Cambridge Audio Product Reliability

I had Cambridge Audio integrated A3i, that was shorting outputs with a lot of hum and smell of power transformer. I found out, talking to designer of this amp, that 4 LED diodes (2 per channel) used as voltage reference for output section, are mounted to close to PCB and overheat. He advised me to buy 4 green 5mm LEDs and solder them with long leads and it worked. Whole problem started when they moved production to China. Either Chinese manufacturing was sloppy or Cambridge Audio was sloppy by not providing mounting instructions or by poor design. It was long time ago but things like that should not happen especially when company knows about them. It could even damage my speakers. I would expect recall for that.

that is to say that Cambridge is an example that they can't get done anything perfect. if not one critical problem than the other critical one will reveal.
that is one of the reason why i've backed out from cambridge dacmagic

Had a Cambridge SS receiver and a tuner. Both developed problems. Have their phono preamp with no issues thus far. Their DAC magic was high on my list, did not want to chance it.

A lot of other brands to choose from, for myself CA won't be one of them.

My DACMagic and 640p phono pre have worked fine so far for years (both have upgraded power supplies...no clue if that makes any difference in longevity)...but after this thread I'll be keeping my eye on 'em...sneaky little bastards...they sit there and sound great until one day they BETRAY ME...damn...another thing to worry about...

I have a Cambridge Audio Azur 640C CDP, and after about 3 years the tray developed an intermittent (now constant) hitch that keeps it from loading properly unless you "help" it along, and not always even then. Luckily it's working this moment, feeding into an Audio-GD DAC and playing Wayne Shorter's newest, but I figure it'll be toast soon enough.