Price, power.

High distortion audible on piano. Pulls out certain frequencies and orchestral instruments (xylophone) in extremely unnatural ways. I really wanted to like this piece too.

This is a really bizarre integrated. I really thought I would like it. Great reviews, great price, plenty of power. Auditioned with Creek 5xxx $1,500 CDP and B&W DM 602 series3 speakers. Plenty of power nice "English sound". But played Broadway musical with orchestra accompanying a singer. This int. pulled out the xylophone WAY out from everything else. It did this other times to a lesser extent with other particuylar frequencies and instruments. I think the Creek 5350 int. also does the same thing but to a lesser extent. Again emphasizing certain frequencies (sometimes midbass) and instruments WAY out of their normal proportion. This was just so strange. Also this int. has very detectable levels of distortion through the B&W. I don't care what the measurments say. A/B'd with the Creek 5350 and just not up to snuff. I say this in comparison to the NAD C350 60 wpc int. Sure, NAD may be less dynamic (can't say for sure) but less distortion, even freq. response, more harmonically correct. I've heard "crap" Denon and Sony receivers at Tweeter Etc. that sounded better than this int. and did have these faults. Different people hear and care about different things. But even the dealer said "Oh my God!" when I pointed out what the Cambridge Audio was doing. Sorry this int. is just no good on certain recordings. And to me, if it can't sound at least acceptably good on everything (NAD does) it's history.

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NAD C350, Denon Teac Ref 500 Maybe a bit bright)

Price, it appears that you can get it for less than $400; great design; and most important of all, great sound.

The remote control only allows the user to control the volume on the A500.

Why should you purchase the A500 when there are 5 channel recievers complete with equalizer, dolby pro logic, fancy LED displays, etc, available for less than $400? You shouldn't if you value quantity over quality. On the other hand, if you want the best 'quality' bang for your buck, the A500 is an amp you might want to check out. I use the A500 to drive a pair of mid-size bookshelf speakers. To date, I've been very happy with the fullness and warmth produced by the A500 in conjunction with my speakers. I always listen with the 'direct' button in the 'on' position and would recommend that listeners do likewise. Although this disables the tone controls, it produces a noticably more balanced and fuller soundstage. My only critique of the A500 is that its remote control only allows you raise/lower the volume of the A500. Unless you own other Cambridge Audio products, 95% of the remote control is useless.

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Carver CM1090; Carver mid-line receiver;

bi-amping capability; not aggressive, or relaxing if I can say so

binding posts are cheap (but way better than spring clips!); too sensitive to dirly line?

I regret that I didn''t have enough time to appreciate this unit. While it stayed in my bedroom, it sounded pretty good with B&W CDM 1 SE and Totem Mite among other speakers. Yes, I nearly loved this unit. But I had a problem with it and in the end, I exchanged it for a used Linn LK-2. In my place, P500 made a weak but cleary audible buzzing noise. It was coming from this unit. I check it out by changing it for other amps. I returned it for checking, but to my surprise that the buzz didn''t replicate at the seller. My best guess is that the AC line in my appartment is very dirty. I''m pretty sure about this. In the last winter, other amps suffered scratches noise probably induced by heating systems in other rooms. True or not, anyway, my best guess is that P500 was too sensitive to such dirtiness. Putting aside this problem, P500 sounded very nice, delivering moderately detailed sound, good soundstage. Again, I nearly loved this unit. In sum, $300 for a brand new P500 wouldn''t be bad if it works without such noises.

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Audio Innovations Alto, Alesis RA-100, Classe CAP-80, Creek 4040s2, Harman/Kardon PM625, NAD 310, Nikko Alpha II, Rega Elex, Linn LK-2

For the money you pay -about£300- for the A500+P500, GO AHEAD! Get your bi-amped hi-fi, you will LOVE IT regardless the kind of music you like.

VERY CHEAP SPEAKERS CONNECTORS,IT TAKES AGES TO RUN IN, PROBABLY A GOOD MONTH OF GOOD 3/4 HOURS A DAY LINSTENING TO IT, ...BUT THAN.......

Very good by amped with p500 and bi-wired with mordaunt short 902 signature. Good treble definition, excellent mid band, good bass.

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ARCAM=A65/65+/75/75+, NAD350/370

Great sound, build. Plenty of power

Took ages to sound good (2 months later its still improving)

Richer sounds gave me this amp very cheap as they didnt keep the A300 i reserved. Out of the box there wasnt much bass but about 3 weeks later it really did sound the buisness. Superb amp for the money worth £200.

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Cambrige audio A5 A300.

Power, bass, quality sound, remote

My other remote controls sort of make it 'crash' when i use them ! No others really.

Great. I got this amp in a deal with Eltax floorstanders and a technics CD player. I have scince got a Sony MD deck and Denon tuner. Next up is a sub. And possibly some decks and a mixer... etc etc...
This amp is the heart of my system. To the untrained eye it looks completely quality !!! Great sound. I like music loud, so the high power helps a lot. Good direct function, gold plated terminals. Really quite nice.

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A1 Mk3 SE, Technics Midi system.

Excellent Clarity, Punchy Bass, Price

Ex-demo model, so no remote with mine, other than that, nothing

I got this amp from Richersounds in Newcastle to replace the ageing Kenwood component system I had. The Kenwood was very competent, as it cost £600 back in 1990. I paid £120 for my amp, and am currently using a PC with SB Live card as the main source, as well as a Sky digibox. I am also using the LS232 speakers that came with the component system.

What can I say? Bloody amazing, and it could be better given a better source/speakers. Movies sound excellent, and music even better. Loads of punch, excellent treble, and very, very loud (for a bedroom).

I am going to match the system up with a pair of bi-wirable Monitor Audio Broze 2 speakers, as I have also heard excellent things about those. That should bring out the best in the amp.

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Kenwood CS232 component, Sony P11 "Cube", Sherwood R125, Kenwood KRV5070

Value, Midrange, amount of Bass

Remote only controls volume

As stated many times below, great value for a fine little integrated amp.

Please note that one of the previous posts about there being two versions of this model needs clarification: There is and has always been only one version of this model (65/85 wpc into 8/6 ohms) sent to North America. Other world markets receive different power transistors that indeed only make 50+ watts. The manual still states, even in North American models, the 50 wpc specs, so this can be very confusing. This information I'd gotten personally from the head of Customer Service at wonderful Audio Plus Services, the US distributor.

The remote control shipped with this amp will only control the volume, so don't look for source select, tape loop or even power controls.

I'm still breaking mine in, so more detail to come. But build quality looks quite good, theres certainly some good bass sent to the speaks, and there's a fine musicality to the sound. Quite nice, especially for the

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Rotel, Musical Fidelity, Parasound

** Read technical note in remarks regarding spec confusion **

Having only used it at low volumes in my small home, it certainly still manages to bring out more detail and soundstage compared to the little but very good NAD 310

Listening to Chris Rea's, Road to Hell (2), when the very low bass guitar kicks in the background, it does not sound tight enough and seems to 'wallow' a little - therefore sonically extremely similar to the NAD, which also let go of the bass a little

Looking forward to trying it out in my much larger new room approx 60 square metres x 3m high.

** Re the technical spec. and audio reviews confusion....

I have personally spoken to the designer this morning and he clarified a number of queries of mine....

He says that about a year ago there was a version of the A500 produced which had some reviews, but due to a fault it never actually went to market. Subsequent reviews have been for the corrected model, hence this will explain any discussion on which version has been reviewed / tested. There have never been 2 versions in the marketplace.

In terms of the spec. as stated on the card in most of the boxes, versus the different spec. shown on the cambridgeaudio.com website, basically they are both relating to the same version ! The spec in the box is in effect the requirement specification, as specified to the designers and manufacturers - the other spec is what has actually been achieved, i.e. an improvement. This present some confusion and there should only be one published spec, and they will look into that apparentyly.

So in summary, we actually get better amp. But if you first saw the higher spec details and then get a box stating the lower spec, then you ma think that you've been short-changed ! However, they say that there has only ever been one version on sale.

Hope this helps !

Clear clean bass, warmth, price, bi-wire capable

none that I am aware of

This integrated amplifier is a very nice piece. It is rated at 65 watts per channel into 8 ohms, but I feel that it has a bigger and warmer sound than its rating leads us to believe. I do not actually own this piece, choosing to go with the p500 and the c500 from Cambridge instead of an integrated amp. I have, however, listened extensively to this amp and really think it is a great bargain. It is simply, in my opinion, more musical than the AMC and NAD amps and presents music much more openly. It is on the level of Rotel and Adcom in terms of musicality (for the same type of product) and far surpasses these companies in value per dollar. If your space is limited or you are just getting into inexpensive higher fidelity gear from consumer grade electronics, this is a great base for your system.

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NAD, Rotel, AMC