Cambridge Audio AXA35 Integrated Amplifier: Review

Why do people buy Sonos systems? Especially when products like the Cambridge Audio AXA35 exist.

I understand the appeal of wireless connectivity and the superiority of the Sonos app. Every audio brand involved in the streaming space needs to spend time using the Sonos app and fire its design team. The integration of streaming services is first-rate. Tidal Connect? Check. Qobuz? Check.

Sonos works hard to make the set-up of its systems easy. They succeed better than most.

Human beings love to take the path of least resistance – but I’m not that kind of person.

What is so hard about connecting an inexpensive wireless streamer like the Andover Audio Songbird to an amplifier? Download the app and access Tidal, Spotify, or Qobuz that way.

Spend 5 minutes with the Songbird app and you’ll realise how archaic it feels compared to the Sonos app. Andover need to make it better. More seamless and less clunky.

I know that people are tired after 17 months of the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean you throw in the towel and accept low-fi. I made that up.

Whatever music you enjoy is the best kind of music. And if something sounds good to you then that is the only opinion that matters.

The Sonos One SL is a pretty solid wireless loudspeaker. You need two of them for real stereo sound. It also sounds better than a number of wireless loudspeakers with techno, hip-hop, and modern dance music. It just does.

But I’m going to be that guy for a second. 

Because listening to your favorite music on a better stereo system is a transformative life experience.

It just is. 

The way it makes you feel; emotionally, sexually, spiritually, and intellectually.

Does music not make you cry? Or angry, desperate, and hungry for life?

Why do we listen to music? Just for some background noise?

Music connects you with other human beings.

Voice-activated low-fi connects you to the people listening at the NSA.

The $399 Cambridge Audio AXA integrated amplifier may not offer the wireless connectivity, or voice control of Sonos, but it does offer two things that make it a much smarter buy long-term – room for growth, and far superior sound quality.

There is a new generation of affordable high-end integrated amplifiers from Cambridge Audio, NAD, Denon, Rega, Cyrus, and Schiit Audio that are making better sound quality attainable for music listeners who don’t want to throw in the towel and be captive to a specific ecosystem and sound. The AXA35 happens to be the most affordable and over-achieving of the lot.

The AXA35 feels substantial at this price level; thirteen pounds of aluminum and steel that is well assembled and finished with a quality looking front faceplate and ventilated top cover. It can look slightly understated compared to the competition, but Cambridge Audio has created an amplifier that sounds surprisingly larger than it looks. It’s capable of being quite bold.

Under the hood, everything is very tidy and neat, with a sizable toroidal transformer occupying the front left corner of the chassis. The AXA35 offers 35 watts/channel into 8 ohms but proved to be a lot more powerful in real use with most loudspeakers.

The front panel offers a volume control, five source selection buttons, ¼’ headphone jack, 3.5mm auxiliary input jack, and a menu button to access bass, treble, and balance controls.

The rear panel includes input jacks for five sources; including a phono section designed for a high-output moving magnet, or high-output moving coil cartridge. Cambridge Audio have also included a USB input for charging your smartphone. If we have one nitpick – the binding posts are decidedly cheap for a brand that makes equipment in the $6,000 range.  

The supplied remote control is a full-sized unit that you’ll find in the box of other Cambridge Audio components and offers complete control of the unit. 

Some may find the AXA’s understated styling somewhat bland compared to the industrial design from its rivals, but the real focus should be on sound at this price point. If you’re looking for a one-box solution that includes an internal DAC, Bluetooth connectivity, and fancy touch-panel LCD display for $350 – you’re going to be looking for a very long time. 

You need a DAC with the AXA35. Something like the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt, Clarus CODA, or Schiit Audio Modi Multibit will work perfectly and keep the price affordable.

There is something undeniably surprising about the Cambridge Audio AXA35 integrated amplifier. Great sounding affordable amplifiers are not hard to find anymore, but they don’t get your pulse racing right out of the box – they lack a level of sophistication at the entry-level that obscures detail, shrinks the soundstage, and can sound a tad opaque. 

With a tonal balance that falls somewhere in-between neutral and warm, giving everything a decent amount of meat but without obscuring detail that a speaker like the Klipsch RP-600M can unveil, the AXA35 is never going to offend your ears. What it leaves behind is those last few pieces of information that you need to spend a lot more to hear. 

Listening to Hank Mobley’s Workout (Tidal, 16-bit/44.1kHz) through the Klipsch RP-600M revealed the AXA35 can keep up with the music; it moved forward in a way that never robbed the Klipsch of their strong and ever-present midrange energy, but also made them more listenable by softening some of the glare created by metal cone drivers, and horn-loaded tweeters. 

The AXA35 does not possess a vise-like grip on the bottom end; but it does deliver a surprising degree of punch with the right loudspeaker; the Klipsch RP-600M, and PSB Alpha P5 both benefitted from that with alternative rock like the Smashing Pumpkins or Massive Attack’s Mezzanine.

Jazz was a solid match with the AXA35. Donald Byrd’s “Cristo Redentor” from A New Perspective (Tidal, 16-bit/44.1kHz) can be an unrelenting listen if a system leans too far forward, but that was never the case with either loudspeaker or the AXA35. Byrd’s trumpet emerged from the silence with just enough bite to keep one on the edge of their seat without reaching for the volume button. 

A Better Match & Some Competition

The natural competitor to the AXA35 has to be the NAD C 316BEE V2. The NAD is slightly more expensive but they both appeal to the same type of customer. The NAD has a bump in the midrange that works with more restrained sounding loudspeakers like the Q Acoustics 3050i; the Cambridge AXA35 is superior with more neutral sounding loudspeakers that could use some color.

They both offer colorful sounding phono sections, but I find the C 316BEE V2 to have slightly more jump in that regard. I listen to both of these integrated amplifiers on a daily basis and I find that my mood dictates which amplifier I like best on a specific day.

The NAD has the ability to illuminate everything that you pass through it, and as long as you are careful about the choice of loudspeakers, it’s a vibrant and exciting listen.  

The AXA35 is definitely more rolled off in the top end, but that works so well with the Klipsch RP-600M, that I can’t imagine listening to anything else sometimes. 

The PSB Alpha P5 require some punch to deliver sufficient low-end response, and the AXA35 delivers with almost every track; Metallica’s “One” from And Justice for All (CD, 16-bit/44.1kHz) energized my den and it never sounded like the wheels were coming off the train. The P5 could benefit from a subwoofer, but in a den, office, or bedroom – this combo was engaging, detailed, and listenable for hours. 

Vocals were always impressive with the AXA35; both with digital sources, and the three phono cartridges that I ran through its phono section; Dynavector 10×5, Grado Black3, and the Ortofon 2M Red. I’ve certainly heard better sounding phono sections, but what the AXA35 delivers with a good cartridge is more than enough.

Should you pull the trigger? 

Paired with the right loudspeakers, the Cambridge Audio AXA35 will surprise you with its warm tonal balance, swagger, and unbridled presence with all types of music. It does lack an internal streamer and DAC, so that needs to be figured into the final cost if assembling a system around it. 

At its asking price, the Cambridge Audio AXA35 is an unqualified success for music lovers debating between a pair of affordable wireless active loudspeakers or true two-channel system that will deliver superior sound quality and room to grow.

For more information: Cambridge Audio AXA35 Integrated Amplifier

Where to buy: $399 at Amazon or Crutchfield