Any improvement of using 2K$ Dac with Cambridge CXN

Audioman 58 but we used to sell both the Cambridge and the Lumin.  We had both units in the same system and could a/b both at the same time and in the same system, and there was no contest at all, the Lumin completely outclassed the Cambridge.

Also totally don't agree with you about beating $3k-$4k dacs, the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge is way better, so is the Lumin D2 and the Lumin T2 different league altogether. 


The 851n is the same guts as the 851CD player a 2012 design.

Another fact Lumin is constantly adding features that people want, such as Obouz and MQA,  we stopped selling Cambridge,because we coudn't sell the streamers  as our clients wanted access to Tidal and were not interested in waiting for Cambridge to add Tidal access,  both the CXN and the 851N streamers only had access to Spotify unless you wanted to blue tooth to the streamers. It took them years to finally add Tidal.

Don't think that Qbouz is available now is it, also no MQA.

The general hardware  feature set of the Cambridge units are great, the sound quality is good,  the no Qbouz and no MQA are kind of deal breakers for a popularly priced streamer. 

Sorry to have a very different opinion of the company, they do make some excellent products, the 851N is showing its age it is a good piece for its no lower price with the above mentioned caveats.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin, Mytek, dealers

The Cambridge has upgraded several things.you are biased and dealers should not be voicing opinions IMO ,what you hear and like is not what someone else finds great. Not all Lumin are that good I sold mine .the Schitt top dacs and Belcanto  dacsfor example  was more resolved  and beat a lot of well known digital products . 

@wallpoom, it sounds like part of your desire to upgrade DACs includes the desire to experience high-res content. If you’re willing to wait until the end of this year, Amazon will begin streaming CD and high-res content through its service, Amazon Music Unlimited. The price appears to be $15 USD/month for an individual plan, which is cheaper than Tidal’s $20 USD/month. Amazon’s high-res content will not be MQA based. So, you can take advantage of 24/96 content on your current Cambridge streamer via its the Chromecast ability. If you’re willing to wait a bit, you can effectively save money and get an upgrade at the same time.

I suspect, like the Schiit owners, that MQA is just a fad. Amazon’s recent announcement to tackle high-res content may prove that out. Amazon positioned its streaming preamp and streaming amp at the mass consumer $300 threshold. Further, Amazon may be taking a loss at its streaming price of $15/month, knowing that its streamers will own Prime memberships, and that Amazon will recoup its losses elsewhere. Ultimately, a plan to make CD and high-res music cheaper and easier to access is great for all music consumers, but this particular way of doing may spells bad news for MQA, and may be bad for Tidal too.

If you buy an MQA DAC now, and if MQA goes the way of SACD and DSD, you may find that you could have purchased a better non-MQA DAC for the same money.