Cambridge Audio 851n Opinions

So I' have been using an Oppo BDP95 for years now as my DLNA audio streamer. I think it is time for an upgrade and I have been researching upgrades to this.

I think I have landed on the 851N as my primary focus.

I have TB's of lossless and High Res audio and use Assett UPNP as my DLNA server. I only use DLNA and am not going to mess with changing that so my needs are strictly DLNA related, don't care about other features. I may try out Lossless Tidal but otherwise only DLNA

How much better does it sound than the old Oppo's? Is there any other DLNA streamer around the same price that sounds a ton better than thew 851N?

 

I can't speak to the sound itself, but the Cambridge has gapless DLNA streaming, which Oppo never figured out how to do. So that's one big improvement. Its importance depends on your musical tastes, but sooner or later, everyone plays an album that needs it.

Good luck! I'm also interested in the 851N and will be following the thread.

 

Thanks for the info, gapless DLNA would be pretty awesome, never had a device that did it but given my tastes for long prog albums it would be a really good feature.

I have not been able to find many user based impressions of the 851N, saw soem positive pro reviews but not many real end user hands on impressions.

 

The pro reviews, if one knows how to read them (think grade inflation; a minor issue reported could be major to you; a lukewarm review is close to "I hated it") may be more informative than user comments. I have observed that users tend to like what they have. We have an investment in it! But users have a wide variety of tastes, and an Art Dudley-type reviewer (one who doesn't seem to care about smooth frequency response and seems to like harmonic distortion) will not be helpful to someone who wants to get as close as possible to the sound on the recording.

 

It would just be nice to hear from an actual 851N owner with a good audio setup to give the low down on perceived audio quality, quirks and or issues when using it intheir system, tweaks they have found or other un talked about features. Seems the people that own it don't post online about it

 

Yeah, absolutely. I'm looking back at my last message, and it doesn't make a lot of sense. I must have written it when I was too tired. Sorry for that.

There are some threads on Audiogon. In this one, the OP said he compared the DAC in the 851N to a Classe CP-800 and couldn't tell the difference. I can't vouch for that listener, but I have a CP-800 and it does have a very good DAC in it. HTH

 

So I finally got a used 851N for a good price $950 shipping included. Got it set up last night. I'll need more time to give definitive audio review cause as I was messing with the filter options it seems I hit the button to flip the polarity on the audio. So I was listening to it think this sound kind of weak and thin, I then figured out what I did and fixed it but it was late so I could no listen to it loud.

So Sound quality is yet to be determined I got to sit down with it more with correct settings, I also spent a good amount of time last night getting my universal remote setup for it and to integrate it with my remotes programmed activities.

Also the wifi dongle is pretty junk it is only 2.4 ghz single band and really old so do not expect to stream high res with it. I have a Wifi repeater with and ethernet jack I was using with my oppo for streaming so I just plugged the ethernet cable into the Azur 851N and it worked great, I streamed a lot of high res stuff last night with no issue. In it's defense the Oppo had a similar crappy wifi dongle which is why I needed to look for another solution. The makers need to pack in legit good dual band AC wifi adpaters, they aren't very expensive and it would probably cut down on user complaints.

The Android app works great with my DLNA server, this parts works miles better than the Oppo's old and clunky interface. and the front display is big enough for me to read 6-8 feet away and looks good.

The unit is very solidly build and looks nice it is pretty snappy going through music tied to the app and my DLNA server.

I don't have a tidal account but may do some one month trial thing to see how it works, I tried the radio section for a few minutes and that worked well and seems to be a wide variety of stuff

So far so good just got to spend some more time listening without it in a reverse polarity mode, I felt pretty stupid after that.

 

Ok so tonight I finally got to sit down and listen to the 851N for a few hours and can give a more informed opinion on the sound.

One thing that threw me off is the analog output is lower than my Oppo 95 I was using so that threw me off at first. I had to tweak my Lexicon MC12 a bit to compensate. It was not a slam dunk win for the 851N at first but after a couple of hours I was able to pick out the differences and I'm going to keep it as it is a sonic upgrade over the Oppo.

The 851n is more 3d sounding its a little warmer as well. All my gear is tweaked and matched to be warm and analog sounding so in some ways the colder Oppo gave it a nice contrast but after tweaking the 851N comes ahead. Probably my only complaint with the 851N is I could probably use a source with a little more top end sparkle as all my equipment tends to sound very warm and neutral and anything more warm and neutral my tip the whole system over to be muddy. The 851N doesn't do that but I'm really on the edge right now too being to warm and neutral in my whole system.

So the Oppo is more 2 dimensional, colder sounding and the analog outs are a little hotter than the 851n. The 851n sounds more spacious the bass is a little more detailed and separated mid ranges are nice and smooth highs are nice and warm but could use a little more sparkle but Ill take that over being to bright and fatiguing.

I think Ill get used to it. Overall for my system only serving up digital lossless and high res digital audio my system sounds WAY analog very warm and natural which was the goal. Below is my system with the Lexicon using Logic7 all my speakers are used to upsample stereo to a 7 channel signal

Processor: Lexicon MC12
Amp: Lexicon 512 (Bryston)
Main Speakers: Anthony Gallo Reference 3.1s
Center: Gallo reference center
Sides: Magnepan MC1s
Rear amp: JBL wireless amp
Rear speakers: Cadence 2 channel passive sound bar
Subs: 2 SVS SB12 NSDs
Source: Cambridge Azure 851n

 

Plextor - Thanks for sharing your experiences with the 851N. Keep us updated as the unit burns in.

 

It's got the Dac Magic which I think is a great 'analog' sounding DAC. I have the same in my Cambridge 851 CD player.

 

Ah, not quite Mike. The DACMagic uses a pair of Wolfson WM8740s (also found in the 752BD and CXU universal players, as well as a whole host of other players and devices for other manufacturers) while the 851C utilises two Analog Devices AD1955s.

Think they went for the higher spec DAC in their them TOTL player. Maybe also to gave a full AD line from end to end in the 851.

 

Well that shows how much I know!

 

(Main thing is you like 'em!)

 

I'm only at the CXN level but this too was slightly on the quiet side until I switched off the Preamplifier mode. I'm enjoying the addition of Tidal this summer. Though would like a fuller implementation, can't create playlists nor mark likes directly...have to create then in Tidal app first.

 

Yea I switched off its preamp mode, its still probably 1 db lower than my Oppo was. One nice thing is this is the first device I've ever owned that does gapless playback over DLNA.

I did find a bug though trying to playback an album of 24bit 96k wma files through DLNA is tricky. You can play single songs fine but if you try and play an album it just keeps instantly skipping to the next track.

You have to add each song one by one to the queue to play a whole album. 16 bit 44k wma files through DLNA work fine playing whole albums. I submitted a support case to Cambridge soundworks for that issue.

 

After several months of use I've grown to really like the sound of the unit after I tweaked my setup to accommodate the lower output sound of it.

I've been working for some month now on the album playback issue of 24bit wma files, hope they eventually fix this. Lots of emails and uploading samples to cambridge, at least they are actively looking into this.

Overall this was a good upgrade and I'm happy with it and really enjoy the nice warm and spacious sound quality out of it.

 

I have the Cambridge CXN and I love it. To me, it sounds phenomenal!

 

Good points. BUT, there are to many excellent (global) review's on not only the 851N, but also
CXN -and older SM-6, NP-30 and DAC-Magic product spanning near ten years. ALL, excellent/favorable
comments. As are (collectively) owner's impressions.
I'm really enjoying CA's (superb) 840E preamp (with the requisite volume-relay replacement)
as well as a recent (used) NP-30 Streamer purchase; sounding quite nice given it's age/modest price.
There is no doubt, that the newer/better SM-6 and current CXN and 851N are much better still -
particularly the 851N.

The CA guys know how to design/listen/build some great sounding kit -at mid-fi prices.

pj

 

Cambridge make some excellent product -the CXN a fine example.

I'm currently hunting down a used 851N.

pj

 

So I'm not the only one -who notices: "Fart Deadly" is a stinky reviewer.

In fact, the entire slobs at Stereofool best be retiring before they get laughed out of business.

pj

 

Did you get an 851n? I have a CXN and I'm wondering if it's worth the cost to upgrade. Did you notice an appreciable difference?

 

Hello

Does this or any other music streamers also allow a cd player or transport to be connected? This way the DAC in streamer is for both stream audio and cd based audio? Then maybe t Cambridge cd transport is a good option with the streamer to add streaming and upgrade from an older cd player?

 

I don’t know for sure but I’d be very surprised if not. But I will say I bought a Dacmagic plus and used my old Cambridge CD Player as a transport and there was a definite increase in sound quality in all areas. I now use an Audiolab transport with the DAC and had a further improvement....

 

At $950 it’s a good buy. Can’t go wrong. I had the CXN, only lasted 2 months as it sounded slightly thin. Ended up with the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge which sounds much better but costs a lot more too. Even the 851n did not really impress me when considering the new price.

 

I have an old Alchemist Nexus mk 1 cd player It was very good at the time and better the original Rega (planet?) cd player. Just trying to give myself some set up for the future but want to stream now. I am using a Avantree Oasis Plus that is fine, but not great. Gives me the proof I will stream more.

It seems there are many products coming out for streaming in quality as a real component. If I can also use it for as DAC for my current cd player or allow for a future transport then even better! With 1200 - 1400 cds I will not rip them to files. Easier to just play as cds.

Another question about these component streamers. If they have wifi or ethernet and I use Spotify (I know) or what ever service I assume the phone/laptop app will bluetooth for just control of streamer and the streamer is doing all data pull from wifi/ethernet and DAC processing?