Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Cambridge - CXN Network Player (Silver)

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2018

Excellent sounding unit. Energetic and clear sound. Get the spotify connect premium to work with it.
Save money on pre amp and plug directly to amp. If your cd player has a digital out you can even run it through unit.

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Jonmarr

Overall, a good experience with this.

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2016

Verified Purchase

I've been using this unit extensively for a couple of months now, so I've got a good sense of what I think it does well, versus not so well. Overall, I like it quite a bit but can't quite give it all five stars. No regrets though--I would buy it again.

First, a caveat: I use this pretty much exclusively to play lossless 44.1khz files. Nothing compressed or super high def. I do use Spotify a bit, but don't find the quality to be good enough for anything beyond casual or background listening (that's a Spotify thing, not a limitation of the CXN in my opinion).

Pros:
1) For me, you could use this as a DAC alone and just about justify the price. I compared it in an A/B test with my previous DAC, (a $400 V-DAC) and the difference was really striking in terms of detail and upper-midrange tonality. So that's a big win.

2) Had zero problems hooking this up (including to the wireless network). It's intuitive and easy to use. Starts up quickly, and has a standby mode that will maintain network connection for even faster start up.

3) The music I play is mostly located on a Windows PC and I use a free program called Media Monkey to organize it. The CXN has no problem finding the Media Monkey library on the network, including playlists. My son has an iphone and it seems that Airplay interfaces smoothly with the device. Side note: As far as I can tell, you cannot use iTunes to stream music to this device (or any device, for that matter), at least not on a PC. So keep that in mind if your entire library is iTunes on a PC (though of course nowadays it's easy to transfer your catalog to another program that supports streaming).

4) You can access and play music from the controls on the device itself (which are intuitive and well designed), from the included remote, or from the app (Android, in my case).

5) You can switch on "digital preamp" mode which allows you to control the volume with the app or from the knob on the device. Nice feature.

Cons:

1) The USB ports do not support large hard drives (they don't provide enough juice). I can't use a newer WD 1TB hard drive. Flash drives work better, as does as older 250GB drive I have. Further, neither the CXN nor the app allows for any sort of music organization of files on an external drive (e.g., playlists). When I consulted the Cambridge FAQ for this device, it states that he USB ports are really provided as a convenience, and that this device is primarily for network streaming. I almost returned it when I saw this, as I was planning to just keep my whole collection on a hard drive attached to the back of the player. But as noted, I tried streaming from my PC using Media Monkey instead. And I do think in the end this is a better solution than what I originally wanted to do. In two months, I have never really wished I could use the USB ports. But others may want to use it differently and I still think this counts as a "con," given that it doesn't seem that hard to include up to date USB ports and provide playlist capability in the app.

2) As many have noted, the Android app is weird and buggy. That said, it does work. Yes, it hangs pretty often, but you can just restart it--this process does not interrupt the playback. Mild annoyance. However, the decision not to include any way to advance or skip around within a track is really strange. This is especially annoying because:

3) There are network interruptions, and when these occur the device either skips to the next track of just stops. Now of course I can't say for sure if the dropouts are the device or my network. But for what it's worth I stream a ton of high def video and that almost never interrupts. However, this again is really only a mild issue. The interruptions don't occur frequently and usually at the beginning of a listening session when they do. I've had the thing play for hours without any interruption. But, related to the last point, given that this does happen it would be nice if the CXN remembered where you were in the song that got interrupted instead of just stopping. Barring that, how about a way to skip to where you were instead of starting all over?

Anyway, I am considering upgrading the router (not because of this minor issue), and we'll see if that helps.

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Scott99

Cambridge connect app has serious flaws that make the CXN almost unusable.

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

The Cambridge CXN seems to be a nice unit but the Cambridge connect app has serious problems. It stops recognizing my audio library after one or two times. I have to delete the app and reinstall it for it to recognize my library again. Then it stops recognizing after one or to times. I have done this a few times with the same results. Is there some thing I can do differently or is there an upgraded app available? I am using an apple iPhone 6 plus and using a USB cable to connect my library hard drive directly to the CXN. The CXN is connected to the internet via a cat 5 cable. Without this app it makes the CXN very difficult to use. Any suggestions? Another issue with the app is that you have to go though several selections to get to your music which I could live with. The problem is when the screen saver on your phone or iPad turns on and you want to select another song it doesn't remember the last screen you were on and requires you to go through all of those selections again to get back to your music. I would really like to try and make this CXN work for me but I could not find a phone number to call Cambridge tech support.

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Martin G.

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2016

Verified Purchase

Love it -easy to set-up. Works great with Air Play. Amazing sound!

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ScooterB

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great sound quality and very solid build. Very happy with my purchase.

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ainsworth

Good deal at $599. Current price of $1099 is inexplicable.

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

I purchased this for $599 because the 815N had just been released, and this unit is superceded by the CXN v2.. Now, oddly it is going for $1,099; $200 more than the newer version (CXN v2). Go figure. Today, the promised firmware update that includes TIDAL (under Libraries). automatically downloaded. This was very welcome as I was having difficulty getting Tidal to play as an ASIO device. Now that is moot.. and the difference between playing as a non ASIO PC / USB device and direct connection to TIDAL is significant indeed. Note: the is kinda small for use as a user interface. Happily, though, Cambridge provides a free phone app (I have an Android, but I assume there is an IOS app) which works very well. It communicates via WiFi, so your phone and the unit need to be on the same network. (

Having said all that, I cannot recommend this unit at the current $1099 price, (hence 4 stars instead of 5) as the CXN V2 (professional reviewers say the V2 is better by a little bit than the version under review here) is now a much better deal at $899.

BTW I have a tube preamp, so I do not use this unit as a preamp.

BTW the firmware update is or will be soon available for the CXN, CXN v2, 815N and DAC Magic.

2 people found this helpful

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John B

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2016

Verified Purchase

What an awesome device. It's easy to use, and sounds AMAZING.

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I. Fuentes Navarrete

Good streamer

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

The streamer is excellent, it reproduces all kinds of files, more than any other rival, and I bought it at a reasonable price. It would be all right if it had not received the box of the product with serious damage, and the device with cosmetic scratches. The amazon box was intact, which means that it was already damaged when it was packed.

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Mr Bump

A fine Network Music player for the audio enthusiast.

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2018

Cambridge Audio have a commendable history with offering fine value products at the more in-demand price points for the discerning audio enthusiast, and their CXN Network Music Player is no exception.

The convenience of having all your music on hand at any point without having to leave your seat to hear any given album or track cannot be overstated. The user interface with the supplied handset, and the front panel controls make this a very desirable product.

The CXN is an attractive device with a sophisticated look, which can be ordered in the two most in demand finishes in the industry; silver or black. The packaging adds value, and the Cambridge remote control (once again) is a real treat to look at and use.

Connectivity on the rear is nicely comprehensive, including USB (2.0), ethernet, analog audio out, and an extra port for the optional bluetooth adaptor. Wi-Fi is standard. Reading from the my computer with Wi-Fi was speedy and reliable, but inserting a flash drive for a quick playlist solution worked well when my computer wasn't switched-on.
There are also inputs and outputs for optical and coaxial connections. This is good news for anyone also in possession of other digital sources with a digital output, because the Wolfson DAC on board the CXN allows for classical, rock and folk music to sound natural and alive with a smoothness which can really stimulate. From a sonic point-of-view, the CXN is a real bargain. The upgrade path is there for anyone wishing to add an external DAC, but a fair chunk of change will likely be required to better the internal DAC. A USB port (2.0) on the front offers added convenience.

The small screen on the front panel is useful when you are up close to the CXN. It can include the album cover, or any other picture you may have attached to any of your music files.
Track title, album title and artist name can all be seen on the color screen, as can elapsed and remaining time for the selected track. Scrolling through your library using the front panel dial is easy, quick, and the operation is unfussy. The controls are a good size for most hands, and the overall finish suggests an item costing a good deal more than the asking price.

An App can be downloaded to your phone for added control, although I found the app to be rather glitchy on two different Android phones. It doesn't always load-up my music files, and it's response times are inconsistent. Reading from a large hard drive (1TB) wasn't necessarily a speedy operation, but that's more to do with the speed limitations of the mechanical hard drive, rather than the CXN.

If Cambridge can offer a better experience with their app' and add extra control with track navigation (fast forward and backward are missing), the CXN can make life very difficult for the competition at most price points.

Pros:
Impressive sound with on-board Wolfson DAC.
Supplied remote a delight. Internet radio easy to use.
Connectivity. Value.

Cons:
No fast forward or fast backwards.
No album art in random mode.
The app' was a bit disappointing.
Firmware updates quite rare.

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Hara

Je doit dire que cette appareil m'impression à bien des ...

Reviewed in Canada on December 30, 2016

Verified Purchase

Je doit dire que cette appareil m'impression à bien des niveaux, facile à utiliser, construction et composantes de grandes qualités et d'un réel plaisir à écouter.

Bravo à Cambridge !

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