Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Cambridge Audio Azur 851N Stereo Digital Preamplifier, Network Player | Hi-Fi All-in-One Receiver | Wireless Media Streaming with WiFi, Apple AirPlay and Android Compatible (Silver)

Top positive review

Mixed Bag

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2021

.First things first do not repeat do not buy this unit from MUSIC DIRECT. Three weeks after I purchased the unit, a firmware update caused it to become extremely unstable with Tidal, which is my primary source. Before this "update" it functioned and sounded great. I began trouble shooting it with Cambridge support and nothing worked. I decided to return the unit while it was still within the sixty day return window, Music direct advertises a sixty day satisfaction guarantee return policy. Well that is, unless you buy it on amazon, they stated that purchasing it "from them" via amazon voided this policy, and they promptly hang up in your face. So again the unit sound great, but when considering a streamer research the quality and stability of the software as much as the unit itself. And do not buy anything from MUSIC DIRECT.

9 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Amazon Customer

Junk

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2016

First of all, I've purchased hundreds of things on Amazon and have never written a review; however, this unit is so badly built and Cambridge's customer service is so poor, that I felt compelled to write a review. Shortly after purchasing, the motherboard died so I contacted Cambridge for service. It's literally been months and I still haven't heard from Cambridge. I was able to contact Hi-Def Lifestyle (the Amazon seller) and they provided contacts for customer support. I ended up having to ship the unit back for service, which took about 2 months. I just got it back and was thrilled to see that the motherboard works. Unfortunately, the audio out now only works on one channel. When you spend almost $2,000 on a product, it seems reasonable to expect it to function OR at least get a response from customer service.

76 people found this helpful

19 total ratings, 10 with reviews

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From the United States

Henry white

Mixed Bag

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Edward

Quality taken too far and ahead of its time. !!! No comparison better than the AURALIC streamers ..

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

A well made product but here are two things you need to be aware off..
It does not have PANDORA and a few others as a built in subscription.
To listen to PANDORA you need the Bluetooth Dongle.. besides that you are Gold.. !!!
It sounds so clear and crisp as if the musician is right in your living room.. very Warm sound with a each instrument clear and wanting " Not tiring to listen all day"" you will not be tired relaxing and just listen to your kind of music.
I compared this to to the Auralic Aries G1 and for the price I am getting the same even better melody than the AURALIC. Aries G1... The only thing AURALIC has is the support for ROON music player.. which I do not care for and who wants to buy a music player that you need to renew every year for $300.. makes no sense....
Ladies and Gents go and buy this unit you will not be disappointed...
If you think it is steep go for the AUDIOLAB 6000N .. which you can see in the picture below the Cambridge 851N.
The 6000N is another player but no screen and it supports the use of third party music such as Hi-Fi Cast and DTS-Play FI ..Go abuy this product.. its built like a Tank.
Here are pictures you can see how it looks and the aluminum color pops...
Ed.

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Junk

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

76 people found this helpful

Helpful

Eric L.

Perfect for taking the digital edge off revealing speakers.

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2015

Verified Purchase

While expensive, this unit is a "no compromise" network streamer in terms of audio fidelity. I have a pretty revealing set of speakers, so both compressed audio and non-compressed always had sounded a little harsher in my system, but this unit does an amazing job with smoothing out the sound and delivering a huge, clear, performance regardless of what I throw at it. Whether it's the Beatles, Taylor Swift, Billy Joel, Lagwagon, AC/DC, Dropkick Murphys, or Bruno Mars, this absolutely delivers. Again, this is on the pricer side, but in my system, I think it delivers a smoother and wider soundstage than the Stream Magic 6 V2, but that streamer is a great alternative if your speakers don't tend to be fussy. I inherited a pair of Energy Veritas 6.3 floorstanders and they are light on bass and accentuated highs, but this machine offsets that and is a great match for a brighter speaker in my opinion. Haven't hear it with a more neutral sounding speaker, but I wouldn't imagine this to be dull sounding within any system. I am primarily using this as a network streamer via DLNA, but Pandora sounds fantastic through this even with all the compression. Cannot comment on the USB DAC, but given the performance over streaming, I would say this is definitely worth a listen if you are in the market for a streamer and a DAC all in one.

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

Stephen Dibble

Fantastic piece of audio gear!

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is my first experience with a streaming dac and I have to say I'm just blown away by the sound, convenience and overall user experience of the 851N. Inserted in a high end system using the balanced outputs into Schiit Freya preamp with Dynaudio speakers and Krell amp, the Cambridge simply sounds amazing. Compares sonically to my $3000.00 cd player when streaming Tidal hi fi quality content. First rate build quality and usability, had the unit set up and running within minutes. Buyers beware; don't pass sonic judgement right out of the box, it takes a few days of use before the 851n breaks in and shows it's full potential.

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alex Alvarez

No good

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

After 3 months of purchase, a buzz came through the left channel.

Helpful

McC_SOUNDS

New hub of my system! This piece does NOT dissappoint! Very Happy!

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2018

Verified Purchase

After 3 days, finally set up and what was supposed to be a quick listen turned into 6 straight hours of pure JOY. Via cd (on Azur 752bd player), external Hard Drive (Wav,&Flac) and Pandora via BT100 dongle. All I could wish for is a bit more volume range...but pretty good so far. Very Happy!!

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

mobi

When it works it is great. But so many problems, so many.

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2021

I purchased an 851N 4 years ago and CXN (little brother) 3 years ago and use them exclusively with airplay and spotify for 2 different rooms/speaker sets.

The 851N for the first year was great.

Issue 1: There were some glitches that started happening where it randomly played white noise at max volume. This resulted in a blown mid and tweeter on one of my speakers.

Issue 2: The unit glitched on white noise a few times after (I adjusted my amp power down to guard this) and eventually continued to play white noise out of one side. I returned the unit for a new unit from warranty (customer service was very good).

Issue 3: The new unit worked great for a while. Then the LCD started to lose contrast - meaning on bright setting the black is almost a bright gray and looks terrible. I've never fixed this so I always keep it on dim setting.

Issue 4: 4 years later - the unit still works, but now I have to manually turn it on as in sleep mode it cannot be found on any airplay or Cambridge iOS app - no solution to this. I often have to unplug the unit to restart it to find it on the network now.

BONUS: CXN
The CXN has been much more stable than the 851N and I cannot tell the difference in sound. (Revel f208 speakers and Parasound Halo a.21 amp). But as of the last few months I've started getting a random error on the CXN that says internal error 1103. Haven't pursued fixing it but must unplug and restart the unit.

I don't see better units at this price point & quality, I just wished the quality control was better.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

William T Dryden

Poor performing network player and super poor customer support

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2015

Cambridge has very poor customer support. Can only communicate via the internet. No phone numbers for tech support. My brand new 851N does not function well at all. looses connection to the network a lot. When this happens, it raises volume to max and can blow out your speakers. Been over a month since I requested tech support, still no resolution. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Gibby

ALIVE!

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2015

Very simple. As in the Mel Brooks Frankenstein. " IT's ALIVE IT's ALIVE IN PERFORMANCE ..

4 people found this helpful

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