AES is not a choice John, it’s a way of life.

Imagine yourself wearily stumbling down the Road to Damascus and you find yourself in a moment of crystalline, divine audio communication, where the Seven Veils of Audiophilia are all simultaneously lifted and lo, you are faced open mouth, with the Truth. After you have accepted the Truth into your life, there is the One Path from which one must not deviate or hesitate, lest one is cast headlong into total darkness and the unforgiving audio void.

Did you get a linear PSU for it, Jules? I can't remember now.

So folks, some big changes in the system since last updated - out go the Audio Synthesis Power amp and Sonore Microrendu streamer and in come a Cambridge Audio Edge W power amp and a Sonore ultraRendu - many thanks to Martin for the latter acquisition!

The reason I bought the Cambridge is two fold - first, on paper it has all the attributes I am looking for, and secondly I managed to purchase it used at what I considered a good price - it’s 4K new.

Here’s the spec -

> Class AB
> 100W RMS into 8 Ohms & 200W RMS into 4 Ohms - I like this doubling up
> Balanced and Unbalanced outs
> 24kg

It is heavy and thankfully when collecting, the seller had a very handy trolley to get the amp to my car so when I got home I employed the services of my son to help me get it upstairs, as I can’t safely lift that weight on my own any more.  I had carefully checked dimensions previously and found that it just squeezed onto my rack with a few mm to spare. The design is very understated with a rather tasteful matte silver finish and the heat shrinks in black; I quite like the curved edges. After powering up I had a minor worry when after 20 mins the unit switched itself off but thankfully this wasn’t a fault - after 20 mins of no activity the unit powers down but there is a switch on the back of the amp to defeat this, which I duly did.

So here’s the full lineup of the rig I tested first -

Sonore ultraRendu > USB > Gustard U18 > AES > Topping D70S > XLR > Topping Pre90 > XLR > Cambridge Edge W > Sonus Faber Venere 2.5

So onto the testing. Setting up the ultraRendu was a breeze as I predicted - I had this outputting to Spotify Connect in less than a minute thanks to the Sonicorbiter software. Awesome. But the sound?  Not so awesome - oh dear we are missing some rather important elements here folks - rez, detail, timbre, timing, depth and soundstage. Where is the bass? Sound is congested and the rig is struggling with dense mixes like Nita Strauss's "The Wolf You Feed". I only last a few tracks before subs need to be made! Straight away I take out the Topping Pre90 and go DAC direct. Now that's immediately a *big* improvement - all of a sudden it feels like I have gone from VHS to full HD. The first track that really hits me is the new Delain track "Beneath" which is projected with a huge, almost monolithic wall of sound but one still easily follows all the separate elements. Pretty good. Certainly a huge step up from using the Pre. Onto Karcius "Lunatik III: Back to Earth" - quite a jazzy but full on track, which again fares quite well. Slight question mark still over bass - the superb electric bass in that track is not quite hitting the mark yet. Dynamics are strong though. Next is Adam Lambert's rather fun cover of "Mad about the Boy" - now this has a lot of deeep bass, no issues. Again, a very big, airy and expansive sound on "Embracer" from the new Smashing Pumpkins album and "Your Love" by Lari Basilio. Good, but I'm still not totally there yet, maybe 85%-ish audio satisfaction?

One last thing to try in the session and that's to change from AES to I2S with the Blue Jeans Cable coming in. Playing the Lari Basilio again I can hear some more subtle details and space in the music. Onto First Aid Kit and "Angel" which is one of my favourite tracks of theirs. Not a great sound, a bit too forward and hot sounding for my liking. The vocals have an unpleasant edge to them. Looks like that's the recording as Steven Wilson's "Drive Home" fares much better in every department, in fact this is the best sound I've heard today. Electric guitar and bass both sound so deep and epic. Back to the previous Karcius track to see how this fares on I2S and the answer is much better! Bass presentation is on another level with much better grip and definition. Very nice - details and dynamics both up several gears and another soaring guitar solo lights up the room. Effortless and highly recommended as a test track, so included below. As a wind down track I play the immortal "Tennessee" by Gillian Welch which is probably the best I have heard it. So I2S a clear winner here which is certainly a turnaround from my previous outing with it.

Conclusions from today - pre not required, I2S is required and more listening required.

If you have made it this far, thank you for your interest.

I'm glad it's working out well for you, Jules. I kinda told you that DAC direct removes a whole layer of opacity from the proceedings

You've also found the U18's true strength: I2S. You won't be going back to AES, I can assure you.

First Aid Kit recordings, sadly, are not the best. Too hot is exactly what they are.


Really great deal on the power amp, Jules, and the whole lot should bed in after more hours on it. Try the Tara Labs burn-in sound - you'll be amazed.

Nice write up Jules and great that you are having fun with the system listening to some cool tunes
I like the case of the Cambridge Edge I would have never guessed this was going to be your amplifier. I have not listened to Cambridge audio in a long time so look forward to a visit in the future

Yes DAC direct is a no brainer here and would obviously be better with a DAC that has a properly sorted preamp section, like yours for example.

With the few but varied tracks that I listened to with I2S there was no comparison, so I hope this trend continues.

I'll get onto the Tara Labs in due course for sure.

It's darker and heavier than I remember which was when I had the Hawthorne open baffle

Thanks!

Yes I love my SF speakers - the higher quality signal they get, the more they shine ... They won't be going anywhere until we move and I have the space / budget for Wilsons or the like.

Congratulations on the new amp, looks great 😃