|
Clive
Robertson Reviews HiFi
Clive has
been a long time supporter of Eastwoood HiFi and consequently
gets the occasional nod from Steve to be able to take home
various goodies to play with. As a longtime music fanatic with
over a zillion CD's and SACD's hidden away in the vaults, we
know of no one more qualified to assess the ability of sound
reproduction equipment objectively. Having been the morning
presenter on ABC FM, Clive's knowledge of Classical music is
encyclopedic although he also has a penchant for Deep Purple,
Eric Clapton and other icons of the 60's and 70's. Here is the
first, in what we hope to be of many, reviews.
Review 1 -
11/7/2008
Cambridge Audio – Clive Robertson has a play.
very now and then I’m
pleased to borrow some nice hi-fi gear from Mr. Neil, when he’s
feeling generous or when I’m looking particularly disheveled ,
or more-than-usually pathetic. It’s probably his way of getting
me out of the shop before anyone else actually sees me.
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.
|