Winning formulaIf you’re quick, you can snap up this incredible Cambridge Audio/KEF system for £900!
PRODUCT Cambridge Audio Azur 740C, Cambridge
Audio Azur 740A, KEF iQ7
TYPE CD player, amplifier and loudspeaker
PRICE £899
KEY FEATURES (Cambridge 740C) Size (WxHxD):
43x11.5x31.5cm P Weight: 6.4kg P 24-bit/384kHz
upsampling P (Cambridge 740A) Size (WxHxD):
43x11.5x35cm P Weight: 10.7kg P Power output:
100w/8ohms P (KEF iQ7) Size (WxHxD):
22x86.5x32.7cm P Weight: 14.5kg P Sensitivity: 90dB
CONTACT � 0870 900 1000 q www.richersounds.co.uk
Combine a Cambridge Audio CD player
and amplifier: Azur 740C and 740A,
(both winners in The Hi-Fi Awards
2007, HFC 300) with a KEF speaker (iQ7) and
you can expect to pay something in the region
of fifteen hundred pounds. Alternatively, if
you’re quick, drop by your nearest Richer
Sounds, sporting a copy of Hi-Fi Choice and
the complete system can be yours for under
£900. We first spotted this bargain last issue,
but the deal is still on (see details on p90).
Both the 740C CD player and 740A amplifier
come recommended from past tests. And as
mentioned, both products have won awards,
too: the former grabbing a Gold Award in the
£500 to £1,000 CD player category, while the
latter snatched a Silver Award in the same
price bracket for amplifiers.
Being a part of the Richer Sounds empire,
the choice of Cambridge product makes a and
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great deal of sense. But the decision to include
the KEF iQ7 speaker, instead of an in-house
brand like Mordaunt-Short, is less obvious.
According to Phil Jubb, a member of the
company’s purchasing team, “It’s (KEF) an
iconic speaker that we really like and it really
works well with the Cambridge”.
It also looks remarkably good for a simulated
wood finish and is available in a range of
colours including apple, black and walnut
(pictured). All three are complemented with
subtle badging and cable terminals. The
tweeter on the Q series models sits in the
midst of the midrange driver in a coaxial
arrangement, that’s designed to produce better
imaging. The idea being that by having both
drivers working from the same point source, it
should mean the wavefronts they produce will
be aligned. The only drawback with the
arrangement is that the tweeter sits behind the
midrange cone and thus aligning the two,
time-wise, is a challenge for the engineer who
only has a passive crossover to work with.
Cambridge’s 740 series benefits from the
work done on its flagship 840 series and offers
many of the features found on the more
expensive units, including LCD displays and, in
the case of the amp, variable input gain.
Recordings tend to vary in level rather more
than source components usually do, unless you
have an old tuner or tape deck. So it’s not
always possible to maintain consistent volume
from source to source even with such a feature.
Given that both source and amplifier were
designed and engineered by the same people,
the chances are that they will have the same
intrinsic character, strengths and weaknesses.
So the key compatibility issue with this, and
any system, is matching the amplifier to the
speaker in terms of power availability from the
amp, compared with the sensitivity of the
speaker. Here we have a high-powered 100-
watt amplifier and a high-sensitivity (90dB)
loudspeaker – a pairing which, on paper at
least – looks very sensible indeed.
SOUND QUALITY
The Azur 740C is a lively and dynamic CD
player with a good sense of timing, but is not,
perhaps, the most refined in terms of balance.
It has a surprisingly upfront and engaging
sound and – in the context of this system –
does a great job of pulling you into the music.
The Azur 740A backs this up with bags of
power, which it delivers with remarkable ease.
The bass is taut and solid, so bass guitars,
double basses and kick drums have real body
and weight. In some other systems, the 740
amp can seem a little dry: its high frequencies
lacking the fluency of some of its competitors,
but in this particular Cambridge/KEF combo it
doesn’t appear to be the case.
The sound at first is a little on the small side,
but this improved when we extended the
spikes at the front of the speaker and tilted it
Cambridge Audio 740C/740A and KEF iQ7 system [ Review ]
“Cambridge’s 740 series benefits from the work done on its 840 series and offers many features found on the more expensive units.”
backwards. Experimentation here is worthwhile
and pulls the sound together to form a
cohesive image with better tonal balance and
considerably larger scale.
Under these circumstances, you can hear
right into the mix and begin to appreciate the
level of resolution. This extends to hearing
pretty much everything, from the tap of fingers
on a table to the snap of a snare drum. You
won’t always be able to tell precisely how
each instrument or voice has been recorded,
but there’s no missing the fundamentals.
With a male choir piece, such as Born in
Bethlehem by the Blind Boys of Alabama, you
can easily appreciate the variety of voices in
the mix, as well as the broad dynamics and
timbral textures of the recording.
Tonally, it’s not the sweetest of systems,
something that with the better recordings
firms up the leading edges and adds
definition. But with more popular titles, the
sound is slightly metallic and this can be a
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VERDICT
OVERALL SCORE >>
shade fatiguing. Cabling proved to be the
key here, our test DNM interconnect being one
of those inexpensive cables that oddly works
better with an ‘expensive’ system. Our Chord
Chameleon cables took the edge off the
midband further and delivering a more
fulsome sound that suits rather well, even if it
does take some of the edge off the timing.
This system’s sense of timing allows
everything it plays to have the requisite drive,
however, whether it’s simple singer/songwriter
stuff like Gillian Welch, or full blown orchestral
works such as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
It’s not a quality to be underestimated either,
as some pretty ambitiously priced equipment
can also fall down here from time to time.
It is very hard to criticise this system given its
incredible asking price. If pushed, we would
identify its limited ability to produce a concrete
image. It’s difficult to tell whether it’s the
speaker or the electronics that restricts the
image depth, however. But in truth, asking for
a walk-in soundstage is too much a demand at
this price, a mere £900 for the whole system.
We mentioned earlier that the Azur 740A
and iQ7 looked like a sensible match on paper,
but this pairing would seem to extend beyond
the merely technical to the musical. Combined
with the 740C CD player, the system provokes
a lively and dynamic sound that should have
you on the edge of your seat. Snap it up and
you’ll be as pleased as punch. HFC
Jason Kennedy
SOUND >> 85%
FEATURES >> 90%
BUILD >> 80%
VALUE >> 98%
R PRO
An impressive selection of
quality kit for the money,
features aplenty and well
timed, wide band sound.
S CON
Sound could be a little bigger,
tending to be a shade too dry
for some tastes. Setup also
benefits from a low seating
position for the best results.
Smooth sounding cables are
also an essential requirement.
CONCLUSION
Richer Sounds consistently brings the best deals to the high street. But this one takes the biscuit, with electronics that are among the best in class and very capable speakers. Coupled with the limited-period price tag, this is a definite winner.
92%
CAMBRIDGE AUDIO AZUR 740C
The latest CD player in the Azur range is
based on its 840C sibling and incorporates
the same 32-bit DSP (digital signal
processing). It uses this to upsample the
16-bit/44.1kHz digital signal to 24-bit/
384kHz for the purpose of employing a
Bessel filter. Conversion to analogue is
courtesy of dual Wolfson WM8740 DACs
used in differential mode to minimise noise
and maximise channel separation.
It has digital inputs and allows changes to
word width (bits) and dither on the digital
output, but this is only relevant when
making digital recordings. The metal faced
remote handset operates both the player and
any Azur series amplifier, as well as offering
basic iPod controls if a dock is connected up.
CAMBRIDGE AUDIO AZUR 740A
As with the 740C this amplifier benefits from
the R&D that Cambridge put into the 840
series, thus you get the option of changing
input names and adjusting the gain for each
input in order to match level across different
sources. It’s specified to deliver 100 watts per
channel and can accept up to six line level
inputs as well as having support for multi-
room integration. The volume/balance
control uses a silicon gate rather than a
potentiometer and level is indicated both
with a large numeric display and a series of
markers that form a semi-circle above the
number.
KEF iQ7
This KEF floorstander matches the Cambridge
electronics in the value for money stakes.
An elegant boat tail cabinet that’s finished
in very convincing vinyl wrap veneer, contains
a Uni-Q coaxial midrange and tweeter with a
titanium coated 160mm cone and a 19mm
aluminium high frequency dome, as well as a
long-throw bass driver. Very saucy chrome
plated bi-wire terminals come with proper
cable links rather than the popular, but
sonically degrading flat links. 8mm spikes
help the bass driver to deliver plenty of grip
and grunt. The MDF cabinet’s shape is
designed to kill internal standing waves in
the back/front direction and substantial
baffles keep the whole thing braced.
[ Review ] Cambridge Audio 740C/740A and KEF iQ7 system
50 HI-FI CHOICE february 2008
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