Cambridge Audio AZUR 540D > Reviews > Nicely done, Cambridge Audio.

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Excellent
Sound Level	Excellent
Range of Features	Above Average
Durability	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Great playback of CD as well as DVD
Disadvantages:	None that come to mind .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

In the interests of disclosure, I used to sell these products.
This is a nice DVD player. Ideally partnered with the Azure 540R surround amp, but also with any other good quality products. This is a real audiophile/videophile player and is capable of geting so much more from a disk than those nasty players sold for £20 in your local supermarket. Don't let me put you off it though if you don't count yourself as an enthusiast, just a user. Its very easy to use and should outlast the cheapies very comfortably and will let you get so much more enjoyment from films and music - yes it does even work very well as a CD player. (I know all DVD players can actually play CD's. But that doesn't mean that many of them do a good job of it - the 540D does).

I'm going to go off on a slight tangent here so scroll down a bit if you don't want to read it. I hate to hear music from a CD played in some sort of psuedo surround mode. Even concert DVD's just don't seem right to me in surround. (And I've heard £50,000+ systems too!!) When did you ever go to a concert where some of the musicians were behind you? Or even to the side, for that matter. Music should be listened to coming from (preferably) just 2 speakers in front of you, IMHO. Don't even let me get started on the subject of subwoofers... End Tangent!

The Cambridge Audio Azure 540D is a very capable player. It has all the connectivity you are likely to need other than HDMI (I'm on a bit of a downer on HDMI at the moment, so I don't see that as an ommission) but including a very good downmixed stereo sound out (Jargon decode - it makes surround sound encoded music DVD's sound nice ;-) ).

In summary, I would buy one without hesitation (but unfortunately didn't because I didn't know about it before I started selling them). Like all the Cambride Azur range, its available in black or silver and is a very impresive performer - especially when you take into account price.