Cambridge Audio CXN V2 Measurements (Streamer & DAC)
Hey folks,
Here is a quick review, measurements-based, of the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 streamer and DAC. It has been kindly loaned to me by @biglebowski. It was released in 2018 and is somehow quite popular in Europe. Actual MSRP in France is 1139€. This testing happened, coincidently, with the (terrible) review Amir just published for the CXA81 amplifier. Hopefully, the performance here does have nothing in common with the aforementioned.
The unit does have a bunch of digital inputs and outputs, with a lot of wireless support : Wi-Fi, BT, Chromecast, StreamMagic app, Roon Ready, Airplay, DLNA, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect and so on... Overall build quality is good, I just found it to be a bit light for its size. UI is smooth and fast and the (not notched) volume knob has a good feeling and feedback.
CXN uses some very old Wolfson WM8740 DAC chips, that were quite popular in the early 2010's and known for their "warm and dynamic sound", if I recall correctly.
Cambridge also advertises this to use internal (and non-bypassable) 24b/384Khz upsampling. Honestly, we should not pay attention to this kind of gimmicks. What we care about is what comes out of the analog outputs. Let's see how this affects (or does not) the performance...
Disclaimer: Measurements you are about to see are not intended to be as precise or extensive than what you get from a 30k€ AP. There is obviously both hardware and software limitations here, so not quite apples to apples comparison with Amir's testing. For example, I estimated SINAD (AKA THD+N) to be usually 5 to 6dB worse with my measurements rig, when compared to ASR reviews of the exact same products. Still, this data is enough to have a pretty good idea if the gear is bad or not, stellar, broken, or sub-par...
- ADC : E1DA Cosmos (Grade B), set to 4.5Vrms input for measuring XLR, or 2.7Vrms for RCA. Minimum phase filter. (3.5Vrms and 1.7Vrms have been used for preamp)
- Software : RMAA 6.4.5 PRO and Multitone Loopback Analyzer 1.0.13.
- Method : 8 runs for each test, then I chose the closest to the average. All tests are running 24bits / 44.1Khz.Here is a quick review, measurements-based, of the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 streamer and DAC. It has been kindly loaned to me by @biglebowski. It was released in 2018 and is somehow quite popular in Europe. Actual MSRP in France is 1139€. This testing happened, coincidently, with the (terrible) review Amir just published for the CXA81 amplifier. Hopefully, the performance here does have nothing in common with the aforementioned.
The unit does have a bunch of digital inputs and outputs, with a lot of wireless support : Wi-Fi, BT, Chromecast, StreamMagic app, Roon Ready, Airplay, DLNA, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect and so on... Overall build quality is good, I just found it to be a bit light for its size. UI is smooth and fast and the (not notched) volume knob has a good feeling and feedback.
CXN uses some very old Wolfson WM8740 DAC chips, that were quite popular in the early 2010's and known for their "warm and dynamic sound", if I recall correctly.
Disclaimer: Measurements you are about to see are not intended to be as precise or extensive than what you get from a 30k€ AP. There is obviously both hardware and software limitations here, so not quite apples to apples comparison with Amir's testing. For example, I estimated SINAD (AKA THD+N) to be usually 5 to 6dB worse with my measurements rig, when compared to ASR reviews of the exact same products. Still, this data is enough to have a pretty good idea if the gear is bad or not, stellar, broken, or sub-par...
- ADC : E1DA Cosmos (Grade B), set to 4.5Vrms input for measuring XLR, or 2.7Vrms for RCA. Minimum phase filter. (3.5Vrms and 1.7Vrms have been used for preamp)
- Software : RMAA 6.4.5 PRO and Multitone Loopback Analyzer 1.0.13.
- Cambridge CXN V2 : Fixed XLR outputs and USB input for most tests, unless specified otherwise. I cannot measure its output voltage precisely, but it is no doubt higher than the 4.1Vrms out of my Matrix, since RMAA sees the CXN at least 1dB stronger.
RMAA Summary
Test | Results | RMAA rating |
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB | +0.02, -0.07 | Excellent |
Noise level, dB (A) | -117.4 | Excellent |
Dynamic range, dB (A) | 117.4 | Excellent |
THD, % | 0.00055 | Excellent |
THD + Noise, dB (A) | -101.0 | Excellent |
IMD + Noise, % | 0.00084 | Excellent |
Stereo crosstalk, dB | -116.5 | Excellent |
IMD at 10 kHz, % | 0.00084 | Excellent |
Frequency response
Left | Right | |
From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB | -0.19, +0.02 | -0.18, +0.02 |
From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB | -0.07, +0.02 | -0.07, +0.02 |
Noise level
Left | Right | |
RMS power, dB | -116.1 | -116.1 |
RMS power (A-weighted), dB | -117.3 | -117.5 |
Peak level, dB FS | -91.0 | -90.8 |
DC offset, % | -0.0 | +0.0 |
THD + Noise (at -3 dBFS)
Left | Right | |
THD, % | 0.00057 | 0.00053 |
THD + Noise, % | 0.00078 | 0.00074 |
THD + Noise (A-weighted), % | 0.00093 | 0.00088 |
Dynamic range
Left | Right | |
Dynamic range, dB | +116.1 | +116.2 |
Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB | +117.3 | +117.4 |
DC offset, % | -0.00 | +0.00 |
Intermodulation distortion (swept tones)
Left | Right | |
IMD + Noise at 5000 Hz, | 0.00100 | 0.00090 |
IMD + Noise at 10000 Hz, | 0.00078 | 0.00073 |
IMD + Noise at 15000 Hz, | 0.00084 | 0.00077 |
Intermodulation distortion
| Left | Right |
IMD + Noise, % | 0.00085 | 0.00082 |
IMD + Noise (A-weighted), % | 0.00071 | 0.00068 |
Stereo Crosstalk
Left | Right | |
Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB | -111 | -112 |
Crosstalk at 1000 Hz, dB | -116 | -115 |
Crosstalk at 10000 Hz, dB | -116 | -116 |
RCA Measurements
Test | Cambridge CXN V2 USB (RCA) | Cambridge CXN V2 USB (XLR) |
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB | +0.02, -0.07 | +0.02, -0.07 |
Noise level, dB (A) | -110.1 | -117.4 |
Dynamic range, dB (A) | 109.8 | 117.4 |
THD, % | 0.00121 | 0.00055 |
IMD + Noise, % | 0.00189 | 0.00084 |
Stereo crosstalk, dB | -104.4 | -116.5 |
Performance goes down quite a bit using RCA outputs. Please note that my Cosmos ADC is not optimized for unbalanced measurements. Still, I've got better results from either Topping E30 or my Matrix Mini-i Pro 3 when measuring SE outputs. I consider this to be "good enough" for transparent music listening, but I would recommend to better use XLR outputs if you plan to buy a CXN.
USB versus S/PDIF
Test | Cambridge CXN V2 USB (XLR) | Cambridge CXN V2 S/PDIF Toslink (XLR) |
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB | +0.02, -0.07 | +0.02, -0.10 |
Noise level, dB (A) | -117.4 | -117.0 |
Dynamic range, dB (A) | 117.4 | 116.9 |
THD, % | 0.00055 | 0.00056 |
IMD + Noise, % | 0.00084 | 0.00083 |
Stereo crosstalk, dB | -116.5 | -115.9 |
Performance is mostly identical with whatever USB, Coax, or Optical input.
"Digital Preamp" mode
Test | Volume 25/30 (relative to 3.5Vrms input) | Volume 20/30 (relative to 1.7Vrms input) |
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB | +0.01, -0.08 | +0.02, -0.07 |
Noise level, dB (A) | -113.7 | -102.1 |
Dynamic range, dB (A) | 113.7 | 101.9 |
THD, % | 0.00019 | 0.00033 |
IMD + Noise, % | 0.00084 | 0.00274 |
Stereo crosstalk, dB | -112.5 | -101.1 |
That is expected behaviour: only SNR goes down along with the signal, which is typical of digital attenuation. I found no other issues which would not be related to higher noise with lower signal.
Multitone Analyzer (100 tones, 5 averages)
XLR
RCA
Multitone tells the same story : you get good performance out of balanced outputs, and not that great (yet acceptable) from RCA. In fairness, tho, even RCA did still perform a touch better than the Schiit Modi 3 I measured in this same test.
Conclusions
Unlike the CXA81 that is supposed to be paired with, the CXN V2 did not fail to produce good results. What you do not have here is State Of The Art performance, when comparing to some budget DACs from most famous Chinese manufacturers. What you do have, tho, is audible transparency, along with tons of features and connectivity. These are what you pay for. This review being focused on objective performance only, I let @biglebowski comments about regular usage.
Flanker rating: Competent (XLR). Good enough (RCA).
Flanker rating: Competent (XLR). Good enough (RCA).
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