Cambridge Audio’s L/R X Speakers Promise Big-System Swagger Without the Hi-Fi Stack

Cambridge Audio has officially unleashed its flagship active stereo speakers, L/R X, with the system now available practically worldwide. North America gets its turn from August.

We managed to listen to the full range, including the L/R X, six months ago and, more recently, in Vienna and at the StereoNET Asia Hi-Fi & AV Expo in Singapore. We can safely say that you should not be fooled by the convenient bookshelf footprint.

Cambridge Audio says the L/R X has been engineered to deliver the sort of scale and bass normally expected from floor-standing loudspeakers, but without the extra boxes, cables and hi-fi rack demands that often come with a traditional separates system.

Streaming is built right into the speakers, with Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz, Amazon Music, AirPlay and Cast all supported. Cambridge Audio’s StreamMagic Gen 4 platform is also on board, serving up high-resolution playback over Wi-Fi or Ethernet and putting control in the hands of the StreamMagic app.

Under the skin, the L/R X means business. Each system combines a new 28mm torus-chambered tweeter (above) with dual 5-inch woofers (below) and dual 6-inch force-cancelling passive radiators, all working to deliver enormous scale and bass you can feel without reaching for a subwoofer.

The active design brings 800W of total system amplification, split as 400W per speaker, so there is no need for a separate amplifier.

The processing has muscle, too. Cambridge Audio has fitted 64-bit audio processing for significantly greater precision, while DynamEQ is designed to keep things lively even when the volume drops. The onboard DSP keeps performance under control, and the StreamMagic app adds a 7-band equaliser and room correction controls for extra fine-tuning.

It is not short on sockets or smarts, either. HDMI eARC handles TV audio, a moving magnet phono stage welcomes a turntable, Bluetooth takes care of mobile devices, and digital and analogue inputs sit alongside a subwoofer output.

Multi-room support comes via Google Cast, AirPlay 2 and Roon, while the speaker-to-speaker link can run wirelessly over high-resolution WiSA HT.

Finishing the package, the L/R X comes in six colours and finishes, each with subtly beautiful LED underlighting, and includes a Bluetooth remote control.

Pricing: £1,799 | US$2,299 | €1,999 (or £1,899 | US$2,399 | €2,099 for Real Walnut finish).

For more information visit Cambridge Audio