The floor standing speakers the Aviano 8 and Cambridge CD-player 550C and amplifier 550A may be the right combination of speakers. CD player and the amplifier you are searching for! Let see the details of each.
The Cambridge Audio 550C and 550A both follow the same pattern as their other siblings with freshly brushed aluminum fascias and svelte designs. They are equally graceful and elegant as most of their European companions. But considering their build quality, all your expectations of grace and elegance will vanish as you behold these mighty products. Each plate of the chassis is accurately aligned to each other, blending seamlessly as one. The same is the case with the MS Aviano 8s that grabs your attention with its strong cabinet structure. You only need to lift it once to be assured of the integrity of the speaker. Built similar to the Mezzo series, the major difference in the Aviano 8 is its straight line structure as opposed to the curved cabinets of the Mezzo. Everything else including the real wood finish available in walnut and black options and the brushed baffle remains the same as the Mezzos.
Technological aspects
Cambridge Audio 550C CD Player
Both the CD player and amplifier are from the third generation of products that we have seen coming from the Cambridge factory. After having spent a lot of time and money on research and development, they have managed to devise an entirely new in-house designed servo solution in the form of S3 Custom CD Servo, which finds its way in the 550C. A CD servo is the unit in your CD player which is responsible for retrieving and interpreting all the information on your CDs. Simply put, it is the nervous system of your CD player. This new third generation servo from Cambridge employs an all-new chipset and ultra short signal paths. It provides the 550C an ability to recover all the digital information whilst maintaining extremely low jitter and eliminating digital noise that comes in the way of pure listening pleasure. Accompanying the servo is the newly designed transport from Cambridge which facilitates a quieter operation and a new bracket that guarantees solid rigidity while it holds the transport in the player. The usual high quality toroidal transformer that makes its way in all the Cambridge players is housed into the 550C as well, assuring lower noise.
Cambridge Audio 55OA integrated Amplifier
Belonging to the new 550 stereo series along with the 550C. the 550A also features a host of new developments and redesigns. The entire output stage has been redone to achieve a better bass response and wider dynamics. Signal protection is a major factor when it comes to amplifiers and Cambridge has decided to take even better care of it. They have incorporated their proprietary CAPS protection system which constantly monitors for overloads, faults and clipping whilst taking utmost care that there is no sound degradation at all.
Powering the entire assembly is Cambridge 's home spun toroidal transformer that has guaranteed an excellent efficiency and extremely low noise for all its life. For volume control they have used the new Alps volume pot (potentiometer) control that allows a smooth, linear functioning even at very low volume levels. They have complemented this with tone control knobs for you to tweak the sound output as per your liking. There are also some constructional changes like new audiophile grade polypropylene signal capacitors, gold-plated speaker outputs and custom-made electrolytic capacitors in critical positions, which were put together claim to effectively improve the sound quality.
Mordaunt-Short Aviano 8 Floorstandlng Speaker!
Aviano is the latest range of speakers from MS that promises to be a culmination of all the technical advancements and developments that they have managed to devise until now. The Aviano series incorporate MS's latest CPC (Continuous Profile Cone) aluminum driver, which has been revised for the third time. The lightweight aluminum cone ensures a controlled movement of the driver with extremely low distortion. The tweeter unit for the Aviano borrows influences from the company's flagship speaker, the Performance series. It utilizes a high temperature voice coil with liquid cooling and damping or controlled high frequency performance and amazing detail. The Aviano 8 incorporates one such tweeter coupled with 3 CPC drivers. Binding all of them together is the purist crossover design that uses premium grade components and is mounted in a special way that isolates it from the entire assembly. This helps the unit minimize any distortion and achieve linearity in the signal flow. For the cabinet, they have used the best of both the worlds — the curved baffle from the Mezzo series and the straight cabinet from the Avant series.
