I had Cambridge Audio integrated A3i, that was shorting outputs with a lot of hum and smell of power transformer. I found out, talking to designer of this amp, that 4 LED diodes (2 per channel) used as voltage reference for output section, are mounted to close to PCB and overheat. He advised me to buy 4 green 5mm LEDs and solder them with long leads and it worked. Whole problem started when they moved production to China. Either Chinese manufacturing was sloppy or Cambridge Audio was sloppy by not providing mounting instructions or by poor design. It was long time ago but things like that should not happen especially when company knows about them. It could even damage my speakers. I would expect recall for that.
Cambridge Audio Product Reliability
I have owned a Cambridge Audio AZUR 840C CDP for about 5 years, out of those five, it's been in for warranty repair twice and the last repair was out of warranty at a cost to me of about $300. In each instance, the repairs consisted of failed circuit components, and the last, a toested transport. Bottom line, though a great player I think they must have used cheap parts. I am considering their AZUR flagship IA, but am concerned about quality and reliability, can anyone speak to this, and by that I mean their own experience with Cambridge Amps - Thanks!