General Asylum: REVIEW: Cambridge Audio CD-6 CD Player/Recorder by Chris Garrett

Back in May when the decision to revamp the STEREO was made, the Denon
DCD920 was the first source component on the chopping block. My local
guy sold Rotel units and I had my eyes on the 971 @$700 list and possibly
the Musical Fidelity E-624 for $650 (if I exchanged the Denon, $850 solo.)
I'm not the auditioning type, so I combed AR's database and went to some
online mags gathering info. An email regarding the MF X-24 DAC as a
bandaid approach led me to the Cambridge Audio line of 'budget' cdps.

I found many reviews on their CD4se and CD6 and a decision was made and a dealer was found. $544 later, I was waiting in anticipation for what many felt was a great value and great sounding mid level deck.

The unit arrived 3 weeks late and directly from the NA distributor which
resulted in my getting a $25 s/h refund, thereby costing me $519 shipped.

I remember taking it out of the packaging and placing it onto the kitchen
table for the 'burn in' process, as I was on my way to work. The unit has a very nice heft to it when compared to the Japanese type 'budget' players
and even my Toshiba DVDp. The finish is a nice 'baked' on enamel/krinkle
black. The display and control panel are both subdued in nature and we're
not talking Arcam Alphas here. It's a generic black box, but a sturdy one.

I put a cd in and hit the repeat button. Things worked. I got dressed and
came back in and started hitting the different controls. The FF Search mode I noticed would only move for a second or two and then stay put. Not
a good sign. I left it on repeat for the night and came home from work to
find the player on, but stopped. I thought maybe we had a brown out here
in Miami and this was the cause. I decided to hook it up the next day and
listen.

Simply put, when this player works, the sound is very engaging when compared to the Denon unit. There is little or no high freq. fatigue
and the mid range is very lively and clear/distinct. No syllabance (sic?) to my ears. I'm single and listen for hours at a time while being an
internet mole and no problems during long sessions. Hi Fi Choice did
and extensive review on many budget players and found that a lot had
trouble with BASS. I never felt that the CD6 lacked when reproducing
my Electronic, Reggae or even Rock tunes. My speakers are w/in 4db down
to 42Hz, so I'm not expecting miracles here. However, the glitches in
this unit became more apparent.

The repeat mode only works when it wants to and the FF Search has never
worked at all. I then started getting random audio dropouts on clean
discs. Just a second or two, but Christ, is this friggin' annoying. On
some songs, it made a garage sale LP sound appealing. At this point I
had contacted Michael at Audio Plus the NA Distributor and told him the
problem with him asking me to open her up and check for loose connections
made during transit. This unit is made in Commie China, so it's a long
haul. Concurrently to this phase in the CA game, I ordered the Ah! Tjoeb.

In closing, while I waited for the Tjoeb to arrive, the CA unit began to
come into her own, soundwise. This is an extremely fun player to listen
to and her sonic nature is to be commended. No brittle highs, plenty of
distinct bass and a mid range that is more than believable. The build
quality inside is top notch compared with the Marantz/Tjoeb, with Copper
partitions, three transformers, gold plated PCBs etc. An artist designed
this player. However, I have been switching off between the two units and
as of late the CD6 is dropping out more and more, both through the analog
outs and through the digital BNC fitted sp/dif. There is also a pair of
gold plated XLR analog outs, which is a great touch, but I don't have
this arrangement on my GT SEP1, so they're unused.

I have her boxed up and will drop her off at UPS today and get a replacement unit...hoping for a better deck. I had her hooked up to a
MSB Link DAC and Monarchy Audio DIP MkII and the sound, when not skipping/
dropping out, was stunning. Something to be heard from a budget player.

Anyway, I can recommend this unit for somebody interested in sound quality
on par with the Arcams, Rotels, AMCs, Parasounds and Regas, but at a significant savings of a couple of hundred dollars. Unfortunately, this
was a buggy unit and hence, a three star for reliability. We'll see how
the distrib. handles customer service as I have an R/A #, but it's now
been a couple of months since receiving it.

Chris

REVIEW: Cambridge Audio CD-6 CD Player/Recorder Review by Chris Garrett at Audio Asylum