Cambridge Audio Solo vs Ifi Zen

I then put on a cartridge with a known “hot” sound. Very sharp high’s. The Solo made it sound much smoother. As if it tamed those high frequencies

So finally settled on the much more affordable Ifi Zen phono. I was blown away. Great sound, no distortion, clean spectral, Extremely flat frequency response. Everything youd want in your signal path

The "warmth" of the sound seemed diminished. Using multiple permutations and combinations of different cables (e.g. BJC LC-1, AudioQuest Evergreen and Tower, GAC-1, WBC/Mogami 2534, and KabelDirekt) still did not sound better than my existing hook-up using a BJC LC-1 directly into my receiver's phono input

It still has a lot of details, but that's its character. If you expect upfront jumping at you sound, you will not get that, at least out of the box. B...

Cambridge Audio AXC35 and Onkyo C7030. Both are fast, quiet and great sounding. The transport idea has no appeal for me as I'm not looking to be a DAC addict.

First off, I am blown away by the features and sound quality of this little bugger. A nice alternative to a Schiit Mani- it certainly doesn't keep up with my Musical Fidelity MX-VYnL, but I'm kinda glad it doesn't..

The front panel of the Solo is minimalistic, with only a power button and the Cambridge logo. The Duo, on the other hand, has the same power button an...

Not so good - wall wart power supply. My Parasound had a built in supply. The Zen has one of those junky wall warts. Even worse, the wall wart blocks two outlets when you plug it in

I asked for a refund because my confidence in the unit is very low. Two preamps start to buzz in under a year. They sent me a third unit as a replacement without doing the refund I asked for, or telling me that is what they were going to do. I was lead to believe I could get a refund by the customer support person I was in contact with

The iFi Zen has fairly weak output before it starts gaining a lot of distortion. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index