Inspired by this I decided to see what I could squeeze out of this thing so I changed all the caps and upgraded them with Panasonic FM, FA and OsCons as well as increasing the large reservoir caps to 10000uf and tweaked some values of critical caps in the signal path until I found the sweet spot.

None so far. photo booth

Ok I picked this amp up for 20 quid, it had a noisy volume pot and was sold for spares or repair. I replaced the standard pot for an old Blue Alps I had lying around and had a good listen, wow this little amp had a very detailed sound if a little thin but sounded great with my Nakamichi cassette deck. I decided to swap out all the cheap nasty ceramic caps and replace them with Wima foil types and silver mica, wow another great improvement. Inspired by this I decided to see what I could squeeze out of this thing so I changed all the caps and upgraded them with Panasonic FM, FA and OsCons as well as increasing the large reservoir caps to 10000uf and tweaked some values of critical caps in the signal path until I found the sweet spot. I would happily listen to this Nakamichi/Cambridge A1/ B&O CX100 forever! It lacks NOTHING

A bit thin sounding until upgrading all caps and volume pot.

Price, musicality, relative lack of listener fatigue

Not at this price

When my multi-$$$ amplifier blew up and was sent off to be fixed, I had to rummage around my friends and basement for a temporary replacement.

This $100 blew away several amps costing up to seven times as much. It's a simple, honest, musical sounding amplifier, that you can just forget about and enjoy the music.

I currently have it sitting in between a $6000 Mark Levinson No 39 CD and a pair of BBC LS3/5a speakers, and it doesn't sound out of place. Incredible.

Similar Products Used:

Linn, Arcam, Rotel

soothes the savage beast

no bowel moving dynamics - modest 35 watts/channel

First i should mention that this amplifier uses an integraded chip amplifier that provides it the 35 watts it gives out. If you look inside the unit you will see how many few parts the amp uses (something like 9 components per channel-no s*it). I should also mention that the same i.c power amplifier is being used in the 47 labs gaincard amp(or whatever it's called) that sells for something like $4000. Yep, this is basically the same thing except it sells for about $400! Cudos to cambridge audio! Too bad this product is no longer in production though. Although some of the newer cambridge stuff may still be using this chip, i'm not certain.
If you are thinking about purchasing this thing used from someone I suggest going to the 47 labs reviews on this site and reading some of the glowing reviews there because that's what you will be listening to if you get ahold of one of these.
This little amp sounds so amazingly rich and deep. Whoever at phillips designed this i.c is a genius. We need more of these things!!!

I'm impressed. For the amount of money I had to spend on an amp, the Cambridge Audio A1 has improved the sound of my system immeasurably. The power is more than sufficient to run my Klipsh Heresys. Both cds (Nakamichi OM1) and vinyl (Oracle Alexandria with a Mission 773 moving coil cartridge) sound wonderful. I'm sure there are losts of other amps out there that sound better, as there are countless numbers of speakers and cd players which would improve the sound, but for the cost, I don't think anything would touch this amp.

Not bad at all for the money. Recommended.

Excellent mid range for the price, great timing, fairly good separation, and speed

Anoying volume control, no remote, bass a little slow

This amp was my first buy when I started a budget system over a year ago. I gave me a unique insight into the world of hifi. It only had 30WPC but this was enough. It was extremely good for the price, and it amazed me with the amount of music and performance that it gave in this price range. Verdict: A good buy for your first AMP

In every man's life there's a time where he has to go through the burden of choosing the amplifier for his system. That time came for me a couple of months ago when I had to choose an amplifier to drive my Acoustic Energy speakers. So i went to a couple of hi-fi shops I knew and listened to NAD, Arcam, Cambridge Audio and AMC amplifiers. The NAD and the AMC didn't make the final cut. Both remaining contestants had excelent highs, the bass was very well tempered and precise, even though it won't make you forget Bryston or Conrad- Johnson. But what made me go the Cambridge Audio way was its incredible midrange. It's so nice and sweet, it's just flowing around you like a cool autumn breeze in a maple's leaves. This is an integrated, so it won't pack unlimited power, but never was I thinking of cranking up the volume knob of this 30 watts/channel at more than halfway. In my opinion, this is the greatest amplifier bargain anyone has ever built, especially at 469.00 $ cdn. list. Highest recommendations for the money.
I played the A1 with Acoustic Energy AE100 speakers on sand-filled Atlantis stands. The only source I plugged in was an AMC CD player. It was tested in an acoustically perfect room. It couldn't have been under better circumstances.

quietness, warmth, detail, able to cast a good soundstage with a good recording. not overly powerful (although beefy for 35w/channel) but uses a toroid power supply which is pretty impressive at this price. very well built

too much sibilance (as with all cambridge audio amps) the 's' in the human voice is exaggerated and sounds distorted.

I assume that this is a review for teh a1mk3? (i have the special edition) if not oh well here is the summary:
good starter amp, very quiet and detailed but I did mention the sibilance problem above. this happens when i turn the treble balance past flat (which i find very necessary with this amp) overall pretty unbelievable sonics for the price. way to go cambridge audio! (not soundworks!!!!)

The Cambridge Audio A1 is a real bargain! Of course it won't be the best amp you'll ever hear but at that incredibely low price you just can't have better!!! It's the best deal as long as amplifiers are concerned... bar none! Of course it is lacking deep bass...of course the high are not comparable to a Clssé Audio amp but overall this amp is a must if you want to get a so called "entry level" hi-fi amp! I only wish it would be 50 W instead of 30 since my Rogers LS55 are not a model of efficiency.