MUSIC STREAMERS

Want to add music streaming to your hi-fi system? These dedicated streamers are simply sensational

Cambridge Audio MXN10 ₹60,000

Cambridge's latest network music streamer is something of a tiddler. Neat, compact and easy to pop onto your hi-fi rack, the MXN10 is one of the most unobtrusive units you will find, not to mention one of the least expensive.

It's finished in smooth, inoffensive lunar grey; clean, clear, and simple are the watchwords here. The MXN10 is fitted with an RCA line-level analogue output, one coaxial and one optical on the digital side, as well as an ethernet port if you are planning on plugging the unit directly into your router as opposed to relying on wi-fi. It's not exactly a party round the back, but there's enough here to satisfy the essential requirements.

Having a broad array of streaming choices is, obviously, essential for a network streamer, and the MXN10 hosts a plethora of them, including Google Chromecast, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz, as well as support for Bluetooth 5.0. There's built-in internet radio which, thanks to MPEG-DASH support, provides high-quality radio streaming across practically any global station you can think of. It can also play stored music files from your home network.

The MXN10 is impressively equipped with the ESS Sabre ES9033Q DAC, making it compatible with hi-res files of up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512.

Stellar work

Max Richter's melancholic slow-builder Never Goodbye is delivered in a spacious and well-organised manner. The MXN10 walks a carefully chosen path between the even-handed, detailed, and spacious sound of the similarly priced Audiolab 6000N Play and the more characterful and energetic balance of last year's Award winner, the Bluesound Node (2021). It combines the strengths of these talented rivals while adding a dose of dynamic expression and rhythmic coherence that they can't match.