Cambridge Audio 840C


I'm looking for a near-reference audio-only balanced CD Player. I briefly listened to the 840C in a store demo. and it sounded very good, but unfortunately I couldn't compare it to anything. Has anyone had a chance to compare the 840C to a good balanced CD Player such as the Esoteric SA-60 or SA-10, Ayre C-5xe or CX-7 or Krell SACD Standard?
sunset_ranch
I heard it at Tweeters with Krell integrated and Focal speakers. It was very musical and engaging. No direct comparison and I do not think it is as as good as the Audio Aero Presige and Theta Jade/Gen 8 I have at home but I still liked the Cambridge 840C. It is really a very nice player.
and that may well be true -- comparing it the audio aero and theta - and after 3 weeks and even 2 months it is so wonderfully musical to listen to - i know evryone must be tired of me saying the same thing over and over - but today i had some music on that i (of all things downloaded from the internet - lossless) and it was so engaging - the player still amazes me going on 5 months.

smargo
I did the comparison between CA 640 V2 and 840. The system consisted of CA 840A integrated amp and I connected AKG K601 headphones to this amp. Both CDPs were connected at the same time and I was listening to the same discs running in both players in the same time. Then I switched between two inputs to hear the difference.

And I didn't heard any ... to be honest. It was big disappointment having in mind the technology built into CA 840. And 840 costs about twice as much as 640 V2. It may be that 840A is not good enough to show the differences, but it should be ... AKGs are excellent headphones and they are certainly not the reason for this disappointment.

Anyway, the only player that I heard until 1000 euro mark that does make a difference is Naim CD 5i.
Thank you Dejanm for that comparison, which goes to show how very crucial the circuitry and resulting transparency is of the jack that we plug high resolution headphones into, be it a well regarded intergrated, the player itself or another headamp.
True enough that the differances between the two models maybe audiably subtle, but I would still fault the lack of transparency of the headphone jack/amp if the conclusion is that there is no differance to be heard.

Although I do sincerely appreciate the comparison, and your opinion.
I completely agree with Finthen. I have listened to some great players that sounded only mediocre through their headphone jack. Dejanm, can you hook it up to a speaker system for comparison?