CAMBRIDGE AUDIO EXA100 AMPLIFIER AND EXN100 NETWORK PLAYER REVIEW

Janine Elliot takes a listen to the Cambridge Audio EXA100 and matching EXN100 Network Player, costing just shy of £3600 for the pair.

I have been writing quite a few reviews on streamers and amplifiers of late and from an assortment of companies, one of which was the “middle” range network player and amplifier package from Cambridge Audio, one of those great names from my youth. The AX, CX and the subject of this review the EX-range are in ascending order of competence and price. Above these is the Cambridge Audio “Edge” range, just over the edge in terms of performance, looks, and price wnre compared to the EX range. For an integrated amplifier and full-function network player, the total outlay for the EXA100 and EXN100 is £2 short of £3,600, so it is not particularly expensive a package, but would it sound better than the £1,900 CXA81ii and CXN100 I reviewed at the end of last year? Certainly, a lot of what is inside these more expensive models is inspired by the design of the Edge range, but there is a lot of competition at this price point, including other famous British names from my past. Cambridge Audio was started up in Cambridge (UK), and like NAD and other British marques, it has had an eventful history since then. Their Azur 640C CD player was my first “high-end” digital product, exceptionally well received by the press, not least for having the very first good-looking heavy universal metal (fronted) remote control for a product at this price-point. 

Cambridge Audio was set up by a group of young technology graduates in 1968 who wanted to produce HiFi that was beyond what was available at the time and they’ve made several landmark products over their 57 years of existence, including the beautiful 20W P40 amplifier, the very first ever amplifier to use a toroidal transformer (and in my opinion one of the best-looking amps of all time) plus the world’s first 2-box CD player in 1985 (the CD1). Their ethos is “Made by Music” showing their love of music and making music enjoyment accessible to everyone.

There is more to them, though, than just making good products; as a member of GBC (Good Business Charter) and a founding donor of E/P (Earth Percent), they have sound ethics, too, playing a part in addressing the climate debate.

As in the CX range, the units arrived with card padding (though there is some recyclable foam here in the amplifier carton) and even the bags for the remote and paperwork were in biodegradable/compostable plastic. I do love the “opening out” of the moulded pulp packaging to make it easier to remove the amplifier from its resting place inside the carton. Very simple but helpful.

Cambridge Audio is now owned by Audio Partnership PLC and moved to London with offices in the UK, Germany, the US, and Hong Kong. Historically, originally formed as part of Cambridge Audio Laboratories Ltd it was sold in 1971 to CE Hammond & CO Ltd in St. Ives, Cambridge. At one point, it had over 300 staff, with most components made at the factory. Every product sold had its own printed certificate detailing the actual measured test results, such was their aim to make sure they met their own high target specs. Cambridge Audio then changed owners and its name a few more times, firstly being sold to Vince Adams in 1980 (changing to “Cambridge Audio Research”), then sold to Stan and Angie Curtis in 1984 (and renamed “Cambridge Audio International”), then sold to Hi-Fi Markets Group in 1988, to be sold two years later to the loudspeaker manufacturer Wharfedale in Leeds, and whilst this company was being reorganised by Stan Curtis still at the helm, it was decided to separate the Cambridge company to its own establishment in 1994 and selling to the present-day Audio Partnership, which had just been set up by the businessmen Julian Richer and James Johnson-Flint. Julian Richer, of course, set up Richer Sounds, hence the massive relationship with their shops in the UK, helping to accelerate sales. 30 years later the manufacturer is still known as Cambridge Audio, continuing the name’s association with computer, technological and audio developments from that great university city. Proudly labelled as “Designed and Engineered in Great Britain”, they are designed and engineered at their London headquarters “Melomania”, but like nearly everything these days, labelled as “assembled” in China to save costs and perhaps annoy Donald Trump.

IN THE BOXES

Whilst it took me only a few minutes to open the boxes and set up the “Lunar Grey” units, it has taken CA over 3 years for their engineers to design them, and over 2000+ hours of listening to be happy with the end result.

Let’s deal with the specification quickly; unlike the CXA81ii, the £1,999 EXA100 is uprated 25% now to a 100W (8 ohms) Class-AB amplifier with 2 loudspeaker outputs. It increases to 150W @4 ohms and can be bi-amped and includes a sub-woofer (up to 2.3kHz) and pre-fader RCA output for your old cassette recorder. It uses the same power transistors as in the top-end Edge-M mono-block Class-XA amplifier, and like the CXA81ii the unit has its own proprietary protection circuitry for extra security, this time CAP4; as well as checking out for surges and increased temperature, it monitors whether the output voltage goes DC and looking after the output transistors to keep them in their safe operating area (SOA). With an XLR balanced and four RCA analogue inputs (RCA1 can also be selected as a preamp input so that the EXA100 becomes just a power amp) the digital side is more comprehensive allowing HDMI eARC, Toslink and coax at up to 24bit/192kHz (Toslink at 96kHz), and where on the CXA USB input was 284kHz@24bit PCM plus DSD64, the EXA increases this to 384kHz@24bit PCM plus DSD256. For even better vital statistics you’ll need the accompanying EXN100 (see below for specs). Bluetooth is aptX HD compatible and the digits are handled by the ES9018K2M SABRE32 DAC from ESS – the same chip as on the cheaper CXA. Digital inputs into the amplifier are all very acceptable, should you have your own streamer and not need to add the accompanying streamer. As in the CX amp, there is an RS232 serial port, control bus RCA socket, plus 3.5mm trigger in/outs. A handy signal ground switch flips between Lifted and Chassis earthing, and the USB audio socket also has a signal ground switch. If you install the amp in a hidden cupboard, there is an IR-in socket so you can feed commands from an IR repeater.

For better digital performance, plus, of course, better-quality LAN use, the £1,599 EXN100 is a desirable partner. It has the ES9028Q2M SABRE32 DAC (also the same as on the CXN), and the model allows streaming of music services such as Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer, and Qobuz, plus internet radio. The unit has the latest eARC HDMI plus Toslink, coax, USB, plus BT aptX HD with Chromecast built-in, Airplay 2, and it’s Roon Ready.

Using their StreamMagic App, the N100 is multi-room compatible, plus Google Home. High resolution is up to 768kHz@32bit, DSD512, plus MQA, the same as on the CXN. As Cambridge insists, they have got better performance from this pricier model and a better design to ensure greater clarity and separation. A lot of work has gone into the post-DAC analogue stage, using hand-picked components.

All in all, the rear of the two EX models is well laid out and with good quality sockets, just as in the CX models. The Preamp Mode allows you to use the EXN100 as the preamp stage and set up the EXA100 as a dedicated power-amp, thereby bypassing its preamp stage. Pressing the information button on the streamer or remote allows the possibility of various screens, including a very large digital clock readout and a pair of VU meters. These worked well, but there is no choice of appearance of the meters.

Whilst the amplifier has the same dimensions as the CXA81ii, its frontal persona is slightly different, with the black rectangle plastic camouflaging all the buttons and LEDs now taking up the middle of the unit from top to bottom. This makes it look significantly more expensive than the CXA. The distinctive large toroidal power-supply and cooling fins still takes centre place, visible from looking down through the grilles on the top. I loved the look of that on the cheaper model. The accompanying network streamer is a bit larger, and both have a bit more aluminium as well to beef them up a bit. Both also include the weird rear feet/front rubber strip arrangement as in the cheaper models. I think with the added price, some decent feet would look better if you’re concerned about vibration, even if it’s just a singular foot at the front. With all the weight in the middle from the power supply, that would still work. There is a “Cambridge” and “EX” logo carved out of the milled aluminium front panel and in shiny silver to make it look a little more expensive, though, and the back-sides are as you would expect from this price point, including socket information written both ways up, to save your brain trying to read words upside down or you hanging from the ceiling. That front motorised volume knob on the amplifier is a good size and feels good to the touch, too, as when using the remote for volume it can jump up or down a few dB rather dramatically. The network streamer has a similar knob for use, though doesn’t press in to select a function.

SOUND OF THE EXA100 (Amp) and EXN100 (Network Player)

Operation was as pleasurable as I had had with the earlier model, though I initially forgot that the network streamer screen is not touch sensitive and even set it up in French before the StreamMagic mobile app came to my rescue. For £1,599, this really should be a touch-sensitive screen. As the buttons are black like the screen, they are not easy to see. Would silver look nice? That said, the 5” 1280×720 info screen is very good-looking and easy to read (I wish it could be replicated in landscape on my phone).

StreamMagic is also a pleasure to use, though, in my opinion, it is not as good as Eversolo’s App that I recently had the privilege of playing with. In terms of functions and logic when using it, it was not as good, though it was very reliable. Mostly, I used Qobuz and Spotify streaming services and coax digital links from Fiio and A&K DAPs, and analogue sources were taken care of by the amplifier’s other inputs. Connections between the two CA products were via balanced XLR. The remote control that comes with the amplifier is easy to use with facilities that are also on the StreamMagic App, though functions like brightness random, volume, and source selection are best done on the remote

Firstly, to digital sources: Sony’s compilation of Schumann’s piano and cello works with Murray Perahia and Yo-Yo Ma respectively (Bavarian Radio Symphonia) gave me a chance to test the pianoforte and the deeper stringed instrument in solo works, plus those with the orchestra. This is a great recording, and the CA combination gave good space between the instruments and a clarity and honesty that showed that this combination of gear worked so well as a team – like the musicians did. The Op.129 cello concerto in A minor 2^nd movement was particularly well played, with a good sense of timing and clarity.

Listening to a few of my favourite jazz pieces from The Dudley Moore Trio also showed that timing is as important in the technology here as it is in the music itself. All those inevitable technical issues of 60’s recordings were still audible, showing that the amplifier was very honest in what it played. “My Blue Heaven” (‘Jazz, Blues and Moore’) and “Indiana” (‘Jazz Jubilee’) were forced and tight performances. Playing some other jazz and film music, I was conscious of the tight positioning of instruments giving an exciting and honest performance, so I decided to put these units through a test with Richard Harris “MacArthur Park”. This recording is a lesson on how not to record in a professional studio. Sounding more like a home Portastudio session, it is full of every instrument you could fit on to any track you could find on the multitrack: trumpets, harpsichord, over-orchestration, and a voice you’d more likely hear on a Friday night Karaoke session in your local Weatherspoon’s. However, despite the pain, this is a great piece of music, and the Cambridge was committed to making the music as realistic as possible. However, in this and a few tracks I played, I found the EXA100 didn’t sound quite as musical as I’d hoped. While I don’t expect it to be anything like a £200k dCS Varese (also from the city of Cambridge…) it is at the price point of a lot of other gear, and whilst it is better than the CXA81ii, it took a few hours to come to that opinion. The amplifier is very spacious sounding and with good space and positioning between the instruments – even in the Richard Harris – but I felt the amplifier worked best in instrumental and vocal music.

Kate Bush’s 2018 remaster of ‘A Sensual World’ was certainly very sensual; feeding me with spaciousness, harmony, emotion and a plethora of world folk instrumentation such as the Uilleann pipes and whistle, valiha, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and tupan (from her brother Paddy and a few other musicians). Whilst this album is also thick-textured, the amplifier and network player managed to control it in a remarkably subtle way, making it all highly believable. I regularly use “Prelude” and “Prologue” from the ‘Aerial’ album in reviews, it has lots of snippets of information that tests any speaker or electronics, and the Cambridge controlled it with ease; whether the position and sound of the child’s spoken voice, or the position of the birds, or the grunt of the pianoforte. Kate’s vocals were also very clear and musical. Only the drum hit at 4’40” in “Prologue” wasn’t quite as dramatic as I get from my Krell solid-state or even my valve Synthesis power-amps. Whilst the sense of spaciousness and imaging was really well maintained, it was just the sense of dynamic and rhythmical energy in much that I played that wasn’t as great as I had hoped for. The opening thunder in Dire Straits “Brothers in Arms” (1996 remastered) just wasn’t clear enough for me, though “Down to the Waterline” had a more controlled bass end at the start, and with excellent forward/back staging of the acoustic guitar with respect to other instruments in “Private Investigations”. This indeed had excellent spread, detail and speed from the guitar plucking. The untimely bass guitar beats after 4’14” in this track (all done before click tracks and even the Atari ST had yet made the scene) were clearly audible and visible on the screen VU meters – which reacted very quickly, by the way! The tom-toms at 5’12” were also crystal clear, as were the rhythmic beats in “6 Blade Knife” which were as sharp as I have heard them. 

In use, though, the EXN100 plus StreamMagic App (now in its 13^th year) was very easy and reliable in operation. It did whatever I asked, and moving between different screens was fairly common sense and easy. Facility wise, the EXN100 is spot on, especially with eARC, and using the machine was a pleasure. The amplifier does hit an important price point, giving you £1 change from two thousand, but I would have liked to see a phono-stage added, even if just MM. It does, though, have a very good headphone output with grown-up ¼” sockets for your equally grown-up wired cans.

QUIBBLES

The remote that comes with the amplifier might be a different model than on the CXA (though it looks much the same), but alas, it is still plastic, and certainly for a higher-end product I think that this should have a proper aluminium front, like on my ancient Cambridge Audio Azur CD player. Since you are going to use the remote quite a lot, I think it is important to make it a pleasure to play with, like the aged Meridian and Krell remotes used to be. It is reasonably well laid out, but as in the CX, I wish the volume up/down was on the left where your thumb naturally goes (if you are right-handed, of course). Also, I have already mentioned the front “feet”. Finally, perhaps a phono-stage could also have been introduced, because not everyone wants/owns a CA Alva gramophone with built in RIAA EQ/preamplifier. However, I recognise these are minor quibbles, but quibbles, nonetheless.

CONCLUSION

Together, the EXA100 and EXN100 will grace your living room with some excellent music, with excellent transparency of sound and a plethora of digital inputs at your fingertips. The sound is an advance on the mid-CX equivalents, but at £3.5k is hitting a large area of other manufacturers’ offerings. My last comment in the notebook that I wrote in was “refined”, which sums up the performance: natural, fast and with excellent attack and decay of notes. Just that it wasn’t quite as dynamic and enthralling as I would perhaps like.

AT A GLANCE 

Build Quality: Both are well-constructed, very tidy, but I’m still not sure about the feet.

Sound Quality: very accurate and fast, with tight bass end. 

Value For Money: At £2 short of £3,500 combined, this is a busy space for class AB toroidal powered amplifiers and full facility network servers.

We Loved:

EXN100:

Excellent detail and speed from all sources and at all specifications

Musical presentation with excellent sense of space

Using StreamMagic Gen4 software was easy.

EXA100:

Worked well on all types of music, but particularly good detail and space in classical, vocal and film music

Well controlled

Massive and visible toroidal transformer!

We Didn’t Love So Much:

Still don’t like the “cheap” looking front strip instead of feet. A single 3^rd rubber foot would make it look more professional, but probably less “trendy”

Dynamics and intensity are not quite there for me

Only having the “choice” of one VU meter screen

Elevator Pitch Review: Having recently reviewed the middle-ground CX range earlier, I wanted to see just what an extra £1,700 could give me in their EX equivalents. With two years in the making, and bits taken off their posh Edge range, would it still get my acoustic juices as well as the music flowing? They might not look quite as good as the Edge range, but they are still crammed with technology gained from it and 57 years of manufacturing experience. The EXN100 betters their CX equivalent in terms of sound quality, and the amplifier also looks better, but in the long run would I get on with the “black on black” fascia/buttons and no touch-sensitive screen?

Price: 

N100 £1599

A100 £1999

Janine Elliot

SUPPLIED BY CAMBRIDGE AUDIO

System used:

Astell and Kern SE180, Lenovo laptop, Samsung A23, Ethernet (DSD, Qubuz, WAV, FLAC, MQA, MP3 Digital sources); Pre-Audio GL-1102N/Ortofon Kontrapunkt b (turntable/cartridge) plus Manley Steelhead (phono-stage); Graham LS5/9 plus Townshend Supertweeter (speakers); Esprit Celesta XLR, Tellurium Ultra Silver 2 and Townshend F1 and Isolda RCA and speaker cables, Coppice Audio stand and Townshend rack.

SUPPLIED SPECIFICATIONS

EXN100

DAC; ESS ES9028Q2M

Max resolution; 32-bit/768kHz, DSD512, MQA

Streaming features; UPnP, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Roon Ready, internet radio, Bluetooth aptX HD

Network; Ethernet, wi-fi

Inputs; HDMI eARC, USB type A, USB type B, optical, coaxial

Outputs Optical, coaxial, balanced XLR, RCA line level

Finish; lunar grey

Dimensions (hwd) 9 x 43 x 30.5cm

Weight 4.1kg

EXA100

Type; Integrated Class Ab S/S

Power; 100W per channel (@ 8 ohms); 150W per channel (@4 ohms) [1kHz <1%THD+N]

Frequency range; <3Hz->40kHz +/-1dB

S/N >91dB @1W

DAC; ESS ES9018K2M

Inputs; RCA line level x 4 (including power amp direct x1), balanced XLR, optical x 2, coaxial, HDMI eARC, USB Type B

Outputs; Pre-out, subwoofer

Bluetooth; 5.0 (aptX HD)

Headphone output; ¼” (6.3mm)

Dimensions (hwd) 43 x 11.5 x 34.1cm

Weight 12.8kg