Company & Product Overview

This article is on a new streamer from Cambridge Audio, the CXN100. Cambridge Audio has been around for over 50 years and has become a favorite brand at Audio Advice. The CXN100 is an update on their multi-year award-winning previous streamer, the CXNV2.

Their very first product, the P40 was an integrated amplifier that used a toroidal power transformer, which was very unique at the time. This type of transformer is used in the highest-end electronics of today.

Cambridge Audio specializes in making great-sounding gear for the money, which is one reason they continue to win awards year after year. Their sound is like that of a lot of the great British gear, very natural, with an outstanding sense of rhythm and pacing. But what is impressive about Cambridge is how they pull this off at such moderate price points. One of their secrets is to keep the circuitry the signal passes through to a minimum and both test and carefully listen to different circuit designs. Another is the engineering facility has live music on most Friday afternoons which keeps the team totally in tune with how music should really sound.

Unlike some companies just getting into streaming, Cambridge Audio has been into it far longer than most and they have also developed a great control app called Stream Magic.

Another cool part about the new CXN100 is the fact it is not only a streamer but can be a full-function digital preamp with multiple inputs, Bluetooth, Chromecast, Airplay and it even has balanced audio outs. Many people will just add a power amp, set the output to variable, and have a great setup.

Design & Build Quality

The CXN100 is your typical size but with one cool twist. There is an arched bottom which gives it a neat floating look in your audio system.

The front panel has a large display with some control buttons, but most users will use their smartphone for everything. However, we do like the fact that, unlike some other units, you can quickly just use the volume control or the buttons to play, pause, or skip.

Cambridge Audio continues their feature of printing the names of all the connections both right side up and upside down on the rear panel so you can easily read them if you are leaning over the unit, a very thoughtful touch.

The CXN100 was designed and engineered in the UK and assembled in a factory in China they have used for a very long time. Build quality is top-notch. While it is not what you would see in a $10,000+ product, it is very impressive how they think about things. Fit and finish is very good, but when we popped the cover, we were really impressed.

All of the audio and digital boards are several inches away from the front panel display to reduce any noise pickup. The power supply board is totally separate and is as far away from the audio side of the main board as possible. The digital and audio boards could easily be something you would see in a $5,000 unit and all of the audio connections are directly connected to the board.

Features & Technology

The CXN100, like its predecessor, abounds in great features. Stream Magic has really progressed and now covers the three major high-resolution audio streaming services: Qobuz, Tidal with MQA, and Deezer. It also has Spotify and many more. The app has improved so much in its rich search functions, it almost rivals our favorite Roon, and unlike Roon, it is free. If you can’t find an obscure streaming app, you can easily send your music over via Bluetooth aptX HD, Airplay2, or Chromecast. And if you are a Roon fan, it's ready to go.

Roon: Everything You Need To Know

The rear panel sports a lot of possibilities with either hard wired or wireless ethernet, a coax and Toslink digital input, a USB input for computer audio, and a USB input for a USB drive or stick with your music files. You also get Toslink and coax digital outs should you wish to use it as a streamer with a better DAC you might already own, although it will need to be a very good one as the DAC in the CXN100 is first class.

One thing we do wish it had is a headphone jack, which would come in handy if you are using it as a digital preamp or on your desktop.

The other great thing is the fact it has in addition to the RCA outputs, a pair of balanced audio outs for higher-end systems. Balanced cable connections inherently keep noise the cables might pick up to zero, and we recommend them when they are available.

If you are going to use the CXN100 as a digital streamer/preamp they have really improved the way the volume control operates. The older model had 30 steps from soft to loud, while the new CXN100 has 100, making fine-tuning of volume level far easier.

Internet radio is becoming more and more popular and it used to be pretty low res in terms of audio quality. A few years back a new streaming tech was developed called DASH. This allows internet radio stations to stream at the same bitrate as Spotify at 320Kbps, which gives us much better sound quality than before. And the cool part about internet radio is there are thousands of stations all over the world you can pick from with more and more adopting DASH, including the BBC.

The DAC in the CXN100 is a big jump from the predecessor with more hi-res audio capability. Right now, this would only apply to digital files, but the ESS9028Q2M used can handle rates up to 32bit/768k and can process DSD512, so those of you with very high res files you have purchased will be able to get everything out of them.

The CXN100 supports a wide range of audio formats, including ALAC, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, DSD (x512), WMA, MP3, AAC, HE AAC, AAC+, and OGG Vorbis.

When Cambridge Audio sets out to design a product, once they have the specifications for the parts needed, they will do listening tests on different vendors' parts that meet the specs of the design. In the case of the CXN100, one of their top engineers spent hundreds of hours changing and listening to audio-critical components to tune the entire audio stage around these components. Back in the early days of HiFi, this is how most brands went about it and is why some vintage audio is so highly regarded. It is still done this way by most high-performance brands, but to see it done in the price range of the CXN100 and other Cambridge Audio products is a rare treat indeed.

The unit was not just a makeover but a complete redesign. The analog stage after D to A conversion got a big upgrade with more efficient capacitors and op-amps which improved the signal-to-noise ratio and reduced distortion.

Lots of time was also spent deciding on the DAC that sounded best, and the ESS chip they picked sounded so good there were no post DAC filters required, which meant putting fewer parts in the signal path, an overarching goal of all Cambridge gear. These and many more added up to a much better-sounding unit we could not wait to test out.

Performance

We have to give props to Cambridge Audio for some great eco-packaging. Even though this unit is the same size as the previous model, the physical box is much shorter in height and protected with a really neat set of cardboard end caps.

We connected the CXN100 to the Cambridge Edge A integrated amplifier and a pair of Sonus Faber Serafino G2 speakers. Now granted, most people with a system at this level would probably opt for a much higher-end streamer; we wanted to connect it up to something that would reveal everything possible.

We used Qobuz and some HiRes files purchased from HD Tracks for our testing. The first cut up on Qobuz in 24/96 was "Dreamy Skies" from The Rolling Stones new album, Hackney Diamonds. This is an acoustic cut with three guitars that has just a huge soundstage. Jagger was right in front and the CXN100 allowed all of the subtle vocal expressions to shine through as he sang about taking a break from technology.

Next up, in 176/24 on Qobuz, was Patricia Barber’s "I Could Have Danced All Night" from her latest Clique album. We always love to use her voice when testing out female vocals and the CXN100 really nailed it. She came across very smooth and flowing with zero hint of any digital glare. The real surprise was how the high hat cymbal action just shimmered with an effortless quality we did not expect to hear from a DAC in the price range.

Then we tried a 24/96 cut from HD Tracks "Rain on the Scarecrow" from John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow album. We like to use John Mellencamp for testing rhythm and pacing and the CNX100 drew us in with the extremely rhythmic drums and guitar riffs. And we could easily hear lots of tiny inflections and volume changes in his voice as he sang this sad but lively song.

When we first tested the CXNV2, we thought it was a world-beater, and we have to say the same thing about the new CXN100. It seems to have even better resolution while maintaining a very smooth sound, and there was no question to us that it was even better in its rhythmic performance.

Overall Recommendation

There are several possible use cases for this amazing new piece of gear. The first would be to just add the CXN100 to an existing audio system and have access to the wonderful world of digital music be it streaming or files you have ripped or purchased. Also, if you have a legacy CD player with digital out, you could likely improve it by using the great DAC’s inside the CXN100.

Another way, if you are starting out and want something really good and simple, is to put its output in variable mode and pair it up with a set of active speakers. There are more and more of these coming on the market that have the amps built in, and the CXN100 would make a great control center.

Finally, if you are digital only, you could ditch your preamp and connect the CXN100 directly to your power amp for a very elegant and great-sounding digital front end.

We suspect that with the way the CXN100 sounds and its price point, Cambridge will once again win an ongoing stream of awards for its performance; it is highly recommended.

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