Well I did it, I'm going digital! Cambridge Audio 851N

Mikey081057

Back in the 70's I had this Pioneer QP-400 quadraphonic 8 track player with Jensen 6x9 Tri-axials on the rear deck and a pair of Jensen round 5 1/2"? coaxials in the doors



It was a POS as I remember.

It ate my Rick Derringer tape at an in opportune time while I was parked with my favorite GF at the Manasquan inlet in Point Pleasant Beach and ended up sleeping with the fishes...I got a cassette player after that.

joecoulson

I bet back then it was the ****

Mikey081057

It was ok when it worked. The tuner was pretty good. Which is what you would expect from a "Super Tuner"

verb

Mikey081057 wrote: »

It was ok when it worked. The tuner was pretty good. Which is what you would expect from a "Super Tuner"

Hehe! My recollection, a bit romanticized a bit I’m sure, was they were the schizzle! What fun we had in those days! Ignorance was bliss!

motorstereo

verb wrote: »

Dude don't get me going on yet another rabbit hole! Ah 8-tracks! Those were the days - Rocking out on Styx in my '73 Nova with a Pioneer Supertuner 8-track!

Ahh the memories; I had a supertuner with the cassette and ADS speakers in my 74 Nova hatchback. Sadly they all got destroyed when the Nova tipped over one night.

recoveryone

I remember when my 8 track died on a Sunday afternoon cruz, listening to Rolls Royce. I was lucky that my older brother worked at Pacific Stereo at the time and hooked me up with an in dash, auto reverse cassette deck. I was the big dog, as hardly anyone had an auto reverse deck back in 78.

aprazer402

First nice in-dash unit I had after external 8-track players. Someone meticulously removed it and the speakers from wooden dash and door panels of my '66 GTO convertible one evening while I was working. They never damaged a thing. I replaced it with a Clarion unit. On later vehicles, I just went with stock units w/cassette then cd's as home audio was where money was spent. EDIT: I put the Clarion unit in another car. I put the original factory GM Pontiac radio back in the GTO, I had maintained the original cut-out of the wood dash from the start so the original radio could be replaced with no evidence of mod. for the after-market Pioneer.

steveinaz

Back when Pioneer's logo was cooler.

Mikey081057

So back in the day I'm gonna say early 80's I had this and it was a BEAST. It was not cheap and could hang with all the Alpine and Blaupunkt stuff everybody creamed over.

displayname

I love the turn this "going digital" thread has taken.

verb

Agree! Love looking back at the good ole days! Ahh back to present day. The Cambridge has been delivered!

verb

Unboxed! Won't hook it up until this weekend! In the meantime, this baby looks great! Love the silver finish. And, it's got some heft! Nice build quality! Stock cords, meh.

pglbook

Congrats, Verb. That is very nice looking and I am sure it will sound great!

I have not jumped into the digital world myself but also neeed to do so. Problem is I have lots/everything to learn since I have strictly been 2 channel forever. Can you let me know if the Cambridge Audio 851N is a DAC or a streamer (or both)? I really do not know anything about the digital world but need to learn so any basics you can share with me would be much appreciated (and feel free to do so via pm if you'd rather not clutter up this thread). How does it get hooked up? to a pre amp? does one then also hook it up to a server or tablet or computer to play tunes? I told you I am starting from scratch, lol. I am looking forward to your review as I am am thinking of getting one of these myself (once I learn how they work, lol). Thanks and, once again, congrats!

verb

Will do! I'm gonna need lots of help! I'll continue to post my journey!

So I don't know too much yet, but here it goes. This guy is a DAC. And a streamer. And a preamp that will control multiple digital inputs.

Has digital and analog outputs. So you could connect it to another DAC, if you want, or use the inboard DAC.

My plan right now is to use it as a stand alone streamer, use the inboard DAC, and connect it to my Cary preamp. I'm gonna give Tidal a try for my first streaming service!

Eventually I want to compare the inboard DAC to my killer NS Excelsio DAC.

There seems to be so many possibilities with this guy. Very flexible piece for sure! Hours and hours of fun! And it has a remote!

verb

I might add our very own @audioluvr just got a Cambridge, and he's along his journey, a few steps of me, I've been following his thread and getting my learn on!

recoveryone

Well Verb, I hope you have been prepping your collection of D/L or ripped music. As with all good things comes the nasty part...lol. If you have not started, please, please,please start or make sure you catalog your music and make sure you have the album art. Having a streamer such as the 851n or for that matter any streamer that is capable displaying album art is the icing on the cake. Even if you use a tablet/smart phone to control your unit, you will get a bigger satisfaction from the experience and will have you wanting to listen more often.

verb

recoveryone wrote: »

Well Verb, I hope you have been prepping your collection of D/L or ripped music. As with all good things comes the nasty part...lol. If you have not started, please, please,please start or make sure you catalog your music and make sure you have the album art. Having a streamer such as the 851n or for that matter any streamer that is capable displaying album art is the icing on the cake. Even if you use a tablet/smart phone to control your unit, you will get a bigger satisfaction from the experience and will have you wanting to listen more often.

Agree! Part of my decision was the big screen on the front! Being able to display the album art is what I like. Silver too. That color will highlight a lot of the metal finish and machined surfaces. All about the bling! Well not all, it's gotta sound great. The bling is icing on the cake!

verb

And @pglbook there are a ton of experts here on CP! Ton's of experience, and always helpful! Learned most of what I know on going digital right here!

Yep. I'm kind of giddy tonight! Daddy just got a new toy!

recoveryone

Mikey081057 wrote: »

So back in the day I'm gonna say early 80's I had this and it was a BEAST. It was not cheap and could hang with all the Alpine and Blaupunkt stuff everybody creamed over.

This is not the unit I had, but this one looks very close. I had mine paired with an Amp EQ, with the Jensen 3 ways in the rear deck of the 67 Impala

verb

recoveryone wrote: »

Mikey081057 wrote: »

So back in the day I'm gonna say early 80's I had this and it was a BEAST. It was not cheap and could hang with all the Alpine and Blaupunkt stuff everybody creamed over.

This is not the unit I had, but this one looks very close. I had mine paired with an Amp EQ, with the Jensen 3 ways in the rear deck of the 67 Impala

Nice! Ah '67 Impala. Beautiful!

tophatjohnny

Big screen on the front?? 😂😂killing me brother. You will have fun with it for sure. Mine is still so new looking and putting it back in it's original box again was a little tough as it is a slick unit. I just don't need two top flight streamers in my home. Looking forward to your further reviews once you set it up. So easy to set up even I could do it😂 congrats and silver is cool too. Probably doesn't have the same sonic value as the black version but I'm sure blindfolded you would hardly see a difference. 😂enjoy brother.

verb

Haha brother! I couldn't select Like and LOL!

displayname

verb wrote: »

Eventually I want to compare the inboard DAC to my killer NS Excelsio DAC.

I'd expect the Excelsio to beat it out, but very curious to hear your opinion on this once you try it!

joecoulson

displayname wrote: »

verb wrote: »

Eventually I want to compare the inboard DAC to my killer NS Excelsio DAC.

I'd expect the Excelsio to beat it out, but very curious to hear your opinion on this once you try it!

I bet it gives it a run for the dough

indyhawg

aprazer402 wrote: »

First nice in-dash unit I had after external 8-track players. Someone meticulously removed it and the speakers from wooden dash and door panels of my '66 GTO convertible one evening while I was working. They never damaged a thing. I replaced it with a Clarion unit. On later vehicles, I just went with stock units w/cassette then cd's as home audio was where money was spent. EDIT: I put the Clarion unit in another car. I put the original factory GM Pontiac radio back in the GTO, I had maintained the original cut-out of the wood dash from the start so the original radio could be replaced with no evidence of mod. for the after-market Pioneer.

I had that model Pioneer unit in my 77 Cutlass. That and a Tancredi EA/Booster/ with Trixials on the rear deck and Clarions in the dash. Man, I was in Metal Heaven.

kharp1

We sold Concord gear back in the day. It was good quality stuff.

pglbook

verb wrote: »

Will do! I'm gonna need lots of help! I'll continue to post my journey!

So I don't know too much yet, but here it goes. This guy is a DAC. And a streamer. And a preamp that will control multiple digital inputs.

Has digital and analog outputs. So you could connect it to another DAC, if you want, or use the inboard DAC.

My plan right now is to use it as a stand alone streamer, use the inboard DAC, and connect it to my Cary preamp. I'm gonna give Tidal a try for my first streaming service!

Eventually I want to compare the inboard DAC to my killer NS Excelsio DAC.

There seems to be so many possibilities with this guy. Very flexible piece for sure! Hours and hours of fun! And it has a remote!

Verb, thanks for the info. That helps. I am slowly learning about the digital music world. It's great that it has a DAC and streamer in one package. Very convenient. I look forward to your review of how it sounds and also how it compares to the Excelsio (which I believe is a standalone DAC correct? If so, you would need a separate streamer for the Excelsio, correct?). Enjoy the new toy!!!

verb

So I just had to play with it! Got it connected to my WiFi network!

Downloaded the latest firmware.

Downloaded the Cambridge Connect app to my iPad. Running a 30 day free trial of Tidal!

She’s alive!

verb

Oh yeah. Not connected to my rig yet! That’s for tomorrow!

verb

And yes, super easy! One interesting thing, Tidal on the iPad requires iOS 11, of which my older iPad is not compatible with. So I’ll run the Cambridge Connect app mostly.

I was able to download Tidal on my iPhone 6 however.