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Cambridge Audio products unreliable/unsupported?

Has anyone had problems with Cambridge Audio gear failing while still quite new?? I have had two products fail that were under one year old. 350C CD Player and 840Av2 Integrated Amp. Both products were gently treated and lightly used - less than 100 hours total use. Tried to resolve through Cambridge customer service (Ed Selley stopped responding to my inquiries on the Cambridge customer support website)and local repair and it seemed as though the process was designed to make getting a repair more painful than replacing the defective gear. I am new to high end audio and was wondering how many others had the same experience with this company.
craisin1
tortilladc
121 posts
 
I owned threeCA products, the StreamMagic 6, the DACMagic Plus and the Azur 551r AVR, both purchased new. The DACMagic Plus and StreamMagic 6 worked flawlessly, the 551r blew some caps in the video subsystem after a year of operation.

I live in LA and since I purchased online, I took it to an authorized CA repair shop here (George Meyer). They fixed it under warranty with zero hassles. Sounded better than stock afterwards.

I would have no hesitation buying another CA product based on this experience.
phd
1,320 posts
 
This is not good and shouldn't be. Cambridge did build a reputation on designing good sounding gear for the price. I purchased a Cambridge phono preamp a few years ago, not only does it sound good but haven't had any issues at all with it. This sounds like the same problem NAD was experiencing with their new gear of being unreliable, the old stuff being much more reliable.
dpaknair
3 posts
 
I had a CA Minx Xi Network Player. The software was buggy from day 1. Used it for barely 3 years and the it started producing only garbled noise instead of music. Now, out of warranty ,and months of email exchanges, CA support suggested a main board replacement.Only problem is the product is out of production and all i got is an apology from their support team. They said my unit cannot be resurrected.Below is the actual email.

Nicholas (Cambridge Audio)

Jan 30, 16:41 GMT

Hi Deepak,

I am sorry to hear that but if the parts are no longer available, there is no further action that can be taken to resurrect the unit.

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.

Kind Regards,

Nicholas

Technical Support Agent
Cambridge Audio
jetter
3,033 posts
 
phd is correct.  This is an eye opener, but why we are here, to share our experiences both good and not so good.
dpaknair
3 posts
 
Nowadays to lure potential customers they have put up phrases like "British engineering" "British sound" etc on their website and products. Just another ploy to fool people. Its beyond doubt now, if you are buying a CA product, you are taking a giant leap of faith.
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