A musical budget amplifier with all-round appeal
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The Cambridge Audio AXA35 is a 35W per channel stereo amplifier, positioned at the budget end of the market. Out of the box, it looks understated and reasonably elegant for an affordable amp. The dark grey finish that Cambridge has adopted for many of its recent products looks stylish and helps add a sense of purpose.
You are confronted by quite a slender hi-fi separate, at just over 8cm tall. This, combined with a minimalist front panel, makes many rival amps look fussy and messy in comparison.
Illusion of floating
From the front, it looks as though the AXA35 is floating. It’s an effective illusion created by a thin plastic wedge running under the front edge, which lifts up the chassis and is set back just enough to blend into its own shadow.
The dot-matrix display in the middle of the amplifier is bright and easy to read head-on, but because it appears to be set back quite far from the front panel, you don’t always get a clear view if you are looking at it from a more acute angle.
Under the display, there is a row of four buttons, each corresponding to the relevant analogue input on the rear. A volume dial and menu button are on the right, while a 6.3mm headphone output and 3.5mm auxiliary input sandwich the amplifier’s infrared receiver on the left.
There are balance and tone controls, but these are tucked away in the amp’s menu system. Strangely, both bass and treble can be adjusted only in steps of two, although we doubt you will have much reason to use them.
If you happen to own a budget turntable, you can take advantage of the amplifier’s built-in moving magnet phono stage. There is no Bluetooth connectivity or USB input for the AXA35, though – the absence of the latter is understandable at this price point, but the lack of the former is a little disappointing.
The remote that comes with this Cambridge Audio amplifier looks like a DVD player remote, minus a few buttons. It’s a bit messy and you can even feel through the top surface where the holes are for the missing buttons. It’s perfectly functional, though its ability to communicate with the amp does seem to suffer off axis.
Precise and assured
The first thing to strike us about the Cambridge Audio AXA35 is just how confident it sounds. There’s no wavering over the placement of notes, no blurring of lines. Whether it is carving out a bassline, delivering the leading edge of a drum thwack or positioning a vocal inside its stereo image, the AXA35 delivers them all in a precise
