Company & Product Overview
The 1960s brought us a lot of great things out of England related to music. Whether you are a fan of the Beatles or Rolling Stones, you have to admit it was a wonderful time for music. It was also the time of the birth of what has become known in the audio world as “British Sound.” In the late 1960s the sound coming off records produced in England had a very pure feeling, with no boosted bass or tipped up treble. Most British HiFi companies at the time did their best to produce gear that added zero coloration to this classic, pure sound.
Cambridge Audio came onto the scene in 1968 and, as you might have guessed, was started by a group of techies at Cambridge University. They made the world’s first integrated amp that used a toroidal power transformer, a first of the time, but which is now the standard in high performance audio. Fifty years later, Cambridge Audio still holds true to their goal of making products that are true to the music with no coloration.
To keep their team members fully engaged in what live music should sound like, they host a live concert every Friday afternoon in their facility, which is pretty cool for an audio company or any company for that matter. They also are dedicated to being as green as possible in their manufacturing.
Cambridge Audio has always been known for the great value HiFi products and we were lucky enough to get our hands on a pre-production model of a new, entry level integrated amp that will ship soon, the AXA35 which is the focus of today’s review.
