What Hi Fi Sound and Vision
17 NOV 2003
Cambridge Audio Azur 540A V2.0
For the money, it’s brilliant – but sounds best with neutral or warm-sounding partners
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Cambridge Audio’s effect on the world of budget hi-fi electronics can be justifiably compared to Apple’s on the portable music market arena. The British company’s Azur range of integrated amplifiers and CD players has set new performance standards. If we counted the number of times we’ve been asked about an Azur-based set-up, the total would be, well, a big number.
This amplifier builds on the original 540A, and one of the major additions is its ‘Incognito-ready’ status. Incognito is Cambridge Audio’s multiroom system, and this amp can drive music in up to three different rooms. Looking for a cheap and easy way towards multi-room? This is one.
Available in black or silver, the Azur 540A V2.0 is a chunky-looking fellow, but the build quality is great, and one of the best remotes around backs up a sensibly laid-out fascia. There are five line-level inputs, plus a couple of tape loops and a preamp out, while by-passable tone controls allow you to optimise sound quality. However, there’s no phono stage built-in, so you’d need to partner it with something like Cambridge’s £40 540P for vinyl playback.
Coming over loud and clear
In operation, the Azur sounds incredibly clear. It puffs hard into the balloon that is your system’s soundstage, enabling a large-sounding delivery. The Beatles’ Come Together fills your room, and the tune drives along with purpose. There are great amounts of detail on offer, and you can detect the Fab Four’s layered vocals. Dynamics and timing also impress, and the Cambridge delivers the increasing sense of urgency towards the tune’s end.
So far, so very successful budget stereo amp. There is, however, one area of the 540A V2.0’s performance you should be well aware of, if not quite beware. Higher-frequency delivery is ‘on the edge’. Create the wrong environment for the amp – say, choosing bright-sounding system partners, or setting it up in a hard-surfaced, bright-sounding room – and you might find the treble grates.
On the other hand, if you select your partnering kit wisely, this Cambridge machine’s performance belies its price by a Duty Free Toblerone-size chunk. This is one tasty stereo amplifier, and one that’s well worth unwrapping.