Cambridge Audio - The British Sound

For over 50 years Cambridge Audio has been refining their technologies in their quest to truly reproduce "The British Sound".The first question that comes to mind is what is "The British Sound"?Cambridge Audio believe it is audio in its purest form.....not "mucking about" with the sound at all.Their aim is to reproduce the sound as it was intended when the artists laid the tracks down in the recording studio.

The 1960's was an important era of experimentation by artists in the recording studio as much as it was also of young engineers,tired of not hearing the sound as it was recorded started designing hi-fi equipment that went closer to giving the music listener more of the detail and depth of the original recording.In the studio artists such as The Beatles and their legendary producer,Sir George Martin,were experimenting with exploring the limits of sound recording with different effects.The British made recording consoles also helped establish"The British Sound".The Americans loved adding chunky bass to their sound whilst the Far East loved to boost the midrange to enhance the vocals."The British Sound" tried to minimise adding anything to the original recording.

The follow-on through the 1970's and 1980's was the use by famous artists such as The Rolling Stones,Pink Floyd,The Who and David Bowie of the British recording engineers and equipment to produce what was at the time exceptionally accurate and dynamic recordings.

Cambridge Audio was born amongst the British design and manufacturing growth in the 1960's that took up the mantle of reproducing the quality of these recordings through affordable hi-fi equipment.Their first ever product ,the P40 amplifier went down in history as being the first amplifier to use a toroidal transformer as the power supply or "engine" of the amplifier.The toroidal transformer went on to become a standard component inside almost every hi-end amplifier since then because it is exceptionally effective at providing the current that delivers the dynamics of the music to the listener.

The P40 was the first of many innovative designs that Cambridge Audio brought out over the following 50 years.Prestigious Awards are presented to this day to Cambridge Audio for not only amplifier design but also high performance streaming components that not only embrace the digital world but set new standards in their price categories.

All of this brings us around to the value of the passion of those music recording pioneers and audio component designers in the 1960's and 1970's that pursued a truly balanced and accurate sound.That sound conveys not only the dynamics of the music but a piece of the emotion that the artists wanted us to feel when we enjoyed listening to their exploration of the limits of sonic experimentation in an effort to control exactly what was recorded and how it sounded.To this day even the entry level Cambridge Audio amplifiers deliver a piece of this experience.