Cambridge Audio CD1 CD player Anthony H. Cordesman

Anthony H. Cordesman wrote about the CD-1 in January 1987 (Vol.10 No.1):

With the Cambridge Audio CD-1 ($2500), one never knows if one is hearing the final version of this elite and nearly total rebuild of the Philips Model 104, or even if there ever will be a final version of this player. I should point out, however, that Cambridge is now being imported by Sumiko—one of the best and most demanding importers—and hopefully will now be both consistently reliable and available in the form of a stable and finished product.

The two units I have heard so far avoid the treble edge and upper midrange emphasis of far too many CD players. They have good deep bass. They have excellent overall resolution, and have complex front-panel switchable filter options that allow you to "tune" the player to the sound characteristics of different CDs. The Cambridge also has very good depth, but is a little soft in dynamics.

All in all, the Cambridge is an excellent machine, but at a price of $2500 it is not really competitive in a world where the Discrete Technology, PS Audio, and Sonographe SD-1 offer virtually equivalent musical realism at a much lower price. It should be noted, however, that Cambridge has announced a totally different machine using 16-bit DACs and 16-times oversampling, and a cheaper CD-2 machine with the same system. This player—when it appears—may be able to eliminate nearly all conventional analog filtering, using purely first-order capacitive rolloff to eliminate any remaining enharmonic nasties above 20kHz.—Anthony H. Cordesman

COMPANY INFO
Cambridge Audio
US distributor: Audio Plus Services
156 Lawrence Paquette Industrial Drive
Champlain, NY 12919
(800) 663-9352
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