go on, I really must recommend the external fm antenna. The difference between “rabbit’s ears” (poor rabbit), and a good 75 ohm run from an external fm antenna makes all the difference. You stick it up like a  tv antenna, point it towards the station you want, and the result is generally a stronger signal, and, with luck, less multipath distortion. It’s really worth the effort. You will also get a good view of your neighbours’ yards, so taking some discreet (or not) photos means the day was not at all wasted.

So, in went the fm antenna into the Cambridge Azur 340T and I tuned to a community station that I knew that used minimal signal processing. I pressed the direct button on the amp and went and made a cuppa. One waits for everything to warm up. I returned, managing to spill two-thirds of the tea onto my trousers. As I looked down I wondered why living on this earth was so imperfect.

Well, the Azure 840 drove the Paradigms unlike any other amplifier I had tried. I soon forgot about sitting in a puddle, and closed my eyes, and listened to the music. I could only agree with the reviews I had read re these Amps (and, indeed, the Paradigm speakers) and I was not disappointed. I kept thinking (as one does) how they could be better, but, ultimately I wanted to hear the music, not the specifications, and I was not aware of anything annoying, or missing. I actually doubt that I would ever need more than what this amp provided. My old amplifier sat in the corner, staring at me like some jilted lover.

Of course ( I hear you cry), an fm audio signal is not the ultimate listening source, and you are quite right. Next time, I’ll tell you how the Azur 840c (cd player) mates with the amp.

 I am very impressed with the Amp.  I am less impressed with having to hand it back.

If you have any hearing left after listening to your .mp3 player, you’ll be amazed at the Azur 840A. Music should, after all, be listened to professionally – it’s not really a game.

I have to go now, for a change of clothes and a sneak listen to Haitink’s conducting of Shostakovich’s Symphony Number Five, and then “Dark side of the Moon”.

Next time, it’ll be the 840a and the 840c combination. I might skip the tea.

For now, it’s back to the central commentary position, and Steve Neil.

Part two (28/7/2008)

After fiddling with the FM stations and their collective amateurism and occasional professionalism, I connected the Cambridge Azur 840C compact disc player. This matched the Cambridge Azur 840A amplifier in looks and size. Mr. Kneel (“we’re not worthy, we’re not worthy”) lent me a pair of Cambridge xlr connectors for the beasties. You have to have the amp and player quite close because some loony at the Cambridge factory just doesn’t get the concept of balanced inputs, and they decided to make the cables really short. Reflecting on the fm observation trials in part one, using balanced cables at a radio station tends to negate electrical noise. A lot of the amateur fm stations seem not to use them, so that’s why we are all kept amused by the sounds of the morons on air ringing their mates on their mobile phones cajoling them to listen, with the resultant chirping noises from their mobiles phones leaking through on air. I don’t complain; they amuse me; it’s often the best part of the show.

 Anyway, as you have gleaned, Cambridge should have made the cables longer. Do not be tempted to put the CD player actually on top of the amp, or vice-versa. Heated arguments might follow.

The cod player “does” up sampling, much as a lot of DVD players tend to do. But this up samples a lot. When I finished listening, I had to vacuum-clean the lounge – there were bits everywhere. Ha ha.

The sound was fabulous. Just terrific. I’ve heard SACD in the past (what an experience!), and, in a darkened room, if someone had said “here’s my latest SACD”, and played a good cd on the 840C, I would have believed them. It was that good.

But then, I heard a fault. I put on a favourite orchestral recording, and heard intermittent noises amongst the musical notes. I was about to ring Mr. Kneel (“we’re not worthy…”) when I rewound the cd and heard the same spurii in the same places. I beamed; it was the sound of the musicians turning the page. I had never heard them do that before. I suppose they have to.

So, the reviewers were actually right. The up sampling “thing” seems to work (whatever), but, since the idea of sitting there was to actually hear the music and not just look at the silver boxes, I found the sound was gorgeous, detailed, refined and a real pleasure to listen to. The idea, after all, is to absorb to the music, not collect three-dimensional boxes with little lights and knobs on them with labels underneath that are far too small to read.

Now, the common denominator in these subjective tests has been the speakers, and the environment. The speakers were the Paradigm 100s. The environment is the tricky bit. It’s not easy to changed.

 So, I rang a mate of mine who had a pair of  20-year-old Stax electrostatic headphones with an accompanying valve amplifier. This would take the speakers and the environment out of the tests. Never heard electrostatic headphones ? Never kissed a girl ? They’re sort of in the same league.

 I waited the usual half-hour for all the audio bits to get to know each other, and then put some Quincy Jones on.

 I doubt if I will ever hear a better sound from an ordinary cd. One could happily super-glue the headphones onto one’s head and simply die there. It was superlative. I temporarily forgot about Jennifer Aniston.

I sat there for many hours, hearing every note, every bus that went by the recording studio, lots of performers breathing, some edits, some changes in equalization, but, above all, I heard the music, and my collection of cds, going back to 1982, beamed at me. Our relationship was secure; it was apparently me, not them.

Back to the speakers – would I now discard them, would they disappoint, after the electrostatics? No. Not at all. They’re two different things, but both musical in their own ways. Anyway, wearing headphones was a little like being back at work.

Cambridge Azur 840a + Azur 840c ? Ten thumbs up.

 Nice. Life is short.

The phone rang. My answer machine responded.  It was Mr. Kneel, saying he had a buyer for the amp, and could I drop it around to him that afternoon, and telling me what a bastard I was, and I’m wasting my time on radio, and had I heard the new Steely Dan disc? And was I actually there ? You know, the usual thing.

I boxed the gear up, and cried a little.

Steely Dan would have sounded great.