STEREO AMPLIFIERS
Some familiar products here after a remarkably difficult 18 months – but don’t let that worry you: each one of these amps is a truly worthy winner
Cambridge Audio CXA81 £999
It’s a three-peat of Product of the Year Awards for Cambridge’s remarkable CXA81 amplifier. This sweet-spot hitting winner replaced the already impressive CXA80 in 2019, and immediately walked off with the top gong in the stereo amplifier category.
Although Cambridge’s engineers kept this integrated amp’s basic analogue circuit layout unchanged, they upgraded its signal path and the capacitors in both the pre and power sections. They also slotted in a superior ESS Sabre ES9016K2M DAC and an improved USB input that supports audio of up to 32-bit/384khz and DSD256 quality. An aptx HD Bluetooth receiver allows direct streaming at up to 24-bit/384khz.
On the analogue side there are four RCA ins and a balanced XLR, while the coaxial input will handle files up to 24-bit/192khz. Its pair of Toslink optical connections take that up to 96khz.
The CXA81 also has outputs for a pre-amplifier and subwoofer, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack and space for two pairs of speakers.
There are many Cambridge Audio hallmarks here that make this amp broadly comparable with its predecessor, the CXA80 – only this time there has been progress in every regard. From the opening bars of whatever piece of music we select, we are greeted with the same powerful yet punchy, dynamic and astonishingly detailed presentation.
Confidence is key to the CXA81’S performance, the amp hammering out staccato rhythmic patterns with assured conviction, snapping in time and allowing its expert handling of alternately loud and soft beats to lock in a groove.
Above it, a full-bodied and expressive midrange deals out melodies that are given space to soar, yet still sound definitively part of a musical whole.
There’s a richness overall to the balance, too. This Cambridge is powerful and weighty in the low end, but lean and agile enough to dance around with the most excitable bass lines, while the treble is left plenty of headroom without sharpness or rough edges.
The CXA81 perhaps sounds a little forward, but its level of expression is such that it is sympathetic to more minimal, sombre recordings as well. Feed it a solo piano work or chamber quartet and it is only too pleased to show you its more caring, gentle side.
What really shines through though is a level of clarity that not only pips its rivals, such as the Rega Elex-r, but also makes them appear a touch cloudy. It is one thing beating the multi-awardwinning Rega amp for timing and dynamics, but to offer a more polished, insightful, and mature presentation takes things to a whole new level.