Cambridge Audio 840-C cd- problems

The failures and resulting frustrations of the CDP 840-C and other higher end CAMBRIDGE products has previously made its way into the AGON forums before within the last couple of years.

The threads and the posts are there - go check 'em out.

The takeaway is that the quality control is being questioned and the repairs fix has ranged from good to bad. The good is if it was dealer purchased (not online) and is still under warranty.

Without prejudice to the former, my top of the line AZUR receiver failed twice within the three year warranty period and repairs were only covered for the first ( full motherboard replacement ) They said the second failure - the HDMI ports failing was not a warranty item - go figure!!

The top of the line AZUR Bluray catastrophically and suddenly failed in its 3rd year after the two year warranty period had expired ..... Returned it to auth repaired.. and the techie warned me that the expected repairs would be both (1) big $$ and (2) not worth the investment to get a paltry 90 day warranty and exposure for the next thing to go. In his opinion the fix was too costly and it was due time to face the music on the continuing reliability issues.

That is why I scrapped the bluray player and sold the AVR in favour of made in UK separates.... The Chi-Fi kit was no more.

There are plenty of posts on AGON and elsewhere about ARCAM pulling out its top of the line AVR production from China and moving production back to the UK for the same reasons.

The takeaway: it sounds good if you have no issues, but the CAMBRIDGE reliability is something to be wary of.

I don't have allot to add other than the 840C I had was a nice player at it's price point of around $1,600 new. Nice build quality and good sound. I would definitely look into repairing it since Cambridge probably have transports and that's what the problem sounds like. Once working again, you may have the last CDP you buy before you go to digital? And you could use the transport to support a dac upgrade in the future. The other advice in this thread seems quite practical (with the exception of the first comment). It will most likely be much cheaper to repair your 840C than to purchase a new player. Though if you choose not to repair then the world is your oyster and there are other nice choices as well. -Good luck in your pursuit.

I think the 840C may be worth repairing and keeping. Give Audio Plus Services a call and contact Michel Rousseau. They are the US distributor of CA and authorized repair center. My experiences with them have been positive with great communication and reasonable repair costs and turn around time.

Even if you do not decide to go the repair route, as mentioned, the onboard DAC is worth still using in some cpacity.

Audio Plus Services
156 Lawrence Paquette Ind. Drive
Champlain, NY 12919
Michel Rousseau
Support Technique / Technical Support
Plurison
866.271.5689 ext.103 - Fax 450.585.5862

Bill

Could just be a new transport, which should not be a big deal. Bring it in to a service center.

The 840 is a great unit. Post what area you are in and people should give repairs centers. On another note, the DAC in there is great and you could always use an outside source such as cd/dvd/pc and run the digital input?

too bad you have my sympathies

I had the AZUR 650BD Bluray player that suddenly conked out on me

Sounds great when they work but they are just cheaply made Chi-Fi with all the rest of the warts that go with them.

Its out of warranty and repairs are costly. I junked mine .... the techie diagnostics alone will be 1 to 2 hours labour. Add in parts and its not worth it IMO.

I now have an ARCAM Bluray to go with my REGA ISIS Valve cdp .... all made in England kit with no more issues.