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Review and Measurements of Cambridge Audio Duo Phono Preamp

JJB70

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One of the issues with these things is it is entirely irrelevant if others have had a good experience if you have been let down, as the only experience that really matters is your own. For example, I'll never buy another Audi and my wife won't buy Samsung devices, but equally I recognise that there are clearly a lot of happy Audi and Samsung customers in the world. In the case of Cambridge the feedback I hear tends to be very positive and at least here I am confident in their dealers customer service.
 

VintageFlanker

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One of the issues with these things is it is entirely irrelevant if others have had a good experience if you have been let down, as the only experience that really matters is your own.
You got me wrong. I'm not complaining only about both my units were defective. Propably hundreds of owners may be happy with the 851 line. I'm complaining about the fact some company asking 300€ for repair a defective unit bought less than one year before. (that what PPL Audio ask as a "warranty") That may happen to every single customer here in France (I don't have a clue in others EU countries) and this should not be, in any case, normal.
And OH, looks like I'm not the only one to complain about the 851A: https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Azur-851A-Integrated-Silver/dp/B008J391ZU (whatever it is "revelant" or not;))
 

JJB70

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You got me wrong. I'm not complaining only about both my units were defective. Propably hundreds of owners may be happy with the 851 line. I'm complaining about the fact some company asking 300€ for repair a defective unit bought less than one year before. (that what PPL Audio ask as a "warranty") That may happen to every single customer here in France (I don't have a clue in others EU countries) and this should not be, in any case, normal.
And OH, looks like I'm not the only one to complain about the 851A: https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Azur-851A-Integrated-Silver/dp/B008J391ZU (whatever it is "revelant" or not;))

That is certainly a valid case in France, did you follow up with their parent company? Sometimes companies do take stuff like this seriously as they are aware of what it does to their brand image.
 

VintageFlanker

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That is certainly a valid case in France, did you follow up with their parent company? Sometimes companies do take stuff like this seriously as they are aware of what it does to their brand image.
Sure. Both Cambridge and my local dealer said to refer to PPL Audio (the official Cambridge Importer in France), nothing more.

One strange thing however (sorry if it is a bit off topic) : I bought 3 years ago a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 10s. Also a British company and also only imported by PPL Audio. These speakers have a 5 years warranty. One of my 8" woofer died on one of my speakers. I put it out and brought back the defective woofer to my local dealer. And 3 weeks later, I received a brand new woofer by delivery. I didn't have to pay ANY cent for this. This is what I call support and whatever the speaker was "defective", I can recommend Monitor Audio with confidence due to the great (and free) support I got from them.
 

graz_lag

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Maybe you can get some support from Cambridge once you leave in UK. Great. But it seems that "support" simply doesn't exist once the product is sold in the "so far away" country that France is... And this appart from such a poor QC on two 1600€ "flagship" units bought in two different stores. ;)

It is pity the issues you faced with the CA' machines as from a sonic POV they are excellent.
I did a close comparison in my setup during the purchasing process of my universal blu-ray player between the Oppo 105 and CA 752BD.
That was a tough decision of mine back in 2015 in favor of the Oppo 105 merely because of its larger popularity in the market, as from the sonic & image POVs the 752BD was of "few millimeters" better ... to me of course.

Faulty units can always happen, analogies with the cars are too easy ... my current Volvo come with 24-months warranty, OK not much but you trust the brand above all ... Well, 6-weeks after the said 24-months period, the diesel injectors started dying, one after the other ... 1,800€ repairing bill with no way to get one single cent covered by either Volvo Le Mans or by Volvo France ... Ohh injectors made by Siemens not by "My Sister & Associates" injector industries !
 

ryanmh1

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Nice review. It's good to see that Cambridge at least manages to hit their noise specifications, which are at 70dB for the MC and 90dB for the MM. That is very respectable. Note that these specs are NOT A-weighted, so they are not directly comparable to a lot of other products, in particular Japanese products which have a tendency to use an old IHF specification from the 1960s. Without that hum, I wonder how much better the Cambridge would have done... If they cleaned that up, and provided for a method to select 10/50/100 ohm for MC carts, they would have a really great product. As it is, it's just okay due to the lack of flexibility. And if all you need of a MM preamp, why spend the extra for a rather lazily implemented head amp? Separate preamps without cartridge loading selections confuse me. It's a weird little niche product as it stands, and to defeat the usefulness of it on top of that?
 

patient_ot

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My main experience with Cambridge is the 351A integrated amp which I still use daily. I've had it for a few years and it has been reliable so far. Interesting that the more expensive 851A seemed to have a lot of issues. FWIW this is not the first time I've heard about QC/QA/Reliability issues with Cambridge products. For awhile they had a CD transport which was very popular and I even thought about buying one until I realized lots of people were complaining about the disc mechanism inside failing in a few months and having to send it in for warranty service.
 

patient_ot

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Nice review. It's good to see that Cambridge at least manages to hit their noise specifications, which are at 70dB for the MC and 90dB for the MM. That is very respectable. Note that these specs are NOT A-weighted, so they are not directly comparable to a lot of other products, in particular Japanese products which have a tendency to use an old IHF specification from the 1960s. Without that hum, I wonder how much better the Cambridge would have done... If they cleaned that up, and provided for a method to select 10/50/100 ohm for MC carts, they would have a really great product. As it is, it's just okay due to the lack of flexibility. And if all you need of a MM preamp, why spend the extra for a rather lazily implemented head amp? Separate preamps without cartridge loading selections confuse me. It's a weird little niche product as it stands, and to defeat the usefulness of it on top of that?


While loading switches are a lot more convenient, it's really not that hard to use loading plugs instead. Hum would be an absolute no go for me. I'm not shopping for a new phono preamp right now but I wonder how the cheaper Solo model measures compared to this one.
 

BYRTT

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Praise @amirm get the idea overlay hearing threshold there, and him pinky figure is marvelous.

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anmpr1

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In my experience, FWIW, the biggest electrical problem with phono is hum. Generally, once that issue is minimized, mechanical limitations (warps, pops and clicks, and possibly turntable isolation/arm/cartridge resonances) become the next factors that influence things. I never considered phono stages, per se, a big problem. For MC, a dedicated transformer is theoretically the best noise solution (I don't know how it is now, but back in the day 'high end' makers such as Mitch Cotter designed their transformers for specific cartridges). I don't get too excited about it, one way or the other. I'm currently using a 9 volt battery unit (originally designed by the late EE professor, Marshall Leach, described as a construction project in the belated Audio magazine). Coupled to a 1960s era MC with spherical diamond cartridge and a turntable I bought in 1975--no problems.

I just don't get the vinyl high end crowd. I once read a 'review' of two identical Grace tonearms. One was silver aluminum, and the other a black aluminum. The 'reviewer' was convinced that the black tonearm made the sound 'dark'. Why not? Also, a review of the latest and greatest Technics SL-1200 (four thousand dollars--chump change in analog land). It didn't 'sound right' to the reviewer, but when he changed interconnects to a more expensive brand, that solved the problem. When I read this sort of nonsense, it makes me not even want to play a record. But I admit that it's fun watching them spin round and round. I think it's probably an autistic kind of thing on my part. LOL
 

ryanmh1

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aluminum. The 'reviewer' was convinced that the black tonearm made the sound 'dark'. Why not? Also, a review of the latest and greatest Technics SL-1200 (four thousand dollars--chump change in analog land). It didn't 'sound right' to the reviewer, but when he changed interconnects to a more expensive brand, that solved the problem. When I read this sort of nonsense, it makes me not even want to play a record. But I admit that it's fun

Panasonic scrapped all of the original dies and tooling to make them, apparently, and decided they had to reintroduce it at $4000 to try to recover some of the cost. Now you can buy a "DJ" version for $999, which is a good deal for a direct drive turntable, although I'd still be included to buy the $1600 SL-1200GR variant, which is made in Japan and has a heavier platter and some other improvements. But still ... interconnects "fixing" something? I cringe each time I read that sort of thing. I'm surprised someone hasn't invented "PCB INTERCONNECTS" so that the signal never has to leave the little green board and the magical traces that must populate the inside of the equipment. :rolleyes:
 

rwortman

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You can use a head amp or transformer to bring an MC cartridge up to MM levels and feed a MM phono stage. No reason in the world they can't share the same box. You just bypass a gain stage for the MM inputs. I own a modestly price phono preamp that does both and have used both inputs. I didn't measure anything but as far as listening is concerned it works well with either type of cartridge. I just looked at that page. Of course it's a phono stage designer explaining why he is right and everyone else is wrong. It also helps talk you into buying more of his stuff.
 

restorer-john

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Oddly, the after sales support is precisely why I'd look favourably at Cambridge Audio as if I did have issues the shop is almost on my door step as these things go, and has a very good reputation for customer care.

I can speak favorably of Cambridge Audio too. They never hesitate to provide technical information (service manuals) where the issues are remote (Australia!) and where a component level repair may be the only option.
 

anmpr1

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Panasonic scrapped all of the original dies and tooling to make them, apparently, and decided they had to reintroduce it at $4000 to try to recover some of the cost. :rolleyes:

In 1975, I guess it was, I bought a Technics SL-1100a. $270.00 if I remember correctly. In an Army exchange store. In 2005 I bought an SL-1200 Mk5 ($500.00 at a guitar store) because I figured the 1100 would eventually die, and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get anything comparable to replace it. The 1100 is still going, and the 1200 is in the original box, somewhere. Under the bed, I think. I play records because that's what I grew up with, and always kept mine in good shape. People who think records 'sound better' because they 'resolve' better than digital are delusional. They sound different, that's for sure. Record liner notes are much easier to read, so they have that going for them. And they are interactive: you can spend hours aligning carts, adjusting tonearm settings, swapping out different cartridges, etc. Kind of silly when you think of it. But kind of fun.
 

JohnYang1997

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The head and right hand of this pink panther is no more, sadly.
 

Ecaroh

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Does anyone have overload measurements of the kind done in later phono stage reviews here??
 
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