Price, sound.

remote, volume potentiometer.

This is a cool designed preamp. Regarding build quality it is OK, except remote. Volume potentiometer (especially motor - is poor). It has too dynamic volume control at low levels. And when you volume down with the remote, the motor transmitting weird sounds. Except these it is all right.

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none

clean, affordable

can't select source from remote (no big deal to me)

Plugged my CD-Player (with digital volume control) directly into my RB-1070 and then put the C500 in between. I could not hear any difference (besides volume adjustments). I don't believe there's any other pre-amp out there for this money that will be this transparent. (Are there any other pre-amps out there for this money at all???)

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Auditioned: B&K, Rotel (integrated)

After buying a pair of Magenpans, I needed to acquire a power/preamp combo to drive them, and was on a tight budget. A local dealer pointed me to the new Cambridge Audio C-500. The cost was right ($250, + $55 for optional phono stage), so I thought I'd give it a chance. Here's what I found:
Features - Basic functionality for the price. You get volume, balance, tone controls (which can be bypassed) and input selector. Inputs for CD, tuner, tape, phono/aux, video. Tape loop. Two pairs of RCA outs (no balanced outputs). Remote (more later). Overall, a basic feature set - nothing special, but nothing's missing. For that, I'll give the feature set 3 stars (average).

Remote - I'm left underwhelmed by this component. One selling point on buying this preamp was that it came with a remote that could not only control the pre-amp, but could also control my Cambridge Audio CD player as well. But one look at the remote and I can see that it's basically the CD remote with a few added buttons. It controls the preamp's volume and ... well nothing else. That's it. Volume up, volume down. You can't select input, or tape monitor, or even turn the darn thing on and off. You get 2 or 3 buttons to control a tuner, and a couple dozen or so for the CD (Why all the emphasis on the CD player? As curious as it may sound to rearrange the tracks in a movement of a Mahler symphony, this feature does us classical music listeners absolutely no good). The remote earns 1 star.

Sound - None. This is good! I did not find this amp to color the input in any way. No noise, grain, or distortion. I'm still playing with the placement of my Maggies, so I can't comment much on soundstage depth, but timbrally this preamp is clean. As to the phono stage - it's better than my old turntable. I heard details on some old LPs that I haven't heard in years. I'm not one to give 5 stars easily, but this thing approaches that point. A solid 4 stars, edging towards 5.

Bottom Line - At this price point, usually something's got to give, and the C500 is no exception. The remote is poorly designed, and while most of the basic features you'd want on a preamp are there, it has no bells and whistles. But we buy audio equipment for the sound, and there doesn't seem to be any compromise here. I chose my Maggies so I could hear the most minute details in the music, and this preamp allows those details to pass through. If, like me, you're looking for something inexpensive so you can put more of your money into a power amp and speakers, this is a great entry.

I just recently picked this unit up for $450 Cdn. I had a custom built tube linestage as the pre-amp in my setup, but the gain was set a little high for the rest of my gear and my current listenting environment, so I got the C500 to fill in until I have a dedicated listening room. Listening - The previous review is right, this is a very neutral pre-amp and does not appear to colour the sound in any distinctive way. The 'Direct' switch is nice, as you can bypass the tone controls for a cleaner sound. I've found this to be the case. If you don't need to alter the sound of your existing setup (not too bright or too warm) and you want to bring out the best of your modestly priced equipment, the C500 would be an excellent choice.
Design & Quality - As with all Cambridge gear that I've seen, the build quality is first rate. The engineers of this stuff must be music lovers because that consideration seems to come before 'bells and whistles'. As mentioned, the 'Direct' feature of this unit to pass the source direct to the amp is an example of this. Another example is that the remote signal goes into 'sleep' mode when not in use so that there is no added interference. The remote itself is underwhelming, but I was used to this with my existing Cambridge CD4SE cd player. Again, the music seems to be more important. One thing though if you match that CD player to this pre- the remote for the C500 actually gives you the features that the CD remote was missing (ie, programming). Unfortunately, you cannot switch between source components from the remote, so it's far from perfect. You get volume, CD controls, tuner (Cambridge) controls and light dimmer controls (for the energetically challenged). The aesthetics of the remote and the pre are pretty nice, and they fit in well with my existing equipment.
Overall- For the price, this is another fine product by Cambridge. I've raved to many about my CD player which, for the money, is an absolute steal. The C500 is deserving of almost the same praise.
For what it's worth- the rest of the system:
Cambridge Audio CD4SE
Carver TX-2 Tuner
Parasound HCA-1000A high current amp
Magneplaner MMG's
Klipsch KSW150 sub
Kimber PBJ interconnects
MIT Terminator 4 cables
Vibrapods (pre and CD)

Rating for the C500: 4 1/2 speakers

Neutral

remote

I upgraded my system in the study to Cambridge Audio equipment. Bought a P500 and a C500. This combination is better than I imagined. The C500 is just plain neutral...a great thing! It has a direct setting that allows for a direct signal transfer from the source through the amp without coloring the sound. I am also using a D500 cd player. I didn't realize that you could get such goos sound with inexpensive equipment. I plan to pick up another P500 and bi-amp in a few months. My only petty complaint is that the remote does not control everything. It does not open the cd player nor turn on the power ...but this is minor. I am giving this product 5 stars on sheer value alone. There are much better products out there, but few that give you so much for so little.

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amc 1100/ amc2100

Features, price, build quality, the fact that it exists.

I was completely happy with the remote, the features, and the styling. Well, maybe it could use a mono switch.

I wanted an inexpensive remote passive preamp with a phono section, but this is as close as I could get. I'm completely satisfied with the features and styling, right down to the truly clever upside-down labeling of the inputs (so it reads upright when viewed from the top). I was not quite as happy with the sound. While the sound is fine - more than fine - for the price, there is a reason why top of the line preamps cost upwards of $1500. In comparison to my $2.39 passive preamp, there was a strange 'eeee' sound that modulated the quanization noise (or was it tape hiss?) of many of my CDs that was not present when using the passive preamp. I also found the bass lacking in ultimate articulation, with bass instruments not as well placed. The soundstage was slightly narrower and was placed a bit farther away from the listener as compared to the passive preamp. Most noticeably, there was an overall 'inexpensiving' of the sound compared to my passive preamp, where instrument tone did not quite emerge from a background of black silence, was not as clearly localized in space, and lacked the ultimate in dynamic contrast. But shoot, if you're on a $279 budget, this has got to be the way to go, although there are some Creek passive/remote products that you could combine yourself to make a similar configuration.

My setup consists of some Japanese CD-player with a digital out, feeding a Musical Fidelity X-DAC into a homemade passive preamp into a nicely modified Dynaco Stereo 70 feeding a pair of 2-way homemade speakers with SEAS-sourced drivers that can be described as (and use components similar to) Wilson Audio WATT 'clones'.

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Homemade passive preamp (Radio Shack parts)