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Cambridge Audio Azur 851N

Fellow audiophiles,

Does anyone have any experience with Azur851N? How good it sounds? I have had Olive 4HD and Sonos in my HT setup and looking for a better sound. I do fair amount of streaming off Spotify and Amazon and got lot of music stored on my FAT32 USB drive. Azur851N looks very promising (atleast on paper). I will be pairing this unit with a Classe SSP800 and B&W 803's. Any comments or feedback is greatly appreciated.
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kren0006
1,859 posts
 
Some Cambridge units have toggle switch on back to switch between 240 and 120. Edge W amp has it for example but instructions say don’t touch it. Not sure if 851n has that
masterumc
1 posts
 
Aug 20, 2020
Purchased a 851N about a month ago. Its now Roon ready and supports almost all online music services. The App is good and no issues that I can see. Tidal integrates very well.

The only way to really get the best from the 851N and its built in DAC's is connection via Balanced XLR. The unit comes to life with XLR!. Just sounds incredible.
hickamore
658 posts
 
Agree with masterumc. Feed the 851N with USB (have not tried AES/EBU or coax)  and out with good balanced XLR. This is true whether using 851N only as a DAC out to a line preamp (as I do) or straight to power amp using digital preamp mode (as I did before deciding which line tube preamp to buy).
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