The Cambridge Audio CXU.
https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/products/cx/cxu
Its a BR player but Cambridge bills it as a multimedia hub and even as a preamp- as it can do volume control- even digital volume control.
But most important for us, it has 2 HDMI inputs.
I have long thought the best hope for us would be one of these BR players that also has inputs- so we could make use of the internal decoding. But to date, every player with an HDMI input has had fine print that says the internal decoded is bandwidth limited when dealing with the HDMI input.
This player has no such fine print.
So I took a bit of a flier on the player and ordered one.
Hooked it up last night and........ it works!
And it sounds excellent.
Its been a few years since my last workaround stopped working (modded receiver) so I've been listening to the core audio for a while. But from memory, this sounds better.
I had to set up the player to output LPCM over HDMI and setup the speakers- just like with a preamp- I just told it 0 distance and 0 for levels and all speakers set to large since I will let my actual processor handle those tasks.
I wanted to play with it some more today before posting.
Short version: it works, it works, it works!!!
It isn't the cheapest thing ever, its $1,300. But neither is it the price of a new K Player and I think Cambridge does give value for money- they say they have a lot of anti jitter stuff in there- it seems to deliver. At least to my ears. Full disclosure: I have mild tinnitus in both ears. Its not too bad and a recent hearing test shows I can hear all the frequencies I should for a 46 year old male.
The thing that stands out to me is greater dynamic range, clearer vocals, and more apparent details and life to the sound.
In my case the chain is as follows:
M700 (bitstream audio selected)->Geffen HDMI Splitter (helped me with HDMI handshake)-> Cambridge CXU-> Lumen Radiance XE -> Meridian HD621 (convert from HDMI to their ethernet format) -> Meridian 861 v6
I tried it without the Geffen and the sound kept cutting in and out- it was locking and not locking and it was as if it kept losing its "handshake". So I stuck the Geffen in between.. it has a switch to handle the EDID stuff on its own. it solved the problem. This might not be the cleanest chain but it works for me for now.
Fired it right up with some Gravity, Avatar, Apollo 13... all showing up as 96k coming in to my 861. Unfortunately the Cambridge and the Meridian 621 don't show the incoming and out going signal rates- so I am left to just say, gee this all sounds great... But it sure does sound great. I can hear the difference. I came home early today to try out Jurassic World. Fun movie- especially the ending. And the sound is really really nice.
This should work for anyone with a K setup and Meridian or any other system that requires the player to decode the formats to LPCM. I think Krell had one that required it also.....
The Cambridge has other party tricks like picture controls and Drabee enhancement- I keep all that in Neutral or off- but as an aside- this seems like a genuine attempt by them to make something that could act as the center of a nice system.
In my case the cost is a small % of my total system cost so its worth it.
I hope this helps anyone who is looking for such a solution.
https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/products/cx/cxu
Its a BR player but Cambridge bills it as a multimedia hub and even as a preamp- as it can do volume control- even digital volume control.
But most important for us, it has 2 HDMI inputs.
I have long thought the best hope for us would be one of these BR players that also has inputs- so we could make use of the internal decoding. But to date, every player with an HDMI input has had fine print that says the internal decoded is bandwidth limited when dealing with the HDMI input.
This player has no such fine print.
So I took a bit of a flier on the player and ordered one.
Hooked it up last night and........ it works!
And it sounds excellent.
Its been a few years since my last workaround stopped working (modded receiver) so I've been listening to the core audio for a while. But from memory, this sounds better.
I had to set up the player to output LPCM over HDMI and setup the speakers- just like with a preamp- I just told it 0 distance and 0 for levels and all speakers set to large since I will let my actual processor handle those tasks.
I wanted to play with it some more today before posting.
Short version: it works, it works, it works!!!
It isn't the cheapest thing ever, its $1,300. But neither is it the price of a new K Player and I think Cambridge does give value for money- they say they have a lot of anti jitter stuff in there- it seems to deliver. At least to my ears. Full disclosure: I have mild tinnitus in both ears. Its not too bad and a recent hearing test shows I can hear all the frequencies I should for a 46 year old male.
The thing that stands out to me is greater dynamic range, clearer vocals, and more apparent details and life to the sound.
In my case the chain is as follows:
M700 (bitstream audio selected)->Geffen HDMI Splitter (helped me with HDMI handshake)-> Cambridge CXU-> Lumen Radiance XE -> Meridian HD621 (convert from HDMI to their ethernet format) -> Meridian 861 v6
I tried it without the Geffen and the sound kept cutting in and out- it was locking and not locking and it was as if it kept losing its "handshake". So I stuck the Geffen in between.. it has a switch to handle the EDID stuff on its own. it solved the problem. This might not be the cleanest chain but it works for me for now.
Fired it right up with some Gravity, Avatar, Apollo 13... all showing up as 96k coming in to my 861. Unfortunately the Cambridge and the Meridian 621 don't show the incoming and out going signal rates- so I am left to just say, gee this all sounds great... But it sure does sound great. I can hear the difference. I came home early today to try out Jurassic World. Fun movie- especially the ending. And the sound is really really nice.
This should work for anyone with a K setup and Meridian or any other system that requires the player to decode the formats to LPCM. I think Krell had one that required it also.....
The Cambridge has other party tricks like picture controls and Drabee enhancement- I keep all that in Neutral or off- but as an aside- this seems like a genuine attempt by them to make something that could act as the center of a nice system.
In my case the cost is a small % of my total system cost so its worth it.
I hope this helps anyone who is looking for such a solution.
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