Re: Cambridge Audio - an open letter [long]

Dave Giles wrote: 
An open letter to Cambridge Audio
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forums:

At the beginning of 2005 you opened a forums section on your website. This
was, in many respects, a bold move for a company - allowing people to share
information and experiences about their Cambridge Audio products; however,
this would also have provided information about customer preferences and
wishes.

As of the 24th of October, Cambridge Audio have removed access to the forums
- the primary mechanism people had of communicating with the company
(e-mail doesn't appear to work now, either).


Azur 640H Music Server:

Shortly after the opening of the forums, details of the Azur 640H music
server were released to the press and to the public. At the time the 640H
was going to be a fairly revolutionary product - a music server at a
reasonable price (though not bargain-basement) produced by an audio company
with a good reputation within their market sector. Ok, there's the Acoustic
Solutions SP150 (too cheap!) or the Linn Tunboks (too expensive for me!);
for those people who have many CD's and would like a music server but don't
want a PC solution, the 640H looks ideal.


I was an early lurker ...


However, since the original press release there have been several delays in
bringing the 640H to market. This is understandable - to a degree - as the
640H is a relatively complex product. However, delays have made the
original specification of the device look somewhat stingy. Bear in mind
that the hard disk server is competing with PC-based products, not just
hi-fi components - ten months is a long time.

Also, as time has passed, additional details of the 640H have been released,
with the latest being the availability of the user manual on the web.

Despite many postings by myself and others for more detailed information
regarding the 640H, only a handful of these were ever replied to, and of
those most were given unsatisfactory answers.


Yep, agreed.

Many users of the forums, myself included, have been patient in trying to
get details about the Azur 640H and have used the forums to make
suggestions back to Cambridge Audio about product improvements. Why would
we bother to do this? Because we (your potential customers) want the 640H
to be a successful, competent product - we want to buy the 640H. I've had a
few hard disk servers previously and none have lived up to my expectations
- I want the 640H to be a good product.

However, after looking at the specification of the 640H, asking many
questions on the forums (only to have them ignored), and now having the
forums removed from us, it appears that the only way we (your paying
customers) can communicate back to you is via other means.

So - my overview of the 640H using the specifications online as a guide:

Spec:

* 160GB hard disk
  - this is not big enough; for little extra cost this could be increased
significantly.


OK

* Wolfson WM8740 DAC
  - nice; this is the same component as in the 640C; but you've put the DAC
inside a PC, which is not a hospitable environment for analogue; is the DAC
shielded?


I'd have thought they use quite extensive shielding - you're right though, they don't make much play of it and I seem to remember an internal picture that revealed few physical barriers between bits of the machine

* supports wireless connectivity (when used with wireless adaptors) 

I thought it did ...?

  - supports fibre connectivity (when used with fibre adaptors) too, I
guess?

* Internet radio
  - nice

* On-screen graphical user interface
  - this could be good; is the on-screen GUI skinnable? Trivial, maybe, but
one man's user interface is another man's dogs dinner...

* In-built CD-R/CD-RW
  - this, I have a problem with; apparently:
     1) the 640H '...incorporates the high-quality CD player from the Azur
640C...'
     2) the 640C has a 'custom Cambridge Audio transport'
     3) but the 640H has a built-in CD-R/CD-RW?
    Yes - the drive on the 640H is a standard PC CD transport - not the
custom audio-grade transport from the 640C; to imply that the 640H is a
640C but with a hard disk is misleading beyond belief.


I'm not sure about the audio consequences of the drive - I do actually like the idea of a 'swappable' (maybe) drive

Playback Formats Supported:

* Uncompressed PCM
  - nice; though I'd need about 1TB to put all 1400+ of my CD's on there, so
I guess I'm looking at using some sort of compression.

* Windows Media Audio
* MP3
* AAC (MP4)
* .wav .snd .mpa .mp2 .mp3 and many other common music files also supported
  - '...many other common music files...'; from the manual, .au and .aif are
also supported; so no Ogg Vorbis - a '...completely open, patent-free,
professional audio encoding and streaming technology' - and yet we're meant
to believe that the 640H is a hi-fi component?


Not a problem for me in that I don't compress copy 'keepers', but point taken.

...and from the users manual...

Processor: VIA C3 1GHz
  - Nice CPU, good performance (great for Ogg Vorbis), low heat output.
However, I've asked before (as it's quite important for a hi-fi component)
is this fanless? Sure, you're using fanless power supplies, but there's no
indication anywhere that you're using a fanless VIA C3.


It has no fans I seem to remember reading 

So - how could the 640H be made into a better product? Personally, and in
order of preference:

  1) isolate the DAC - don't care how, just don't want all that nasty PC
noise in my analogue
  2) compile up the Ogg codec - http://www.vorbis.com/ is a good place to
start
  3) use a bigger hard disk - 300GB, maybe?
  4) change the CD transport
  5) build wireless in

fair enough questions to ask.


As far as I'm aware, in the time it's taken me to write this letter you
haven't released the 640H - there is still time to make these changes. For
the sake of the people who have taken the time to use the Cambridge Audio
forums and let you know what we, your customers, actually want in a hi-fi
music server, make this a great product.


It's looking overpriced - 500UKP - and Cambridge haven't earned a good reputation for build quality. I have one of these:

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo-1.cfm/Product_ID/2292

As I say, compression isn't a huge thing for me, and HDs can simply slot in, like a cassette. It's well built and does the job. I'd pay for the PC connectivity, silence and general verstaility, but for now a Mac Mini, decent sound card and cheap screen seems more attractive.

I reckon the 640H will settle at around 300UKP, and at that price and favourable reviews I could be persuaded.

Rob
.

Relevant Pages

  • Cambridge Audio - an open letter [long]
    ... An open letter to Cambridge Audio ... At the beginning of 2005 you opened a forums section on your website. ... Azur 640H Music Server: ... customers) can communicate back to you is via other means. ...
    (uk.rec.audio)
  • Re: Anyone noticed how shite ADSL has become in UK?
    ... The reason you dont see many bad reports on zen is they delete them ... dont go looking around newsgroups and forums for answers, ... they hate loosing customers, if these are happy and content customers ... We have an NTL cable actually inside our house but as the cable goes ...
    (uk.telecom.broadband)
  • Re: Is this newsgroup monitored by Chrysler?
    ... > Customers want products that keep working year after year after year, ... > forums, and they really don't have anything to say about ... Oil Filter Study that castigated Fram filters and was circulated around ...
    (rec.autos.makers.chrysler)
  • Re: Attitude of Plusnet reps on ADSL Guide
    ... Broadband forums and the incessently repetetive debates anymore. ... Bob, you must admit, the repetitive nature of discussions on Think Broadband on the Plusnet boards are largely due to Plusnet repeating the same problems again and again and never seeming to learn from said mistakes, its a two way street really. ... Show me another ISP or company who is receiving the same amount of critisism from ex customers in the same way that we do on the TBB forums and I may be inclined to agree with you more. ...
    (uk.telecom.broadband)
  • Re: Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool OR??
    ... The link to the forums hasn't been posted recently. ... You may want to start a new thread in Feedback and Comments. ... Customers are accusing vendors of selling pirated ... to Vista. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsupdate)