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At 360mm wide and taking up not much more space than an LP’s footprint, this Denon turntable fits where others don’t. The smart silver design stands out from the crowd but uses a matte finish for practicality. Covering the history of Cambridge Audio and the evolution of its budget offerings would serve only to prematurely wear the keys of my already battered keyboard. If you’re interested, I wrote on the subject at length in my AX series summary. If you’re not, the review herein is strictly dedicated to the AXA35 amplifier and will also detail the AXA25. On paper the two amplifiers are very similar with only a 10W jump in output power and specification improvements setting them apart, but in practice they are two very different amplifiers. The AXA25 is a very indirect successor to the A1 and to an extent my A5, whereas the AXA35 is cut from the same cloth as the proceeding Topaz AM10 and the Topaz receivers.
Inside the AXA25 you’ll find quality components and short signal paths for the best sound quality in its class. Careful circuit design reduces the signal path, giving higher purity sound and less distortion. Other quality engineering components include a high-spec heat sink that is die-cast rather than pressed steel and a damped power supply – reducing the chance of annoying transformer hum and buzz. Some amplifiers will have a dedicated phono stage built in, so when you plug your turntable into the specific input, it’s signal is boosted and can be heard just like your other sources. Just like the partnering CD player, the AXA35 feels solid when you lift it. There’s no flex in its casework which is perfectly fitted and neatly presented with the side screws in deep recesses to obscure them from view. The top of the amp is vented with a grid of tiny holes to let the heat escape, though it doesn’t get above mildly warm in operation.The -35 models have an impressive solidity, from their styling and build to the way the controls operate With a front port, these bass reflex speakers are punchier than you might expect and in no way could they ever be described as tinny. Over all, they may be small but the sound is grown-up, with excellent staging, realism and surprisingly powerful. It should be noted though that abusing the tone controls to get more bass out of a low-powered system is not always a good idea. It’s nothing to do with some snobbish view that “it’s not how hi-fi should be heard” blah blah, but because with a 35W amp excessive use of the tone controls at high volume will cause the amp to clip sooner. Clipping, a flattening of the peaks in the audio waveform, is more often than not the cause of blown speakers, not excessive power. Thus you’re more likely to damage your speakers with this amp if you turn the bass to max and crank up the volume than you will if you leave the tone controls flat. On the inside, the AXA35 is − hey! − a 35W-per-channel device. It’s not the most exciting number you ever saw written down, but in practice it’s more than enough to drive most price-appropriate speakers to quite significant volumes without alarm. Cambridge Audio AXA35 sound quality − Confident and remarkably self-assured performance The AXA25 makes do with conventional knobs for volume, input selection and so on, while the pricier (!) AXA35 looks rather more grown-up with a display and a menu system, creating a much less cluttered fascia. The display shows input and volume levels as a default, while pressing the ‘menu’ button beside the volume control will allow access to bass, treble and balance functions.
The Fyne Audio F300i has a neat and compact presence that makes it ideal for so many different uses. Perfect for stereo sound in a smaller room or as a desktop speaker system, its big-hearted sound defies its dimensions. The highly dynamic sound also makes it ideal as a home cinema satellite speaker. The LM3886 does, however, have inbuilt protection against over and under-voltage, power supply and output short circuits, thermal runaway and instantaneous temperature peaks. They are durable and reliable chips and offer excellent performance comparable to a discrete output stage. Regardless of the amplifier you use you should always consider its limitations in partnering equipment and the environment. I’ve fixed a few AM10s over the years with blown output chips all as a result of driving too heavy a load at too high a volume. If your system is obviously distorting or if you’re running the amp at or near its maximum volume, upgrade to a model with more power. I gave it an all-around listen − Neil Young’s Cortez the Killer via Spotify, on a smartphone, through the 3.5mm input, sounds confident, straight-edged (as much as Neil Young can ever sound all that disciplined) and there’s plenty of detail revealed about the condition of both Young’s larynx and the state of his guitar strings. The low-level dynamics are handled well, and there’s well-controlled impact to the drumkit. Under the display, there’s a row of four buttons, each corresponding to the relevant analogue input on the rear. A volume dial and menu button are on the right, while a 6.35mm headphone output and 3.5mm auxiliary input sandwich the amp’s infrared receiver on the left. There’s a shortage of high-quality hi-fi electronics at the budget end of the market, so it’s good to see Cambridge Audio produce an amplifier with the musicality and all-round appeal of the AXA35.You can drive a 4Ω load with the AXA35, and you’ll get just shy of 60W per channel before clipping starts to occur. Expect about 50W into a 4Ω load at more reasonable distortion levels. I didn’t test this extensively as blowing up the review sample is generally frowned upon, accidentally or otherwise. One of the key differentiators is the user interface. The AXA25 has old-fashioned analogue knobs for bass, treble, volume and balance. I presume that it is a fully analogue component design, though I don’t have one here so I can’t lift the lid to say for sure. The AXA35 has a digital interface as evidenced by the push-button input selection and digitally-controlled volume, complete with volume level display and tone and balance controls hidden behind a simple menu system. Assuming I’m right about the AXA25’s implementation of good old-fashioned potentiometers, the better AXA35 should be a significant jump in performance without the channel mismatch and noise issues associated with cheaper analogue pots. At the top end, things are slightly smoothed off by the amplifier, though the CD player used alone sounds rather bright and light. Together, the two produce a sound that’s not the last word in ambience and atmosphere, with concert-hall acoustics more hinted at than made explicit, but again this is only really apparent when comparing the two with much more expensive components.
Passing your driving test is a rite of passage for many teenagers. With it comes a newly found freedom to go where you want, when you want. There are four pairs of stereo RCA inputs on the rear panel, plus an additional 3.5mm input on the fascia. The rear panel also has stereo RCA outputs for connection to a recording device. And, just to prove that the old school and the new school can sometimes be the same thing, there’s a moving magnet phono stage for use with a turntable, accessible via RCA inputs on the rear panel. The output signal from a turntable is very quiet, and needs additional amplification before it’s able to be put into an amplifier. This boost is handled by what’s called a phono stage. This care also extends to the DAC or digital-analogue convertor which turns that series of ones and zeros from your CD into the traditional analogue wave form. It’s important to keep everything in the right place and neatly in time so the analogue wave sounds as natural as possible. Cambridge have use a WM8524 chip at the heart of this circuitry which is a great component at this price point. One thing to note: you don’t have to use the internal DAC on the Cambridge AXC35. Unlike the AXC25, you can choose to bypass the internal DAC and send the digital signal from your CD player out to an external unit which can do an even better job. It’s a great feature for those keen to tinker and improve their sound in future. A unit like the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic Plus would be a great upgrade here.
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The frequency response is relatively flat. There’s a gentle roll-off below 100Hz and above 10kHz, but it’s only 0.2dB down at 20Hz and 20kHz, the limits of the audio band. In reality this won’t be audible, so any characteristic sound will be due to its limitations in power, component-level tuning and preamplifier noise more than anything else. The AXA35 has plenty of power to fill a mid-sized room providing you’re using efficient speakers. Most budget amps of the ‘70s and ‘80s were this way, and they survived many a party. The A1, the amplifier that revived the Cambridge brand after the Audio Partnership takeover, was only 25 watts per channel and it can make a lot of noise with the right speakers. As well as being more powerful, the AXA35 also improves internal component quality, giving improved sonic detail and realism with less distortion. The toroidal power transformer and separate pre/power amp circuit boards are features usually only found in much more expensive amplifiers, making the AXA35 something of a giant-slayer. It might be the AXA35’s confident way with timing that’s the single most surprising/impressive aspect of its performance. Vinyl gives a system every chance to show off its facility (or otherwise) for the timing and unity of a recording, and the AXA35’s phono stage lets Felt’s The Splendour of Fear roll along in the most natural manner. Founded in 1910, Denon has over 110 years’ experience in audio and is one of the longest established hi-fi companies in the world. Since being at the forefront of gramophone technology in 1910, they went on to lead with professional disc cutting devices, LPs, audio cassette, professional and domestic CD, home cinema, DVD and much more. This unparalleled experience means you can be assured of the best performance-per-pound from the Denon DP-29F.
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