As much as I love the convenience of streaming, I still prefer to have a physical music library – not least because on a really good CD player, discs still sound much better than any lossy compressed audio format. So it's nice to see Cambridge Audio add a high-end CD player to its Evo amps.
As the name suggests, the Evo CD is designed to connect to Cambridge's Evo 150 and Evo 75 streaming amplifiers – so you can get the best experience from your existing CD library as well as your hi-res streaming subscription(s).
The connection here is specific to the Evo products and there aren't any other connectors, so if you're looking to upgrade a system from another manufacturer this isn't for you.
Cambridge Audio Evo CD: price, specifications and release date
The £999 Evo CD includes Cambridge Audio's S5 Servo. The servo works with the CD transport, and its job is to spin the disc at the perfect speed for the data stream that needs to be transferred. Get it right and you get the best possible sound quality; get it wrong and, er, you don't. With the S5 Servo you get the most accurate spin speeds and therefore the best possible extraction of audio information with minimal jitter. According to Cambridge Audio that means you get "a deep, rich sound with unrivalled clarity".
As ever with Cambridge Audio it's a quality product both in terms of what it does and how it looks and feels; I like the brushed wooden one but there's also a striking matte black option too.
The RRP is £999 but we're already seeing discounts: Richer Sounds is currently offering the Evo CD in black for £799 with expected availability on 1 June.
