Streaming has become a big player in Hi-Fi, but what makes the Stream Magic so special?
It’s not just the Great British weather that’s been unsettled of late – our home-grown Hi-Fi manufacturers are getting restless, too. At least that’s the impression we get with all of the noises coming out of Cambridge Audio at the moment.
They’ve been on something of a mission these past few months; revising their award winning Go into v2 status, releasing the fantastic One mini system, unleashing the big guns with the 851W, 851D and 851E, and there’s a whole raft of other new bits on the horizon. It’s fair to say that they’ve made the most of what was a fairly miserable August, with their engineers clearly spending some time knuckling down indoors. With something of an Indian summer settling over September, it’s time to see if their latest release can shine, too. Say hello to the Stream Magic Version 2.
Streaming is something of a buzz word in Hi-Fi circles these days. The link between our ever-growing digital music catalogues and our traditional systems is being strengthened by myriad boxes, offering to show our ‘bits’ the best way from ‘A’ to ‘B’. Amongst those manufacturers looking to lead us to the digital promised land, Cambridge’s pedigree is laudable. The original Stream Magic was a Product of the Year winner in industry bible What Hi-Fi, winning plaudits from across the continents for it’s ingenuity and musicality. Its successor isn’t about to rip up the rulebook. So what exactly are we getting second time around?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, below the sea or on the moon for the past few years, there’s a decent chance you’ve heard of a music streaming service called Spotify. As the world’s number one method of streaming music over the internet, Hi-Fi companies clamour for compatibility with the service. Fortunately, Cambridge have got the big dogs on-board. Those of you with a Spotify Premium account will be able to access the service directly through the Stream Magic V2, taking advantage of it’s wonderful on board sound processing to hear music streamed like never before. With a quick download of the Spotify Connect app (tried and tested on ye olde iPhone 4s), the world’s music is at your fingertips, and playing in world class quality.
As If by (Stream) magic, this leads us into our next major upgrade talking point. Owing to a boost in processing power, Cambridge’s boffins have squeezed four times more power, and twice the speed out of the processors of the original. All this tinkering means that the V2 now has the capability of streaming your own library of 24-bit / 192khz files over your network, offering even greater insight, detail and musical satisfaction than it’s forbearer. These types of files will be at the forefront of an audiophiles day-to-day playback, and the ability to play them without the headaches of yesteryear is gratefully received.
For music not so well encoded, the use of the very swish sounding ‘Adaptive Time Filtering – ATF2’ processing that the V2 delivers is paramount. Its on board DAC will connect to physical mediums such as Blu-Ray and CD players, and upsample the incoming data to a whopping 24/384 sampling rate. The more ‘samples’ of the data that a DAC can make, the more information is passed through its final output. More information = better sound. Something we all strive for!
Before we got into the listening side of things, we downloaded Cambridge’s own Apple and Android compatible app. The remote control that comes provided coupled with the unit’s own display is practical enough, but the app takes usability to a whole other level. Offering album artwork, alphabetising and a fast touch-based interface, the app is reminiscent of the current benchmark from SONOS. It also makes browsing Internet radio sites a great deal easier, with the swipe of a finger proving more fluid than a down-press of a remote. We finished our (very brief) setup from the office NAS drive, and it was on to listening.
Our NAS playlist is wide and varied, encompassing the tastes of quite a few opposing views on what makes for good listening! An easy one for most to agree on for its merits as a demonstration disc is Eric Clapton’s Unplugged set. Wide in soundstage, full in tone, Clapton and MTV provide a blinding, hour-long set of Clapton tunes and well-picked blues classics. Tears in Heaven, as beautiful a musical eulogy as you are likely to find, laced in regret over a truly awful event, manages to overcome it’s built-in grief to bestow a graceful, touching and obviously heartfelt performance. The V2 offered insight and depth into a masterful performance from old ‘Slowhand’, his voice filling the room and begging for a re-listen. Spine-tingling stuff.
We’re big fans of internet radio in the shop, particularly the ambient, room-pleasing Groove Salad from downbeat network SOMA FM. Over-air radio performance can be a mixed bag at the absolute best of times, with the encoding of a lot of stations sounding harsh and dirty through a good system. The Cambridge lapped it up, offering up the channel’s grooves and beats with aplomb. The texture of the music wasn’t lost in translation, the laid-back soul of the sound filled out the room plentifully.
Thinking of how to try and throw this brushed-metal beauty from it’s stride, we dipped into a 128kpbs rip of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. If this wasn’t going to make the V2 cry then nothing was. Angus Young is truly shredding on the intro to this very definition of ‘rock music’, sending arms pumping into the air all by themselves. Brian Johnson’s ever throaty wail riding this chord-set from hell (or heaven) into pure head-banging territory; the Cambridge was right there with us, making what should have been a challenge into a day at the park. There was a bit less space around the musicians, a tad less ‘life’ than the CD equivalent but it’s the best it’d sounded in such a low quality format.
For anybody who is tired of lugging a CD over to their Hi-Fi every time they fancy a good listen, and equally everyone tired of their burgeoning digital music collection being stuck into their PC speaker, the Stream Magic V2 is a call to arms. It wants to welcome you to the brave new world that we can all be apart of – music streaming is ready to take your listening into another dimension.
Author: Chris, Liverpool store
The Cambridge Audio Stream Magic V2 also comes in silver. Call your local store to arrange a demo!
