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Who has upgraded their Cambridge AZUR 840C CDP to the new AZUR 851C CDP?

Hi,
I really like my Cambridge AZURE 840C and am wondering what I may be missing compared to their new offering, the 851C? I use my 840C 80% of the time as a DAC, streaming TIDAL and have it connected to my Wadia 171i IPod dock. I have not had a chance to hear their new CDP, and found conflicting reviews on-line about it. Some of the negatives were a noisy transport and some frustration when selecting between three output filter options. On the good side I have only heard that "it sounds better", not a very in-depth description! So, please, if anyone out there has upgraded to the new 851C offering from the 840C, I would be very interested on your thoughts and if given the chance, would you do it again? Another thought was to just upgrade to a better DAC and use my 840C as a transport, but I would have no idea where to start with this potential upgrade path and keep within budget.
grm

Showing 2 responses by grm

grm OP
149 posts
 
Thank you, adg, I appreciate your response!

I am currently using Kimber Balanced Silver Streaks feeding my Krell Amp from my 840C. You mentioned good cables required to realize the SQ improvement, do you think the SS are in that category? My Power Cable is WireWorld by Nordost. In my system the Krell is very resolving/unforgiving and a bit aggressive, and maybe that would be a concerning factor moving to the 851C. What are your thoughts about this?

Thanks, again!
grm OP
149 posts
 
adg,
Thank you very much for your response! I'm guessing the CA 851C is better but not necessarily by an order of magnitude, and that alternative IC's and fuses would be the more practical choice at this time. I will eventually upgrade my CDP/DAC at some point in the future. I read reviews about the 840C and many said that it made for a great transport, so maybe my focus should be just a new DAC as I mentioned about >80% of my listening is using the 840C as a DAC.
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