REVIEW
mix-down associated with these
analogue outputs that turns them
to 5.1 or Stereo, or matrix encoded
Lt and Rt. There are no dedicated
Stereo outputs; the Front Left and
Right sockets are used with the mix
down set to Stereo.
I mention all this because it is a
little confusing. Even Cambridge omit
to mention that the Loudspeaker
Set Up menu of the player affects
only the analogue outputs, having
absolutely no affect upon the HDMI
link data. The analogue outputs are
secondary to the digital HDMI digital
link so do not use super high quality
onboard DACs. No one is pretending
this is a top quality standalone CD
player.
There are traditional S/PDIF
digital audio outputs too, in both
electrical phono socket form, and
optical TOSLINK. These transmit a
clean digital stereo signal and are a
good way to connect to an external
hi-fi DAC or receiver, another role.
Ideally, the player is connected
to a receiver via its HDMI cable,
which in 1.3 version is able to stream
basic digital (PCM), plus raw SACD
code (DSD) as well as DTS HD
Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD,
both forms of losslessly compressed
digital, at up to 24/192 resolution
per channel over seven channels
in the Blu-ray spec. Used like this,
where all processing is carried out
in the receiver, the 650BD becomes
a transport, simply sending raw data
to the receiver – and this is the best
arrangement. Ironically, it makes all
the onboard processing Cambridge
include redundant, but then this
affects all current Blu-ray players.
Alternatively, to match older
receivers unable to process anything
other than basic digital code, or
PCM, the 650BD can be set to
convert all proprietary digital formats
to PCM before sending them out
over the HDMI link. I tested both
arrangements, as usual, using a 24/192
2L ‘Divertimenti’ disc and the 650BD
converted SACD, DTS HD Master
Audio and Dolby TrueHD to PCM
without difficulty. Set to work as a
transport (i.e. to Bitstream output),
the Cambridge played a wide variety
of CDs. HDCDs (remember them?),
DVD-As and SACDs without a glitch,
and it also played all varieties of Blu-
ray movie soundtrack, from Dolby
and DTS, as well as straight PCM,
making it a great universal player. This
is one of the UK’s first players to do
it all – and not at a daft price!
Because the 650BD carries as
many video options as audio options,
its set up menus are extensive and
the handbook is required reading. You
can find it at www.cambridgeaudio.
com. Ominously, there is a ‘get you
going‘ wizard and, in the tradition of
wizards, pioneered by Microsoft, it
was nonsensical, saying press ‘OK”
when there was no OK to press
(they mean Enter) and asking a user
to choose a video output, with no
instructions on how to do so...
Blu-ray players are deadly slow
to load and – more annoyingly – to
unload. The 650BD is advertised as
being ‘fast’ – and it is, taking just
10 seconds to load a Blu-ray disc
or CD, and 5 seconds to stop and
eject either. With the long-to-load
Java menu of John Meyer’s ‘Where
The Light Is’ disc, it took 30 seconds
to load, the same as the Philips
BDP7500 I tested in our March 2010
issue. The player returns to where
play last ended when switched on, or
stopped, even after a disc is ejected
and this takes some getting used to.
Stop must be pressed twice to clear
this behaviour. The disc menu (Top
menu) cannot be accessed from
standstill, only when playing.
Styling and finish were a little
prosaic, but build quality was
satisfactory. An excellent OSD
appears on the TV when the remote
control’s Info button is pressed;
you get data rate as well as coding
scheme. With DTS HD Master Audio
alone clocking up at 22Mbps, against
1.2Mbps for CD there’s no doubt
that Blu-ray delivers a lot of music
data. Slightly disappointing was a
swishing noise that came from the
player’s mechanism when playing Blu-
ray discs (but not CDs), just audible
at times when 4m from the player,
during soft classical music.
The remote has a Draw Open
function, which saves time, plus
Power Off, and a Pure Audio function
that switches off the display and
video, which goes to Black Level
(video silence), a very nice touch. The
Marantz receiver has this too (Ken
Ishiwata of Marantz hates video being
on when audio is playing!). He’s right;
I often spot video breakthrough on
the test bench and, in my system,
switching all video and displays off
does make for a smoother sound.
Although the UK Region player
will play most Blu-ray discs, which
commonly lack regional coding, it will
not play U.S. DVDs, which are NTSC
as well as Region 1. Unrelated to the
zoning issue,
it will play
BDMV on
Verbatim
BD-Rs, I
found, and
Panasonic
BD-REs,
without a
hiccup.
VISION
Picture
quality
passed
all Silicon
Optix, High Quality Video tests with
ease, using both Blu-ray and DVD
www.hi-fiworld.co.uk
JUNE 2010
HI-FI WORLD
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