After reading many reviews on brands that offered Bluetooth I settled on CA’s AlvaST as the one for me.when it arrived it was immediately obvious it was a solid piece of engineering. It was easy to set up and set the tone arm tracing and balance and the Bluetooth worked first time with mi headphones and Ruark R5. It’s all that I had hoped for with suburb tone and stereo separation.

Cambridge Audio not only makes great sounding products, they design wonderful looking and feeling components. This turntable looks gorgeous and all the materials feel like excellent quality. A turntable is different - you touch the component and expect every surface to feel and move right. This turntable does not disappoint.

I have the following CA equipment:
I replaced my project Debut Pro with the Alva ST and added it to the following setup:
Azur 851A
Azur 851N
Azur 851C
Alva Duo
The equipment is connected as follows:
1. The 851A is connected to the 851N using 2 balanced Chord Company Shawline XLR cables as Source 1 Audio on the 851A and Balanced Audio Out on the 851N
2. The 851A is connected to the 851C using 2 balanced Chord Company Shawline XLR cables Source 2 Audio on the 851A and Balanced Audio Out on the 851C
3. The 851N is connected to the 851C using a single Chord Company Shawline XLR cables from the XLR Digital Output on the 851C to D5 AES/EBU Balanced input on the 851N
4. The Alva ST is connected to the Alva Duo MM input using Chord Company Shawline Phone Cables
5. The Alva Duo is connected to the 851A Source 3 using Chord Company Shawline Phone Cables
6. There is an Earth Ground Cable between the Alva ST and the Alva Duo
7. The Output Level Switch on the Alva ST is set to Phono
8. I have Serial BUS cables from the 851N Out to the 851A In and from the 851A Out to the 851C In and no loopback
9. The 851N also has a Mac Mini Media Player attached using a Chord Company Shawline USB cable to USB Audio In and a Samsung TV using a standard Toslink cable to D2
10. The 851N is connected to Ethernet using a Unifi USW Lite 8 PoE connected directly to a Unifi Dream Machine
11. I am using Dali Rubicon 2 speakers single wired with Chord Company Shawline speaker cable with factory fitted banana plugs and trousers
When I used the internal phone stage it was flawless. However, my issue was that if I used the Alva Duo external phono stage and selected the Alva Duo and ST Turntable when the Azur 851N is on (no matter what source is selected) I get a high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers. I used a second Alva Duo I had in another setup and it was the same.
I contacted Richer Sounds and they arranged a replacement turntable. However, the replacement turntable had the same issue so I did some investigation.
If I turned off the 851N the tone and clicking disappeared. If I removed the Alva Duo and play the Alva ST directly through the internal Phono Stage by setting the Output Level switch to Line there is no high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers. In order to diagnose the issue, with the help of Alan Kerr from Richer Sounds in Glasgow (who have been very supportive throughout this) I did the following:
1. I replaced the Dali speakers with B&W 702 speakers both single wired and bi-wired and still got the high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
2. I replaced every cable in the system using the same type of cable and still got the same high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
3. I replaced the Alva ST with a Project Pro Carbon turntable and still got the high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
4. I replaced the 851A with a CA CX80A and still got the high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
5. I got a replacement Alva Duo and still got the high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
6. I replaced the Alva Duo with and Alva Solo and still got the high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
7. I replaced the Ground earth cable between the Alva ST and Alva Duo
8. I removed the 851C from the configuration and still got the high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
9. I removed the Mac Mini from the configuration and still got the high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
10. I removed the TV from the configuration and still got the high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
11. I isolated all power from the rest of the mains by running it through a surge protected PDU
12. I replaced the Alva Duo with a CA 651P and there is no high pitched tone and a clicking through the speakers
It appeared that the issue is only there when I have an Alva Duo or Solo Phono Stage in line with the Azur 851N switched on so I assumed that there was some form of incompatibility between the Alva Phono Stages and the Azur 851N, or that there is a fault with the 851N. This is unusual as the 851N should not be part of the analogue signal path. Fortunately I was able to swap out the Azur 851N for a CXN V2. Same issue, so it had to go back to the turntable that was causing the problem.
However, with in excess of £7,000 of hifi equipment and speakers and high quality cabling I would expect that the Cambridge Audio components would co-exist without any issue; the fact that they did not was extremely frustrating.

I contacted Cambridge Audio and they set up the exact same configuration in a lab and were able to replicate the issue! They isolated the problem and asked me to return the Alva turntable and carried out a few component replacements. It has been returned and sounds stunning using an external phono stage and now gives me the sound I was looking for. It is a great turntable and this has been augmented by some outstanding customer support from Cambridge Audio.

I bought this unit on the Cambridge website and unfortunately, it was never able to start, remaining in standby mode. I spent a lot of time trying to connect it, trying to keep the on off button pressed for 5 seconds, plug it in, unplug it, nothing... the turntable doesn't turn and no LED lights up, no bluetooth connection as well...the board remained in stand-by mode. For my first purchase with Cambrige, a brand that I hold in high esteem, I am disappointed and have to return it.