 Cambridge Audio was early in discovering the importance of good filtering in digital players. I once had an Azure 840c CD player that used Anagrams Q5 upsampling and sounded very good for the beginning of this millennium. They still use Anagrams technology in the shape of a second generation ATF2 upsampling to 24 bit 384 kHz in this CXN version 2 streamer DAC and preamp. Let's see what this brings. The CXN V2 is the update of the original CXN and if you want to know whether updating to the V2 is advisable, I can't tell you since I haven't reviewed the original version. It has a stylish brushed aluminium front available in silver and black that measures 430 x 305 x 85 mm. On the front left the standby button, a USB socket for storage devices and four transport buttons. Play pause, skip back and forward and stop. The 4.3 inch display shows menus or info on the track playing including cover art. Right of the display the infrared sensor and four buttons for menu navigation. Info that shows the tracks info, home to return to the previous menu and more to show extra options. On the right a rotary encoder that lets you scroll through menus. To select you push it up. On the left the ISC power socket, the Wi-Fi antenna, a second USB socket for storage devices, the network socket, two digital inputs, one on Toslink and one on RCA and one digital output on both Toslink and RCA. The USB input for audio in with a ground lift switch and two stereo analog outputs, one on XLR and one on RCA. For system integration there are two control bus RCA's and an input for an external infrared sensor. A few remarks here. The USB for mass storage, both on the rear and on the front, are not suited for iOS devices like an iPod. That's no problem though since the CXN supports AirPlay and with an optional dongle also Bluetooth, A2DP and APTX. The USB input for audio supports both Profile 1 and Profile 2. The default setting is Profile 1 which is limited to 96 kHz but works on all computers without extra drivers. In the audio menu this can be changed to Profile 2 so it will support 192 kHz and DSD64 II. For the use with Windows computers the supply driver must then be installed. All other inputs support all sampling rates up to 192 kHz but DSD is only supported over USB. Gapless playback is supported too. For internet radio the most efficient streaming MPEG Dash and HLS compatibility is present. On opening the cabinet I noticed it was very cleverly constructed. It felt very sturdy when closed and only after removing many screws I got access to the inside. There are three main PCBs, one holding the linear power supply, digital analog audio and one directly behind the front to hold the display and buttons. A number of smaller boards are used for interfacing and for instance holding the rotary encoder. The most remarkable print is this one, which in fact is the streamer and is called Black Merlin after the faster swimming fish there is. According to the press release a faster processor with extra memory should make the V2 faster than the original. Let's look at the audio side. Local stabilization, Walssen WM8740 DAC chips, N5532 op-amps and firm mute relays. Also note the screws that almost certainly must prevent vibrations in the PCB at this critical point. Not strange the measurements show very clean figures. This all is neatly laid out. As with most DLNA streamers, ripping must be done by a computer. That music then must be shared by a DLNA server, software that indexes the metadata and sends that info and the music to devices like the CXN. It is the server software that defines how the metadata is presented to you. If you, for instance like having Composer's Indexed, you have to use DLNA server software that does that or can be said to do that. The DLNA player only shows what is sent to it by the server. This also means that browsing speed depends largely on the DLNA server, again that is not specific for the CXN. I have several DLNA servers operating in the network primarily for video. For audio I like to use dedicated audio-only DLNA server software called MinimServer, running on an iMac that has an Intel i5 running at 3.3 GHz. With around 10.000 albums in my library, this worked quick and responsive. There are also versions for Windows, Linux and even for the Raspberry Pi and several NASs. I don't know what happens if you use a clearly slower NAS or Raspberry Pi, but then again if you have considerably less albums, it will probably work fine. A clear advantage is that DLNA doesn't know limitations on the number of tracks it can index and of course that it is up to you what DLNA server software to use and what fields are indexed. There are several ways to operate the CXN V2. Using the controls on the front or the supplied infrared remote, together with display on the front, or use an app on a tablet or smartphone. There are versions for Android and iOS and they come for free. When you choose for library the CXN shows the DLNA server or servers in your network. As you can see I have several running, but that is only for testing. Normally you will see only the one that you have installed on your computer or NAS. From here it is simple browsing and selecting like many streamer apps. On the right the playlist is shown and along the bottom the player info and control. Tap this area and you get a full player screen. If you go to the input you can choose between USB, D1, the optical input, D2, the RCA input and Spotify that effectively starts the Spotify app. Select internet radio and you find extensive search options and an option to store your favorites. The player menu option lets you select the player you want to control. This is also where you can couple more players. The settings menu lets you switch between the grid and list display, audio settings, limited to balance here, control bus settings and a possibility to use the iTunes library. All in all what you expect from a good app and as said the same can be controlled using the controls on the front or on the remote control. This is where the CXN really surprised me. This is a very musical player that given its price sounds remarkably good. It sounds rounded without sounding dull, is very open and has a stereo image that I didn't expect in this price category. The lows go deep and offer true tonality. It really is in the upper range of my setup 2 and is absolutely tolerable in my setup 1. A real achievement for a streamer, DAC and digital preamp for just over a grand. Let's start with the things you might need to know to decide whether this is your choice. First the price, 1099 Euros, 799 British Pounds or 999 US Dollars according to the web. Please bear in mind that European prices are including VAT, the sales tax, while the US price is excluding sales tax. Then you have to realize only Spotify is supported while this player deserves title or Cobas high-res streaming. There is no MQA decoding. Then there is a choice for DnLay that might be somewhat less easier to set up depending on the DnLay service software you choose. Do realize this is a complete digital preamp if you choose so. Just add a power amp or active speakers, connect your TV and CD player and even your smartphone over here play or at lower quality and using the optional dongle, bluetooth and use set. Rather have your computer connected directly, possible too. The sound quality is far above that of Sonos and clearly above that of Bluesound and also wins from the Elac Discovery that also has less functionality but does offer the unique Rune Essential software. Next month the Cocktail Audio X45 will be released that offers about the same functionality plus a hard disk option so no need for a computer but will be more expensive. If you want to know when this video comes online, subscribe to this channel or follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. See the show notes for the links. If you like this video, please consider supporting this channel through Patreon or PayPal. Just one dollar a month will do. The links are in the show notes, just test the links to the description of my three setups. Help me to even help more people with their stereos by telling your friends on the web about this channel. I am Hans Weikhuizen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.