Enhanced Version of an Unbeatable Amp
"What High-Quality Music Reproduction is All About"
Cambridge Audio's original 540A integrated amp offered unbeatable features and performance at a budget price. The new v2 version enhances the original design, while keeping the bottom line as affordable as ever.
"Forget your prejudices about how entry-level electronics sound," reports the June / July 2006 issue of The Absolute Sound magazine. "The Azur 540 V2 series delivers the essence of what high-quality music reproduction is all about."
The Azur 540A v2 includes all the features of the original model, such as an oversized toroidal transformer, short path circuitry, and a raft of intelligent protection systems. But now the amp has more power, 60 watts per channel at 8 ohms compared to 50 watts for the original model.
The 540A v2 includes Incognito implementation, too. Incognito is Cambridge Audio's affordable A-Bus compliant system for putting sound and vision in every room of the home. It's fitted with a control bus input and output, along with an IR emitter, making it compatible with multi-room operation.
This highly popular integrated also boasts new volume, tone, and balance 'pots,' which are more robust and therefore give a better feel, plus improved channel matching. New input PCB circuitry with buffering lead to better imaging, too.
What else is new? How about larger heatsinks, improved chassis isolation, and higher-quality speaker terminals? And how about an updated Navigator remote control with hidden discrete codes?
Maintaining Signal Purity
The 540A v2 sounds more powerful than its specs would indicate, thanks to oversized toroidal transformers, which deliver class-leading power levels. The short signal path maintains signal purity. Bass
