‘A real step up in pretty much every way’: I listened to Cambridge's new Evo 300 streaming amp, and it raises the bar for modern hi-fi | Tech Radar

Overview

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

Details

Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards.

Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.

‘A real step up in pretty much every way’: I listened to Cambridge's new Evo 300 streaming amp, and it raises the bar for modern hi-fi

First impressions of Cambridge’s new flagship just-add-speakers streaming amplifier are very good indeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Convenience has become a much more acceptable concept in hi-fi these days. No longer shorthand for compromise, its importance for modern listeners has instead inspired whole lines of products — and the impressive Cambridge Audio Evo range is one of the most impressive among them.

Initially made up of a couple of just-add-speakers streaming amplifiers and an all-in-one player, the line up has offered a great solution for anyone looking to simplify their setup since its launch five years ago.

Last year, Cambridge retired the lesser powered of the two streaming amps — the Evo 75 — leaving the reconfigured Evo 150 SE and the also-includes-speaker Cambridge Evo One holding the fort on their own… until now.

Cambridge recently unveiled the Evo 300, a brand new range-topping stereo streaming amp, promising to be twice as powerful and, the brand says, a “real step up” from last year’s Evo 150 SE in “pretty much every way”. I got to hear it at this year's High End Vienna hi-fi show, and we deemed it good enough to win one of Tech Radar's High End Vienna Best in Show awards.

As much as I love the fun of system matching with hi-fi separates, it can be expensive and time consuming, so there’s a lot to be said for a the simplicity of a streaming amp — particularly one that is claiming a hefty output of 300 watts per channel of Class D amplification, all wrapped up in a seriously stylish design.

Ruark's new R710 Music Console supports CD, vinyl, and hi-res streaming

High End Vienna 2026 Best in Show awards: our favorite 11 speakers, streamers and more

Bowers & Wilkins just blew me away with its new 801 D5 speakers — here’s what I made of the model after attending a demo at High End Vienna

You even get to choose from interchangeable side panels for the Evo 300’s black aluminum body, with the option of a traditional real-wood finish or a more modern black slatted look. I’m partial to the wood look myself.

The Evo 300 is like a slightly stretched out version of the Evo 150 SE, measuring just a couple of inches wider. This means it also features the brand’s largest screen at 7.8 inches, which is an OLED that looks as bright and crisp as ever. This shows any changes to volume and input as they happen, but also displays album artwork or a choice of digital VU meters, if you prefer.

The same incredibly tactile dual-concentric control dial from the 150 SE sits along the front panel, for adjusting volume and choosing input, plus there’s a front-mounted 6.35mm headphone output and a handful of playback controls just to the right of the display.

While Cambridge told me that it’s managed to squeeze even more power from the same Hypex NCOREx amplification modules as the 150 SE, the company’s flagship streaming amp has had a DAC upgrade, with the improved 32-bit ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M now on board to support playback of just about any Hi-Res Audio you can throw at it.

It also now features a dual-mono layout under the hood, for maximum channel separation, and improved stereo imaging, alongside a balanced pre-amplifier stage. Plus there’s now the addition of HDMI e ARC for the most up-to-date connection for your TV, and flexibility with independent volume and subwoofer controls.

This innovative DAC offers super-clean sound using a unique processing tech

i Fi and AMR showcase DACs at hugely different price-points, only at High End Vienna

Pro-Ject launches two new streaming boxes, and one is superb for hi-fi fans

These join the things we loved from the 150 SE, such as dual speaker outputs, optical, RCA and balanced XLR inputs, and a moving magnet phono stage for hooking up a turntable.

Comprehensive streaming support is of course offered via Cambridge Audio’s excellent Stream Magic platform, which includes Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect, plus you can use Air Play 2, Google Cast, and Bluetooth 5.4. It’s also Roon Ready for multiroom support with other Roon-compatible devices.

All of this points to a seriously capable centrepiece in a serious hi-fi system — particularly considering the much more powerful speakers it can now be paired with.

I got to listen to the Evo 300 hooked up to a pair of Dynaudio Contour Legacy floorstanders — which really aren’t messing around at

From a brief first listen, it’s easy for the power and scale that this relatively compact single box is capable of to be the main takeaway. Streaming from Spotify Lossless, the Evo 300 delivers an incredibly expansive and spacious sound, with a solid stereo image and good separation.

But the level of insight, clarity and detail retrieval also feels notable here. Combined with Cambridge’s reputation for musicality and what appears to be a more refined tonal balance — even at high volume levels — it all means that, on first impressions, the Evo 300 certainly sounds to be the substantial step up it is promising to be.

Of course, trade show demos offer far from perfect conditions for a truly critical appraisal of sound, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing how it performs in the real world.

The Cambridge Evo 300 is very much priced for its capabilities though, so at

If not, the Cambridge 150 SE remains a great option for just-add-speakers convenience, and at almost half the price in the UK and Australia (£1,999 /

Follow Tech Radar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

Verity is a freelance technology journalist, with previous on-staff roles at What Hi-Fi?, Stuff, Pocket-lint and MSN.

Having chalked up more than 15 years in the industry, she has covered the highs and lows across the breadth of consumer tech, sometimes travelling to the other side of the world to do so. With a specialism in audio and TV, however, it means she's managed to spend a lot of time watching films and listening to music in the name of "work".

You'll occasionally catch her on BBC Radio commenting on the latest tech news stories, and always find her in the living room, tweaking terrible TV settings at parties.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

1 Crank GPT is a hand-powered, fully offline AI bot powered by a Raspberry Pi and 8GB of RAM — and I'm all for apocalypse-ready chatbots that don't need data centers

2‘A real step up in pretty much every way’: I listened to Cambridge's new Evo 300 streaming amp, and it raises the bar for modern hi-fi

3 The Philips Baristina is one of the best coffee makers I've ever used, and it's half price at Amazon right now — who needs Prime Day?

4 This Google-backed ‘phone cluster computing’ project is turning retired Pixels into low-cost Linux data centers — as UCSD researchers say a 2,000-phone cluster will soon support 100 computer science classes

5 Microsoft still has an uphill battle against Valve's Steam OS — Windows 11's Xbox mode saves on RAM usage, but apparently doesn't help with gaming performance

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Key Takeaways

• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more
• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards
• Unlock instant access to exclusive member features
• Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards