Cambridge Audio AXN 10 - Separate High Resolution WiFi Network Audio Player and Streamer Featuring Bluetooth 5.0, Internet Radio and ESS SABRE DAC - Lunar Grey

Cambridge Audio AXN10 ReviewThe full sized AXN10 and its mini-sized MXN10 are essentially a no frills cut down version of the Cambridge CXN100 the successor to the widely acclaimed and highly ubiquitous CXNV2 streamer.When I say no frills - for about half the money of the CXN100 - £450 instead of £900 the AXN10 / MXN10 gives you the high-end core streamer capabilities of CXN100 without the frills such as the ability to use it as an external DAC as the AXN10 / MXN10 only has digital outputs and no digital inputs, not so many output options. Also, there is no handy nice colour display and jog wheel on the front panel with everything on the AXN10 entirely controlled via Cambridge’s smart phone app rather than the front panel or via a remote. The good news is by sacrificing the addons, the AXN10 apparently does not compromise one iota on sound quality as Cambridge say that sonically the AXN10 / MXN10 is the same as CXN100. Ok a YouTube review from an American hi-fi retailer did say that they could tell a slight sonic inferiority for the AXN10 / MXN10 compared to the CXN100 but only when tested on a $40,000 (£36,000) state of the art hi-fi system!!!! which means for most of us they are indeed practically identical unless your hi-fi components cost tens of thousand pounds each.The build quality is very good, and it looks great and with no front display it looks very audiophile minimalist in the tradition of NAD which Cambridge have somewhat emulated, but its silver facia makes it look more classy, refined and upmarket. The only thing where the front display would have come in useful was the initial installation using the Cambridge app where configuring the network setup might have been more reliable as would a PC web interface in addition to the I-Phone and Android smart phones and tablets.My Android phone hung up after adding my Wi-Fi key and I had to reboot the phone and when I restarted the app, I kept getting a message saying my device was not configured and prompting me to press OK which either didn’t respond or would hang or freeze. Eventually after a load of reboots I reset the AXN10 and rerun the set up via the app and finally all was well at least, so I thought. I found that running the Cambridge Streammagic app hanged my Nokia 2.4 Android phone, so I ended up purchasing an Android tablet and since then all is fine.So, after getting it up and running how does it perform? The simple answer is extremely well. The app is intuitive and easy to use. How does it sound? very good so far - I have only listened to MP3 on a USB Stick and internet radio - and gives it gives a full bodied & dynamic sound and quite a thrilling and engaging listen. On Classical recordings & soundtracks and ambient house and techno, the strings sound lush and sweet rather than the harsh and brittle sound on cheap streamers and cymbals suffer much less from the woolly sock effect even on lower bit rate files. The bass is nicely refined – clearly punchy and well separated. On rock and pop recordings vocals are very up front and centre stage.It’s hard to say whether MP3s ripped from my CD collection – usually at 192kbs, 256kbs or 320kbs sound better or worse than playback from my Marantz CD6003 CD player. Obviously, the process of ripping a CD and encoding MP3s removes data (musical information and sound frequencies that we apparently don’t notice) during the compression process even if the Cambridge streamer can extract more detail from an MP3. The main thing is what I have listened too generally sound very good with any sonic loss is seemingly minimal which means that there is little or no trade-off between sound quality and convenience: yes with the AXN10 / MXN10 you can have your cake and eat it.Given that Amazon are selling the AXN10 / MXN10 for a £349.00 – a hundred quid less than is recommended retail price – this is an excellent piece of kit

I believe this network player is the best on the market for a budget of £500. Sounds very neutral so it can be used with any amplifier which is excellent. Very easy to set up with an excellent android app Stream Magic. The app is just great and it is working flawless with no interruptions. I am using a Marantz amplifier via coaxial digital and Lan connection with cat cable straight from my internet provider router. Quality with Tidal Master is very good. A lot of internet radios to choose from. I am saving my cd collection into my computer and I can listen to them as well using an upnp app from DbPowerAmp.Very easy, very intuitive. Excellent product. Well done for Cambridge Audio.

Incredible, regardless of the price. Years ago someone would have had to spend thousands to get sound quality like this. Plus it’s easy and fun to use - the app is very well designed and just works. Easy to set up too. Has replaced a DAC in my systems costing many times this.

Easy to set up and use. The Stream Magic app is superb.

i couldnt get the app to 'see' the streamer and wasnt able to add manually as the IP address not available to try and connect wirelessly. Not the most intuitive and needs a better solution to add 'manually'. I finally got the connection via my wifes' phone and following a firmware update, i got it working on my iphone. The sound is great and now working without issue.

It was exactly what I wanted, plug my hard drive in with more albums on it than I can listen to ,open the app then boom music to my ears , I have also got the 30 day trial with tidal and the sound is amazing. Highly recommend,easy to set up .