Cambridge Audio's pretty, petite amp packs a powerful punch

To paraphrase Douglas Adams, power amplifiers are big. You won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big they are. But Cambridge Audio begs to differ.

Its new MXW70 power amp delivers a lot of power from an extremely small footprint.

The MXW70 has been designed to sit with the equally compact MXN10 Music Streamer to make a complete Hi-Fi stack, although you can of course use it with whatever audio source you wish.

It puts out 70W to 125W per channel in stereo mode, and it's bridgeable in mono mode to deliver 250W.

T3 reviewed the Cambridge Audio MXN10 streamer some time ago and really loved it: we gave it the full five stars and praised its "deeply enjoyable" performance. This new amp looks like it's the perfect partner.

Cambridge Audio MXW70: key features and pricing

The chassis is just 215mm wide by 215mm deep and 57mm high, and it's all-metal with a minimalist design and Cambridge Audio's familiar Lunar Grey finish.

It's even more minimalist than the music streamer, in fact. That has a Wi-Fi indicator and four buttons in addition to its power switch, while the MXW70 has a power button and little else.

The amplification is Hypex NCORE Class D which, according to Hypex, delivers "the ultimate in clarity, resolution and musicality". The MXW70 also comes with premium XLR inputs as well as the obligatory stereo RCA. There's a 12V trigger with pass-through too.

Frequency response is 10Hz to 30kHz (-1dB) and power output is 2 x 70W to 8 ohms stereo, 2 x 125W to 4 ohms stereo, and 250W to 8 ohms in mono mode.

The Cambridge Audio MWX70 will be available this summer from the firm's website and the usual approved retailers. Its recommended selling price is £499 / €599 / $599 (about AU$1,033).