Cambrigde Azur 640c???

I have been using one for a little more than a year as a transport (providing a signal to a Sonic Frontiers/Assemblage Platinum dac 2.7.) As a transport, it is a great bargain, excellent performance. As a stand alone player, it's very nice for the price. But no comparison to the sound quality when used with the Assemblage dac. I opened it up to check it out, quite decent looking parts quality, nice board layout, tidy construction. Much nicer than the previous generation Cambridge players. I improved performance with judicious application of vibration damping sheeting to the transport and case. My only issues with it have been it's ocassional (only happened a few times over many listening sessions) case of difficulty reading a disc. It will stop in the middle of a track and refuse to read further into the track. Restarting playback at the tracks beginning solves things.

The NAD C320BEE and Music Hall CD25 combination is magical. Each component brings out the best in each other. If you were starting out with the NAD C320 BEE (or were thinking about buying one), the Music Hall is the way to go (as opposed to the CA Azur 640).

But , you have an Arcam AVR 100 ... right? If that is the case, have you considered Arcam's CD 73 cd player ... they are in the same price range and probably, the CD 73 matches up very well with the AVR 100.

Regards, Rich

I have heard it with a NAD 320BEE also, and while it was good, the Music Hall was better.

I liked it with the NAD 320BEE--it was much smoother than the 540--but I would want to hear a Music Hall CD-25 again to be sure which one I preferred. IIRC the CD-25's dynamics were unusually good.

I have listened to it on two different occasions and enjoyed it both times. When friends ask me to recommend a budget system, I always tell them to start with the Azur line.