Some electronics manufacturers manage to move upmarket just by adding more elaborate casework, a few audiophile components and, if you are lucky, a bigger transformer. Not so with the Cambridge Azur range. With these products, it seems the company set out to leapfrog the competition in technology and technical performance. And so, at the top of the Azur line, we have a truly sophisticated preamp, the 840E, and a truly muscular power amp, the 840W, at a total price of ￡2000. Is it all too good to be true? Essentially, despite its complexity, the 840E is easy to use just by picking up the remote. Extra features and setup options are accessed via the menu system, either from the remote or the front panel buttons. Cambridge has chosen an elaborate no-compromise volume control, using precision resistor ladders switched by relays and accessible by remote control. So volume adjustment is accompanied by an audible clicking of relays, the level shown in the display as a large -dB figure with a neat semicircle graphic around it. Normally, if you switch into Standby, the preamp will rapidly re-set itself to minimum level with a sound like a rattlesnake in a TV western. Returning from Standby, the volume level will rattlesnake up again to the previous setting. If you don't want this to happen, the Volume Ramp feature can be turned off via the setup menu. Volume then remains as set when in standby.
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