Cambridge Audio Edge W Stereo Power Amplifier

R68,000.00

There’s no denying the seriousness with which Cambridge Audio has approached its new Edge range of hi-fi separates. Designed to commemorate the company’s 50th anniversary, the three-strong rage of higher end components sticks with the brand’s value-for-money feel but at a more premium price. The new Edge NQ streaming preamplifier and Edge W stereo power amplifier you see here are the two mainstays of the range. They are the most prestigious components the company has offered since the eighties, when it sold the world’s first two-box CD player in the shape of the £1,500 CD1.

 

Cambridge Audio was acutely aware that in order to move back up into a more esoteric area of the market, it had to get Edge right first time. That’s why substantial resources have been invested – not just in the audio circuitry but also styling, ergonomics and build. Edge components feel swisher and more substantial than the company’s standard products, conferring a sense of quality as well as sporting a sparse, minimalist fascia. The question is: is the packaging good enough to cause badge-conscious buyers to buy into the new range? In order for this to happen, this pre/power combination must comfortably outperform all of its rivals at its price. No pressure then…

The new Edge NQ is jam-packed with features that make it less of a preamp and more of a digital hub that also happens to play analogue sources should you wish. Cambridge Audio’s technical director Dominic Baker declined to mention which type of DAC is built in but it runs from up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and is DSD256-capable, which is accessible via its aptX Bluetooth input or its optical, coaxial or USB inputs. It has network streaming built in, plus Chromecast, AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Google Play and internet radio, all via the Edge Remote app freely available for iOS and Android devices. There are three analogue inputs, including one pair of balanced XLRs as well as three digital inputs – one coaxial and two optical – and a USB-B port and HDMI with an Audio Return Channel – meaning you can connect your TV and hear the audio through the hi-fi system. Aside from the omission of a phono stage input, you can hook up and play almost anything.

Its unique user interface has a nice action and works intuitively with the hi-res display to give volume control and icon-based source selection. The unit starts up quickly enough and works seamlessly after you’ve set up the network functionality. A basic remote is included, but you’ll need to install the app on your smartphone or tablet to work the NQ properly.

The Edge W power amplifier offers a claimed 100W RMS per channel of power at 8ohm, and twice that into 4. Despite being a vast behemoth that looks closer to an American super-fi power amp costing 10 times its price, it has been designed in a minimalist way with just 14 components in the signal path, says Dominic Baker. Much of its weight comes from the chunky aluminium casework, complete with large heatsinks on either side of the case and twin toroidal transformers designed to cancel out the other’s electromagnetic interference. Round the back, there are beefy speaker wire terminals, a choice of switchable RCA or XLR inputs and even a handy auto-power off control. It’s built and finished very well, which explains the not inconsiderable weight – and comes with much-needed heatsink fin protectors, which are essential to use when removing it from the case to stop any injury to your hands.

Set up is easy enough, providing you take things slowly and methodically. Weighing 24kg, the bulk of the power amplifier is the main issue and you don’t want to be moving it around if you can help it. The preamplifier is easier to setup using the Edge Remote app to remotely do a firmware update and then rebooting the first time you plug it in; this takes around five minutes. Once up and running it’s very nice to use, even if it doesn’t quite have the slickness of some high-end components I’ve seen.

Sound quality

Starting with the analogue inputs via a dCS Debussy DAC, the duo is impressive. There’s a sense of easy confidence that you don’t normally hear from products at this price, a feeling that the amplifier walks softly but carries a big stick. There’s oodles of power to drive pretty much any speaker, and no sign of the Edge W huffing and puffing at high volumes. Tonally it’s a pretty straight-laced combination; it’s not especially warm or euphonic, yet you would never call it cold and harsh. Instead it sits close to neutral, with just a hint of a sweetness if you really listen for it. Rhythmically, it has a fleet-of-foot character, being fast and engaging if not absolutely the most athletic around. One really attractive facet is the presentation sounds all-of-a-piece; everything is well integrated with no sense of the bass dragging its feet. It’s also good spatially, with a cavernous sound that’s hard not to be impressed by.

Cue up a dense slice of progressive rock like Rush’s Take A Friend, and it shows its physical presence. It has large reserves of punching power to handle even the most hard-to-drive loudspeaker. The song’s bassline is fast and fluid, and the Edge combo carries it with a lot of weight, along with a sense of ease that comes by not having to try too hard. The music sounds gutsy and full-bodied, yet there’s no bass boom or any sense of the amp sounding unbalanced. Indeed, the Cambridge Audio duo is light and crisp in tone; it’s not a soft-around-the-edges ‘marshmallow’ of an amplifier.

With Supertramp’s Take The Long Way Home, the tonal balance gets brighter and more foreword – as it should. The obvious contrast between the two recordings shows the NQ/W’s fundamental lack of coloration and admirable transparency. It remains studiously neutral regardless of material, managing to step aside and let the music do the talking.

Moving from seventies rock to eighties pop, and this combo proves itself to be a seriously enjoyable musical performer. David Bowie Let’s Dance shows how fast, lithe and agile it is on its feet, rhythmically speaking and I can easily hear the woodblock percussion playing along, and how this is a counterpoint to the tight, fast-attack, quick-release drum sound. At the same time, Bowie uses keyboard bass in parts of this track and electric bass guitar in others, and the Edge combo is agile enough to show which is which. Indeed, the reverb on the track’s great Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar solo is clear to hear along with the brilliant rhythmic gait of his playing. The NQ/W offers both impressive amounts of detail, as well as the vital ability to string it all together in a musically coherent way.

Via its internal DAC and streamed from my Western Digital NAS drive, the Edge pre/power serves up a sumptuously wide recorded acoustic from Kate Bush’s Snowflake in 24/96 WAV format. This is truly immersive stuff, as I bask in the intricacy and vibrancy of the close-miked piano. Kate’s voice hovers over this ethereally, located with great precision in the recorded acoustic.

A DSD stream of Simple Minds’ Oh Jungleland shows a similarly huge, expansive sound, and this works with the Edge W’s massive punch to deliver a vast ‘stadium’ effect. There is even a taste of this via the aptX Bluetooth input, which turns in a surprisingly engaging rendition of the retro techno dance of Nu Era’s Oscar Styles. Rich, vibrant and bouncy, it’s riotously good fun.

Conclusion

Cambridge Audio has surpassed itself with the new Edge NQ/W combination. It’s lovely to look at, nice to use and is packed to the gunwales with features, too. It sounds seriously good for the money, with a happy, upbeat nature underwritten by real power and insight. It deserves to succeed, so here’s hoping that it does. DP  


Cambridge Audio Edge W

The appearance of Edge W is similar to Edge NQ. The method of the top plate is the same as that of the Nq. It is fixed with a tenon and can be opened from above. There is only one power switch on the panel, nothing else. There is one set of XLR and RCA input and output terminals on the back panel.

cambridge audio edge w

Why is there an output terminal at the rear stage? From here, the music signal can be passed to the next subsequent stage for multiple connections. Edge W also has balanced, unbalanced input switching, and energy-saving switching. It is recommended that the energy-saving switching be set to No mode. Otherwise, it will automatically switch to Standby if there is no music signal input for more than 20 minutes.
Open the top cover of Edge W, and you can see a large toroidal transformer in the center of the front, no! It should be said that the two are stacked on top of each other. That is a unique design of Cambridge Audio. The two toroidal transformers are stacked in reverse to reduce the magnetic leakage of the transformer itself.

cambridge audio edge w inside

The inside of the case is packed full, each channel uses four 10,000mfd filter capacitors, and five pairs of power amplifiers are directly locked on the heat sink. Edge W does not use Class AB amplification, but Class XD amplification developed by his family.

cambridge audio edge w capacitor

This kind of amplification is to set the working bias voltage of class AB amplification higher than that of general class AB. Under the category A, it is claimed to reduce the crossover distortion of class AB amplification. Similarly, the bottom plate of the Edge W cabinet is also a hole plate. The cold air comes from the bottom, passes through the amplifier, becomes hot air, and then escapes from the top cover gap to reduce the temperature in the cabinet.

cambridge audio edge nq edge w toroidal transformer

The Music Signal Path Has only 14 Components

Edge W has a promotional point. There are only 14 components in the signal amplification path, while the signal path of a general amplifier will have about 30 or 40 components. Fewer components mean that the sound is less likely to be contaminated by components, so it can emit a purer sound, which is a good thing. Direct cross-connection, that is, no cross-connect capacitors are used between components, is also an important technology.

Cambridge Audio Edge W is a stereo power amplifier that outputs 100 watts per channel. If the speaker impedance drops to 4 ohms, 200 watts can be output. If the speaker impedance drops to 2 ohms, it can output close to 400 watts, which can be said to be an amplifier with sufficient power supply.

cambridge audio edge w interface

Sound Performance

I use the streaming function of EDGE NQ to connect to my NAS, or directly play Internet radio stations online. The speaker is Focal Kanta N1. I don’t care if these kinds of music are in high-standard music formats, most of them are compressed music files with a higher bit rate, such as AAC or mp3 with a bit rate of 320kbp. Although these music files are not in lossless format, the sound is entirely acceptable under EDGE NQ/EDGE W playback. Especially for music albums whose original recording effect is perfect.

cambridge audio edge nq + edge w

For example, Rabin’s Paganini Violin Concerto, Arcado’s Rossini String Sonata, etc. String texture, dynamic contrast, musical sense, sound field, and other things audiophiles pursue. If there is no comparison, It is estimated that many people will guess that such sound comes from compressed music files in lossy format!

Clean, Fast and warm Sound Ttyle

In terms of sound, Cambridge Audio EDGE NQ/EDGE W presents a warm characteristic as a whole, and it can even be said to be a warm feeling similar to that of a tube amplifier. For example, in the “bach violin sonata no 1” album performed by Ida Haendel, the sound of EDGE NQ/EDGE W will sound smooth, with a certain degree of softness and restraint. That is the source of the warm sound of EDGE NQ/EDGE W. At the same time, this warm quality will also make the violin sound rich.

It should be noted that, although the sound of Cambridge Audio EDGE NQ/EDGE W presents a warm quality, it is not muddy due to warmth. For example, when playing the “Rachmaninov Trio” published by Chandos, the sound of the album itself is very warm, and the instrument is also very rich. If the sound resolution is not enough, the result will be squishy, ​​unable to express the musical instrument’s texture and precise positioning. When EDGE NQ/EDGE W replayed this album, it was warm, the focus of the instrument in the production was clear, and more importantly, it allowed me to hear the incredible sense of space.

cambridge audio edge nq + edge w

Sound with Excellent Openness

Another feeling that EDGE NQ/EDGE W gave me is that the sound is very open. The music’s openness means that it can show an open, natural, generous, and large-scale sound field. An excellent open sound also means better separation between instruments. Not only is the positioning of the instrument clearer, especially when playing a symphony, the higher the openness of the sound, the more relaxed and natural music it sounds, and the more layered sound field. That is the sound effect I seek. So, when I listen to the audio, I am very concerned about the system’s sound openness.

Although I am using a pair of two-way two-unit Focal Kanta N1 bookshelf speakers and listening in a room of nearly 60 square meters, at the same time, the distance between the two speakers is about 2 meters. Under such circumstances, when playing Dave Grusin’s “Discover Again” album, the sound field’s left and right width are more extensive than the distance between the two speakers. At the same time, the instrument is focused and clear.

I paid particular attention to the piano solo part of the first paragraph. The piano sound has a good sense of fullness. The music and image are huge but precise, and the positioning is very accurate. The whole piano can be seen clearly.

cambridge audio edge nq edge w feature

And the second part is the one I listen to the most. There are relatively many instruments, and the dynamics are more prominent than other music. However, EDGE NQ/EDGE W can decompose the musical instruments one by one. Each instrument is apparent, accurately positioned, and has a high degree of separation between each other. So when multiple instruments are played simultaneously, the sound will not show the feeling of being together and not being able to distinguish each other.

Conclusion

After listening to the Cambridge Audio Edge NQ preamplifier with Network Player and Edge W Power Amplifier, I sincerely pay my highest respect to this 50-year-old brand. At the 50th anniversary, they made an ambition to create an uncompromising amplifier product regardless of cost.

On the one hand, Cambridge Audio makes the best products in their minds regardless of cost. On the other hand, the price is not so expensive. That is the main reason that surprises me and pays the highest respect. Isn’t it the way audio products should be so that everyone can afford it? Tribute to Cambridge AudioEdge NQ, Cambridge Audio Edge W.

Description

CONTINUOUS POWER OUTPUT

100W RMS into 8 Ohms; 200W RMS into 4 Ohms

THD (UNWEIGHTED)

<0.002% 1kHz at rated power (8 Ohms); <0.02% 20Hz – 20kHz at rated power (8 Ohms)

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

<3Hz – >80kHz +/-1dB

S/N RATIO (REF 1W INTO 8 OHM)

>93 dB

CROSSTALK @ 1KHZ

< -100dB

S/N RATIO (REF FULL POWER)

>113 dB

INPUT SENSITIVITY

Input A1-A2 (unbalanced) 1.09V RMS

INPUT IMPEDANCES

Input A3 (balanced) 47k Ohm; Input A1-A2 (unbalanced) 47k Ohm

INPUTS

Balanced, Unbalanced

OUTPUTS

Speakers, Loop out

MAX POWER CONSUMPTION

1000W

STANDBY POWER CONSUMPTION

<0.5W

DIMENSIONS

150 x 460 x 405mm (5.9 x 18.1 x 15.9″)

WEIGHT

23.6kg (51.9lbs)

IN THE BOX

Edge W Power Amplifier; 1.5M Power Lead; Edge Link Cable; Edge W User Manual, Warranty Card