Company & Product History

We need to let you know up front, this truly incredible CD transport only works with the two Cambridge Audio EVO integrated music stream amplifiers, the EVO 150 and EVO 75. When Cambridge Audio first introduced the EVO lineup in 2021, we were completely blown away with that they accomplished. They gave us performance that rivaled separate components in a small all-in-one package that was not only beautiful to look at, but a lot of fun to use. We just loved the big knob and very large display on the EVO units. If you are not familiar with the EVO units and want to learn more, check out our Cambridge EVO video.

Watch our overview of the Cambridge EVO 75 & 150 >

Cambridge Audio is one of our favorite brands at Audio Advice and for good reason. Since way back in 1969, they have been making some of the best value audio gear around. It has that very neutral classic British sound that plays music in a way that really pulls you more into the performance. Their design philosophy has always been to try and minimize the number of parts in the signal path and then take that design concept and listen to different brands of the electronic parts needed to find the best sounding ones for that particular component. So it's a combination of engineering and real world listening. All of their designs are done at their facility in the UK, where their engineers have the opportunity to keep their ears fine tuned with what real music sounds like. You may wonder how they do this and it's pretty incredible and fun to think about for an audio company. Cambridge Audio hosts live music events almost every Friday afternoon at their facility in the UK. I have to say, there is really nothing like live acoustic music to reset what you think a stereo system should sound like. I think the drive Cambridge Audio has to keep pushing for the very best sound is just awesome.

Design & Build Quality

Before we talk about the EVO CD transport we should probably explain exactly what a CD transport is. A typical CD player has a CD drive system which then takes the digital signals it picks up and sends them to its built-in digital to analog converter. The CD player then converts those bits into music and outputs the music as analog audio from its output connectors. There are pretty big differences in CD players based upon how good the drive is and what quality level is there for the digital to analog converter or DAC for short.

Now, if you remove the DAC and just have a unit that spins the disc, reads the digital stream, and outputs that stream via a digital connector on the rear, you have a CD transport.

To get music, you need to connect a CD transport up to a DAC. Cambridge Audio has won numerous awards for their DAC’s over the years and spent a lot of research on the DAC’s and supporting circuitry they used in the EVO units. When we tested them, it was clear they were doing digital right.

If you own a Cambridge EVO and want to play physical CD’s I want to be clear, you do not necessarily have to use the EVO CD. You could certainly connect up a standard CD player to its analog audio inputs. Cambridge Audio makes a nice one that is not very expensive called the AXC35. Or you could go one step further and get their highly regarded CD transport called the CXC and use a digital cable from it into one of the digital inputs on your EVO.

Cambridge Audio AX vs CX Comparison >

So why would you want to get the EVO CD over say the CXC? There are several reasons. It is a perfect cosmetic match for your EVO 75 or EVO 150. Since it talks to the integrated amp, its front panel is super clean with just an open/close button. All other functions are controlled either from the EVO integrated buttons or the Stream Magic App. Another neat advantage of using the EVO CD with your EVO 150 or EVO 75 is the fact the special umbilical cable that connects the two, sends the metadata about your disc over to your EVO. Then that awesome display on your EVO pulls up the album art and more. Seeing the large album cover art and track info on the front display of your EVO is just great. But the big one is just the high quality level of the transport drawer assembly. It is all metal and looks very serious compared to the plastic CD drawers you see even on very expensive players. The drawer has two metal rods on each side that move it in and out and you can just feel its high quality when you drop a disc in. It is so good, in fact, this is the identical transport system used in the $33,000 DCS Rossini CD player and the same one used in other very expensive CD players from around the world.

Features & Technology

You might wonder how a transport can even make a difference in the sound as it's simply a device to spin the disc and read the pits on the disc to extract the digital stream. Even a $10 computer drive can do this and spit out a stream of 1’s and 0’s for a DAC to decode. And yes, that $10 transport and a very cheap DAC will create sound. The question is, how much of the sound that was present on the CD did it actually extract?

Most people may not realize it but for every second of music on a CD, there are 44,100 samples, and that is just for one channel. When the CD system was invented, the originators understood there would probably never be a disc reading device that could pick up every single sample as the disc wobbled in a tray. They developed error correction, which in simple terms tries to figure out what the sound should have been in between the missing bits.

Now if you think about it, the less error correction you have to use, the closer you are probably getting to the original digital recording.

The transport mechanism Cambridge Audio chose is an all metal construction. When you touch and feel it, you get the sense of a luxury product, but you can also rest assured it will pull more data off your CD’s than most transports. It is extremely stable which means the laser reading the pits does not have to constantly refocus. This transport also keeps the disc spinning at a very accurate speed, which again reduces read errors as it will have better data retrieval.

Cambridge Audio is really big into the support circuitry around everything in the audio signal path and they have done the same thing for the EVO. When we look at the design and how it's put together, we can say with high confidence, this is a mechanism that should give you great performance for a very long time. It is really built to last and maintain its high data retrieval level for quite a while.

Performance Testing

We tested several of our favorite tracks on the EVO CD and EVO 150 combination. There is no question, this is a state of the art CD transport. All kinds of tiny subtle details in the music came through with an effortless sense. But the thing that really grabbed our ears was how well this combo kept the music flowing with a sense of rhythm and pacing that rivaled some 20K+ CD players we have used in the past.

Overall Recommendation

We actually think it is a shame Cambridge limited this wonderful transport to just EVO integrated amp users. It is really good and if you own an EVO 150 or EVO 75 and want to hear your CD collection get as close as possible to the original recording, the EVO CD is a no brainer. We even suggested to Cambridge that they should consider coming out with a model like this that is universal, it's that good.

We hope if you are an EVO integrated amp owner and decided to add the EVO CD, you will help support our channel and purchase your unit from Audio Advice. We live and breathe home audio and home theater and our passionate team of enthusiasts are here for you should you have any set up questions about your EVO CD or any part of your system. We love helping people bring great sound into their homes.