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Cambridge Edge W power amplifier measurements

McFly

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Oliver Masciarotte and Stuart Yaniger of Audio Xpress reviewed and published some nice in-depth AP measurements on this power amplifier for anybody interested here; this is a beautifully packaged amp and Cambridge audio doesn’t get much discussion here.
Review (PDF) here
 

Max

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Nice ! The THD and the multitone spectrum are clean. Thanks for posting, I didn't know this Cambridge line.
 

VintageFlanker

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Oliver Masciarotte and Stuart Yaniger of Audio Xpress reviewed and published some nice in-depth AP measurements on this power amplifier for anybody interested here; this is a beautifully packaged amp and Cambridge audio doesn’t get much discussion here.
Review (PDF) here
Thanks for sharing. At least, this is not audiophile BS. Very clean for a Class AB amp, with stellar industrial design. Still, I don't think it is competitive regarding power abilities...
 

Matias

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Very good measurements, but 4k usd for 200W in 4 ohms is not very competitive with an NC252MP for example imo.
 

Vasr

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I have always found Cambridge Audio products intriguing (and aesthetically pleasing) but the price always off-putting for what they deliver. Why would anyone buy this over the Benchmark paying $1000 more?
 

SIY

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I have always found Cambridge Audio products intriguing (and aesthetically pleasing) but the price always off-putting for what they deliver. Why would anyone buy this over the Benchmark paying $1000 more?

Esthetics is a significant factor for some. It's absolutely gorgeous.
 

Pluto

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Audio Xpress reviewed and published some nice in-depth AP measurements on this power amplifier
Although it is difficult to take a reviewer seriously when he writes comments such as...
At the time of the review, my Level 3 speaker cables had reached the end of their service life
 

ex audiophile

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Although it is difficult to take a reviewer seriously when he writes comments such as...
At least he knew enough to burn in the new cables before serious listening ;)
"For comparison, I used two identical Soundstring GEN II Digimax-18 power cables for the Edge W and my Class A Lindell AMPX reference (see Photo 3). At the time of the review, my Level 3 speaker cables had reached the end of their service life, so I reached out to Paul Speltz at Anticables, who provided an upgraded set of Level 3.1 cables. After a burn-in period, the new pair exhibited improved resolution and mo’ betta bottom, so I felt I was ready to dig into the subjective portion of the review."
 

nemanja_t

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But how they compare to CA 851W, which is cheaper and more powerful with 200W per channel in 8 Ohms? Both are utilizing A class for first watts, that’s why there are heating so much.
 

anmpr1

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Although it is difficult to take a reviewer seriously when he writes comments such as...
How do you know when your cables reach the end of their 'service life'? I mean, other than when the end terminations short out, or something. Do these special cables come with a meter, or do they turn a different color when they are used up? This gave me my beginning of the week laugh out loud, but I'd sort of like to know. Just theoretically mind you...
 

Vasr

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Esthetics is a significant factor for some. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Fair point. It has that Apple look going for it.

Although I must say that the alternatives aren't just Behringer, Crown, or Paradigm type (unnecessarily busy) designs. It is subjective on how one values aesthetics, of course, but Benchmark AHB2 isn't an ugly duckling either.
 
OP
McFly

McFly

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Re price; only came up on my radar because the benchmark is about 50% more expensive vs this once landed down here. I found the measurements and knew people here like measurements.
 

JohnYang1997

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IMD is horrible. Distortion harmonics are also a bit high. Noise is also not very impressive. Not bad overall among all other junks but definitely not the first tier performance.
 

SIY

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IMD is horrible. Distortion harmonics are also a bit high. Noise is also not very impressive. Not bad overall among all other junks but definitely not the first tier performance.

That's a... novel reading of the data. HD was lower than the AP residuals, IMD for 19/20kHz was at -120dB.
 

JohnYang1997

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That's a... novel reading of the data. HD was lower than the AP residuals, IMD for 19/20kHz was at -120dB.
Am I reading the wrong data??:facepalm:
EDIT:
I don't think so. There's only one file shared on this thread. Isn't it -11x dB harmonics ? And 0.002% thd+n with 4ohm at 5W? -100dB imd with next order higher to near -90db?
 
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SIY

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Am I reading the wrong data??:facepalm:
EDIT:
I don't think so. There's only one file shared on this thread. Isn't it -11x dB harmonics ? And 0.002% thd+n with 4ohm at 5W? -100dB imd with next order higher to near -90db?

The HD is the AP residual, as mentioned in the text. 1st order IMD (1kHz) was -114dB below the 14V reference, then take another 6dB because there's two 14V signals.
 
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