Hi-Fi: Cambridge Audio One DX1 Music Centre – Review – 76
Stylish, self-contained audio systems with extended feature sets have come of age. Though they did exist before Arcam’s justly famed Solo, it’s a safe bet that the Arcam boffins wish they could have patented the formula that made the Solo range such a hit.
One company with an eye on the all-in-one system market is Cambridge Audio, a manufacturer with an enviable reputation for building high-performance, low-cost AV equipment.
The One shows the usual Cambridge attention to detail and overall quality. It’s also nicely finished and well built. It’s perhanps not as elegant as the minimalist Arcam Solo Mini, but the black review unit looks great and the silver version is even more chic. The remote control is a weighty, well-shaped affair that is superior to some of the afterthoughts supplied with much more expensive kit.
The One’s smug sense of competent completeness seemed to be asking for a challenge, maybe even a spanking, so I plugged it into my very revealing Theophany M5 Series 2 floorstanders and fed Kings of Leon’s Only by the Night CD into its slot-loading transport. Comparisons with my own system aren’t even remotely fair, but dip me in honey and leave me out for the starving grizzlies if this pugnacious little battler didn’t sing its wee heart out, with dynamics, control and poise that probably shouldn’t be possible at the price, especially with all those features competing for space in the all-powerful spreadsheets of the bean counters.
Coming down to earth with a pair of speakers similar to those that might be matched with the One in the real world, I brought out my old B&W CDM2 stand-mounts and was pleased to chance upon a real synergy, with a refined and classy sound. In a small room it had no hassles driving the Followill clan to extravagant volume levels with little audible strain. The drums, guitars and vocals from this excellent disc had the intensity and range to seriously enthrall, while calmer CDs like Friend and Foe by The Watson Twins or Ian Moss’s Six Strings were intimate and airy, bulging with ambient clues and atmosphere.
The 3.5mm input, SD and USB slots, and AUX inputs are nice but the iPod dock is great, offering a rich sound that made 
that fruity little 80GB drive seem tastier than ever before. Radio reception was surprisingly good with the supplied telescopic aerial.
Carefully matched with the right speakers (and there’s a wide variety of excellent and affordable speakers available these days), the One has the potential to deliver real hi-fi thrills with the simplicity of having just one box doing everything. No interconnect chaos, no cluttered audio racks and no wasted space, just good sound. The complaints department will get a short letter with a tiny moan though: the slot-loading CD drive doesn’t always eject the disc far enough to make it easy to grab by the sides and you can’t eject a CD while listening to another source.
Cambridge Audio’s designers were set a very stiff task. It’s one thing to squeeze so many features into a case this small, finish the whole kit and caboodle beautifully and make it sound like music and not a grey facsimile. It’s another thing entirely to do it so well at this price point. I’m stumped as to how they managed it but this little beauty is the real deal.
BRETT GIDEON
TECH SPECS
One DX1
Music Centre
$1199
SPEAKER OUTPUTS: Three-way binding posts
AUDIO OUTPUTS: Subwoofer, tape loop, 3.5mm mini-jack headphone socket
AUDIO INPUTS: USB, SD card reader, 2 x RCA, 3.5mm minijack, dedicated iPod dock
RADIO BANDS: FM, DAB
OTHER FEATURES: Sleep and alarm timers, dimmable display, iPod navigation from remote, MP3/WMA compatible
POWER OUTPUT: 30W/6 Ohms, 25 W/8 Ohms
DIMENSIONS: 90 x 350 x 215mm (H/W/D)
WEIGHT: 4.6kg
PROS
- Sound quality
- Huge feature count
- Price
CONS
- Fiddly disc ejection (sometimes)
VERDICT
- The sound quality and functionality are amazing for the price
CONTACT
This Review is from Tone Issue #76.
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