Cambridge Audio took its time to get this one right – Andrew Everard finds out whether it was worth the wait

At the 2011 High End Show, held back in May in Munich, Cambridge Audio finally launched its NP30 network player. Part of the company’s compact Sonata hi-fi range, it was first shown at the 2010 show, and at the time was one of a very select band of devices of its kind.

In fact, so few ‘internet tuners’ of this kind were then on sale that I was keen to get my hands on an NP30 for review. ‘No dice’ was the answer at the time: the unit wasn’t due in the shops until October last year, in time for the peak selling period before Christmas, so I’d have to wait until then for a sample.

October, and then Christmas, came and went, but I wasn’t entirely concerned: after all, Cambridge Audio wouldn’t be the only British hi-fi company to encounter some slippage in its product launch schedule, and as technology becomes more advanced – for which read complex –, predicted launch dates all too often seem as much wishful thinking as firm commitments.

That’s a part of the modern audio and home cinema world, as much as the niggling problems many encounter with brand new products, but which are inevitably designed to be sorted with a rapid firmware update.

I’ve commented in these pages in the past about the new role of the early adopter of technology as an unofficial ‘beta tester’: several products out there have only really got it right after several such updates, and having been out ‘in the wild’ for at least a year.

The Cambridge Audio Sonata NP30 may be rather later into the shops – in the UK, Richer Sounds shops – than intended, but the company has done proper beta testing on this unit, putting a number of samples out to consumers for use, and receiving back reports of user experiences and foibles.

And so, a year down the line, the NP30 is on sale, thoroughly tested and sorted, and at £400 the least expensive hi-fi internet streaming client on the market.

It’s also one of the simplest, lacking a conventional radio tuner or any kind of amplification: it’s designed to be used with the £300 Sonata DR30+ stereo receiver, and perhaps the £150 CD30v2 CD player.

However, at the price, the NP30 could also be attractive to owners of hi-fi systems of other brands wanting a network solution, and is perfectly usable in that context: it has conventional stereo line outputs and both optical and electrical digital outs, and can be operated using the remote handset supplied or over a network using the Cambridge Audio UuVol Remote, which is a free download and can be run on iPhones, iPod Touch or iPads.

UuVol is also the name of the web interface for the unit’s internet radio system: rather like other companies’ systems, this allows you to choose internet stations from a range of search fields (location, genre and so on) as presets, or add stations from known web addresses. To link the web interface and the NP30, once it’s connected to the internet, you simply select ‘register’ on the unit, then read off a key code from the display and enter it into the UuVol website.

This site can also be used to add streaming services such as Rhapsody and Pandora to the NP30, and you can set up and manage subscriptions to these via the UuVol portal.

Talking of internet connection, the Cambridge can be linked to your home network via either Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet, and also offers front and rear USB sockets for connection to portable memory devices.

PERFORMANCE
While the Wi-Fi connection is undoubtedly convenient, as is so often the case with device of this kind I found the wired Ethernet much more reliable in my listening room, which is surrounded by an ever-growing number of neighbouring wireless networks.

Using the UuVol app on an iPad, the system was just a bit too willing to drop the connection and spend a moment or two hunting for the player, and over time I think that might become annoying. Things are much more solid with the NP30 connected to the router using a wired connection.

The system will also handle a wide range of locally-stored streaming music formats when connected via a router to either a home computer or a network-attached storage (NAS) device: almost all the bases are covered, with uncompressed WAV/PCM or FLAC files up to 96kHz/24-bit, AIFF files up to 48kHz, and compressed WMA, MP3, AAC and Ogg Vorbis files at up to 320kbps.

In fact, the only major omissions, neither of which are uncommon at this or higher price levels, are support for Apple Lossless or files at higher than 96kHz: a number or transcoding workarounds are available to address the first point, and as yet relatively little super-high-resolution music is available.

However, two points to note here, the first being that Cambridge Audio says a wireless connection is required to support 24-bit files; the second is that, in common with most current streaming client hardware, the NP30 doesn’t support gapless playback: it treats each file as a separate entitity, and there’s a noticeable gap between them.

It’s only really a problem where tracks flow into each other, as they may in opera or oratorio sets; most modern recordings have a track per movement or section, and the ‘gap’ may not be too obvious.

In common with other Cambridge Audio products, the NP30 is solidly built – although the lack of mechanical parts or power amplification within means it’s quite a lightweight – and has good audio engineering within: the digital to analogue conversion is from Wolfson, and selected components are used elsewhere in the audio chain. It may be inexpensive, but it feels solid and reliable.

All of this adds up to a network player with more than enough performance to keep the owners of modest-to-midrange audio systems happy. Yes, the NP30 sounds a little on the ‘bright and light’ side when compared to rather more expensive streaming client solutions, and could do with a bit more weight and substance in the bass when playing really large-scale orchestral works, but there’s no denying the pep and vitality of the sound, and the insight it delivers into performances.

Voices and instruments have fine character, and there’s no shortage of atmosphere and ambience, especially when playing higher-resolution files. What’s more, the Cambridge is also just about smooth enough to make even low-bitrate radio stations listenable. However, it really thrives on the likes of the BBC 320kbps AAC stream, or some of the European stations using similar bitrates.

The UuVol iOS app is the icing on the cake, making the NP30 much more enjoyable to use – the unit’s own blue-on-black dot-matrix display isn’t great, and proves tricky to read across the room. Using the app completes what is definitely a cost-effective and highly competent package, likely to find itself many buyers.

Cambridge Audio Sonata NP30
Type Network music player
Price £400
Inputs Wi-Fi, Ethernet, two USB
Outputs Analogue stereo, optical/electrical digital
Other connections 12V trigger
Audio formats supported WAV 16-24 bit/32-96kHz, FLAC 16-24 bit 32-96kHz, AIFF 16 bit 32-48kHz, Windows Media Audio 32-320kbps, MP3 16-320kbps AAC, HE AAC and AAC+ 16-320kbps, OGG Vorbis 32-320kbps
Accessories supplied Remote handset
Dimensions (WxHxD) 27x6.7x28.5cm
www.cambridge-audio.com
www.richersounds.com