Cambridge Audio L/R S Review: Desktop Power

Design

• Choice of six finishes (of which one is a cost option)
• Supplied with Bluetooth LE remote control

They may be a little larger in every direction than the Ruark MR1 MkII they intend to get the better of, but because they’re a tidy 226 x 134 x 180mm (HWD) you don’t even need all that big (or all that tidy) a desktop to accommodate the Cambridge L/R S.

Mildly pliant feet are integrated into the bottom of the recessed plinth on which the main body of the speaker stands (and seems to float), and there’s an option of an angled tilt stand to help aim the tweeters more overtly at your ears when you’re sitting at your desk. This, naturally, comes at additional cost.

The standard of build is very good – and the semi-matt finish feels almost as good as it looks, no matter which of the five regular finishes you go for (you can choose from the white of my review sample, black, orange, dark-ish green or definitely dark blue).

Put a little extra cash (£50 to be exact) Cambridge’s way and a real walnut veneer finish can be yours, which makes the L/R S even more Ruark MR1 MkII-esque – I’ve yet to get my hands on it, but if the quality of construction of the colour models is anything to go by it will be money worth spending if a wood finish is your kind of thing. The cabinet edges and corners are crisp but not pointy, and the recently refreshed brand logo at the rear of the top surface looks confident.

There’s a suggestion of visual drama in the way the tweeter is recessed just a little beneath its waveguide, and in its orange finish too. There are no grilles supplied with the L/R S – but personally I’d rather look at the identically sized black circles on the front baffle rather than a quantity of acoustic cloth. And besides, the tweeter is safe from enquiring fingers behind its waveguide.

Operating the L/R S is pretty straightforward. Like almost every wireless speaker system, there’s a primary speaker running the show, and a secondary partner that does as it’s told. The primary speaker needs to be plugged into the mains, and then connected to its partner using the supplied 2m length of screw-down cable (a 5m cable will soon be available, apparently, at extra cost).

The Bluetooth LE remote control handset needs to be paired to the primary speaker, and any physical connections need to be made too. There’s a switch to let the primary speaker know if it’s the left or the right channel, another to tell it whether it’s near a wall or in some free space, and a third to switch between desktop use or, um, not.

Then it’s simply a question of turning the power on, pairing your Bluetooth player or selecting the physical input you wish to use, and pressing play on your source device. 

Features

• 100 watts of Class D amplification
• 55Hz – 24kHz frequency response
• Physical and wireless input options

As already discussed, the primary speaker is in charge here – and part of its primacy is giving a home to all the amplification and input options the system requires. Ordinarily a speaker system at this sort of money, a system that requires just one of its speakers to be connected to mains power, can confidently be assumed to be powered rather than active – certainly that’s the case with the Ruark MR1 MkIII.

But the Cambridge L/R S uses a bespoke four-conductor cable to connect the primary speaker to the secondary, which allows for two channels of amplification for each speaker (one for each driver), and a full DSP crossover that serves PWM (pulse-width modulation) signals to each of the two stereo amplifiers.

It’s an unusual, complex and, I assume, relatively costly configuration, and it speaks volumes about how ambitious and serious Cambridge is where this system is concerned.

As well as a figure-of-eight socket for mains power and a screw-down connection for the link to the secondary speaker, the rear of the primary speaker is also home to all of the system’s physical sockets (USB-C, line-level stereo RCA and digital optical inputs, plus a pre-out for a subwoofer) as well as Bluetooth wireless reception (with aptX-HD codec compatibility).

The optical and USB-C inputs support resolutions of up to 24-bit/96kHz PCM – every incoming signal is resampled to 24-bit/48kHz in the DSP.

It also has an input selection button that doubles as a power on/off switch (there’s a single, defeatable coloured light at the bottom of the front baffle to confirm which input has been selected), and a bass reflex slot at the top of the rear panel. The secondary speaker just has a corresponding reflex slot and a screw-down connection for the speaker link cable.

The primary speaker hosts a total of 100 watts of Class D power, which is divided equally between the four drivers. Each speaker features a 21mm hard-dome tweeter behind a bespoke waveguide and phase cap (intended to maximise dispersion), which sits above a high-excursion 76mm mid/bass driver. It’s an arrangement Cambridge suggests is good for frequency response of 55Hz – 24kHz.

The remote control handset gives access to three EQ presets: Normal, Movie and Voice. The handset is small, made of quite hard plastic and is not backlit – but it covers off every function, and because it’s Bluetooth rather than RF it’s far less reliant on having line-of-sight to the primary speaker.

And Cambridge has also included its DynamEQ technology here: intelligent optimisation that makes bass and treble adjustments in response to any changes in volume you might dial in. 

Sound Quality

• Energetic, informative and full-scale sound
• Expresses rhythms confidently…
• …despite slightly overstated low-frequency presence

This is not the first pair of compact loudspeakers I’ve heard that sound appreciably larger than their physical dimensions – but nevertheless, the thing that’s most immediately striking about the L/R S is just how big its presentation is.

It has no trouble projecting a 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC file of Zaho de Sagazan’s Modern Love incoming via its USB-C slot considerably further than the physical constraints of their cabinets. And if Cambridge’s claim for bass extension down to 55Hz looks slightly optimistic on paper, it seems a sight more likely once the system is plugged in and playing.

In all honesty the Cambridge mildly overcooks those lowest frequencies – I don’t doubt the company is pleased with how much bass presence it’s managed to liberate from these little speakers, but just because you can it doesn’t automatically follow that you should.

There’s a little too much emphasis on the bottom end when you consider the overall frequency response available here, a slight-but-definite bloom at the very bottom of the extension that can make the bottom end just a touch too prominent and just a touch remote from everything that’s going on above it.

Still, I’m aware that not enough bass is a far bigger crime than a bit too much bass where plenty of listeners are concerned – and besides, it’s about the extent of the issues I’m able to identify when giving the system a long and thorough listen. In every other respect it’s a deft, informative and energetic performer, one that’s engaging and enjoyable.

The impression of outright scale is augmented nicely by the Cambridge’s facility for stereo focus and its ability to conjure a convincing soundstage. Take a moment to position it properly on your desktop or on a pair of dedicated speaker stands and you’ll find there’s decent separation to the sound it delivers, but at the same time a reasonable sense of singularity that prevents even the most complex recordings from sounding messy or disjointed.

Add in a fair amount of dynamic headroom for when the going gets especially loud or intense, and the Cambridge system is a more confident, as well as more expansive, performer than you might be anticipating.

The tonal balance is fairly neutral despite that suggestion of heat at the bottom end, and frequency response (once you get above the lowest of the low frequencies) is smooth and even – the crossover between the two drive units is basically imperceptible.

And even though it’s overenthusiastic where bass is concerned, the L/R S controls its low-end activity to the point that rhythmic expression is decent and there’s a proper sense of momentum to those recordings that require it.

All of this applies if you’re listening at volumes that run from modest to really quite loud. Should you be tempted to listen at properly anti-social volumes – and don’t imagine the Cambridge system isn’t capable of outputting at these levels – you’ll find a fair bit of the organisation and spaciousness of its presentation goes missing.

The stage flattens out as every part of the recording tries to muscle its way to the front, and the presentation loses a fair amount of its composure. Still, this is very easily avoided…

Should you buy it?