"Budget Component of the Year" -- The Absolute Sound
Silver Medal "Best CD Player Between $1200 and $2400" 2008 - Hi-Fi Choice Magazine
"Short List" Favorite Product 2008 - The Absolute Sound Magazine
"The Best CD playback under $5,000 -- for $1,595"
The Cambridge Audio 840C upsampling CD player manages to surpass the performance of the critically acclaimed, award winning 640C. And that's no small feat. The 840C is based on a critically acclaimed proprietary Cambridge Audio CD transport and servo solution along with proven Sony laser optics.
The January 2008 issue of The Absolute Sound magazine named the Azur 840C its 2007 "Budget Component of the Year."
"Best CD Playback I've Heard"
According to The Absolute Sound's Editor-in-Chief Robert Harley, "The Cambridge 840C CD player delivers the best CD playback I've heard from any player under $5K -- and it costs $1,595." In fact, says Robert, in the September 2007 issue of The Absolute Sound, "The 840C is packed with advanced features, sophisticated technologies, and high-quality parts that one finds in digital products costing upward of $10K."
"Not only is the 840C easily the greatest value in digital sources in my experience, it must be considered one of the greatest bargains in all of high end audio," concludes Mr. Harley.
"Competitive with $6K CD Players"
The Absolute Sound magazine honored the Cambridge Audio 840C with a "Short List" favorite product recommendation in the Digital Sources Under $2K category in its January 2009 issue, praising its "sound quality that's competitive with $6K CD players."
Hi-Fi Choice Award Winner
England's Hi-Fi Choice magazine was so enamored with the 840C that in its Awards 2008 issue it honored it with a Silver Medal for "Best CD Player Between $1200 and $2400."
"Sumptuous, musical sound, fine build and a welter of facilities, make this a superb mid-price machine... thoroughly recommended," trumpets the February 2007 issue of England's Hi-fi World magazine.
The 840C was the Winner of the CD Player 'Ultimate Group Test' in the March 2007 issue of England's Hi-Fi Choice magazine. "Voices are very well differentiated from each other and free from any trace of sibilance. In short, the Cambridge is very good indeed."
Adaptive Time Filtering
The 840C's advanced technology is coupled to an all new and highly sophisticated Adaptive Time Filtering (ATF) asynchronous, upsampling DAC, developed by Cambridge Audio in conjunction with Anagram Technologies of Switzerland.
The ATF system intelligently interpolates 16-bit, 44.1 kHz CD data to 24-bit, 384 kHz data, through the use of a 32-bit Analog Devices 'Black-Fin' DSP. This, in turn, feeds two 24-bit, 384 kHz DACs from the same company in dual differential formation. The result is amazing high-resolution from standard CDs, reveal a level of detail you never imagined possible from non-SACD source material.
Huge Sense of Stereo Separation
Not only does each channel of the 840C has its own DAC to process information, but each channel also has completely separate analog filter circuitry, yielding a huge improvement in stereo separation over less ambitious designs. Because of the separation of left and right audio converters, this completely new DAC board for the Azur series embraces a perfectly symmetrical layout.
This ensures that both left and right channel circuitry operate identically. These enhancements ensure that the 840C delivers fantastic soundstaging and stereo imaging properties. The dual differential configuration also offers superior signal to noise ratios and exceptionally low distortion characteristics.
Comprehensive Filtering for Ultra Low Distortion
The 840C features a Four Pole Dual Differential Double Virtual Earth Balanced topology. This means the DAC for each channel features two fully balanced outputs, each of which are then summed in a third order virtual earth balanced filter stage for very low noise and distortion. This balanced configuration largely rejects any slight remaining distortion products present in the DACs. Then a further first order filter stage sums the balanced outputs of the earlier filter stages to reject the distortion products present in the filters.
Superior Chassis and Wireless Remote
The foundation of the 840C's excellence is a custom-designed chassis. An incredibly thick aluminum 7mm front panel and extruded side panels combine with a 2mm formed steel base plate and specially designed vibration absorbing feet. The result is an ultra rigid, low resonance, acoustically damped platform for the electronics.
The LCD provides two levels of brightness, and the new 'Navigator' wireless remote is highly ergonomic, making operation a pleasure.
Owner’s Manual (612k PDF)  | 
