Cambridge Audio CXUHD | The Oppo UDP-203 Alternative!

Earlier this year Oppo decided to close it’s 4K UHD manufacturing and that left a gap that needed to be filled with a competent 4K player.  Enter the Cambridge Audio CXUHD, a veritable clone of the Oppo UDP-203, minus the Digital to Analog Converter (DAC).  Check out the video or article below to see about the CXUHD.  Pick up yours from Amazon or Crutchfield today!

CXUHD – Amazon: https://amzn.to/2QJ2Tom

CXUHD – Crutchfield: https://go.magik.ly/ml/ccn8/

All right ladies and gentlemen, so it finally arrived, the Cambridge Audio CXUHD came in last week and there were some issues because it was actually sold out in quite a few places. I called seven different places and it was sold out. Finally, it showed up on Crutchfield, so I picked it up from Crutchfield for $699.  Last year, 2017, pretty much… if you ask me which recommended 4k blue ray player you should buy I would have told you the Oppo UDP-203. That was it. That was the one. And everybody who wanted to spend $300 on the Sony, or $250 on the Sony, I always told them, “You know what, wait like 2 or 3 more months, and buy the Oppo”. That’s what I always said, and people were like “No, I don’t want to spend $500-600 on just a blue ray player that has no streaming apps”. And let’s not get into how many redundant pieces of gear that we have that stream stuff, so that’s really just not an issue. Bottom line is, earlier this year Oppo went ahead and said they’re gonna close down all their 4k Blu-Ray or disk player line. They’ve still got cellphones going on other parts of the world, but for us who want to have like a great solid 4k Blu-Ray player, we’re just kind of “so what”. And you know the prices are skyrocketing!  Going through the roof. Right now I saw on Ebay two brand new Oppo UDP-203s selling for around $1,100. So if you were to ask me in 2018, “Channa, what do you recommend for 4k Blu-Ray player?” I would probably say the Cambridge CXUHD. And if you’re asking yourself why, you know it’s $699 so it costs more. Well, it’s very close to an Oppo UDP-203. In fact, it’s almost identical. We’re splitting hairs here on how identical it is. Anyway I got it Friday, and over the weekend I got it up and running and I really don’t know why I’m still talking. Let’s go see what’s in the box!

Unboxing & Front Panel

Ok so the first thing I see on the box here is tat it says that there are no cables in this. So you are going to need your own high-speed HDMI cable. Now as soon as we open it up we get the instruction booklet, and it looks like we’ve got a bag. Ok the unit isn’t a bag, just like the Oppo was. Nice, same kind of bag, except this one says Cambridge Audio. I also see a bag for accessories, and in this accessory bag we have an IEC power cable, and we get a remote. This one has a nice black metal face with a rubberized metal back. Really cool, nice and grippy remote. And we get three AAA batteries to power the remote. Now let’s get this CXUHD out of the box. First thing I can tell you is that this thing is built like a tank. It’s nice and heavy, it’s got that heft to it, very much like the Oppo 203. Now you can get it in either black or silver, I got it in black hoping it would match the rest of my equipment , and look at this thing. It is gorgeous. All right, let’s check what’s on the front panel. On the left we have a power button, and we have a couple of transport buttons. We have a rewind and a fast forward. In the center at the top we have a disc tray, and just below that we have the LED display. Now a lot of the lower end models do not have a display at all. Maybe they will have an LED light just to tell you that it’s on, but that’s it. And over to the right we have two more buttons. One’s eject, one is play and pause.

Rear Panel

All right let’s flip this around and check out the rear. Starting on the left we have a network port, this is where you plug in you ethernet cable if you wanna run a wired internet connection. Next we have three HD my ports, two of them are output, one of them is an input. Output number one is for both audio and video, output number two is audio only. Next we have two digital audio outputs, one is TOS optical, the other one is coaxial. Next up we have two USB 3.0 ports. Now here’s something that’s different, the Oppo has one USB in the front and two in the back. So we’ve gone down one USB unit, but I think they did that on purpose because the front just looks so nice. I think I like the way the CXUHD looks over the Oppo-203. Back to the video. Rounding up the connections on the back, we have an RS-232C connection, trigger in and out. And on the far right an IEC power port. All right so that’s basically it. Remember, if you’re gonna buy this you need a highspeed HDMI cable to connect it to your TV or your AV receiver. Speaking of which, let’s connect it up , turn it on, and check it out.

Menu Screen

When I turned on the CXUHD for the first time I noticed it had the same menu structure as the Oppo-203. But instead of the scenic images that change for every section like on the Oppo, we have a picture of some dude. And I’m not sure what they were doing here but I’m not really a fan. Anyway, the menu structure is exactly the same and I made a few adjustments. Under video output resolution I changed that to source direct to keep the resolution of the original source disc, and let my TV do the up-scaling. To connect to the internet we need to go to this network setting and change internet connection from Ethernet to wireless and then hit scan and then it will walk you through a connecting.  Once you connect you can download the new firmware under device setup firmware upgrade.

HDR

All right, now let’s move on to HDR. The new CXUHR  has no problem playing both Dolby Vision and HDR10. After the firmware update I tossed in Braveheart 4K and got the Dolby Vision logo in the upper right corner. Next I popped in John Wick 2 and I get the HDR logo for HDR10 in the upper right hand corner. So as far as HDR goes, right now we got the two that we need , and as far as HDR+ I don’t know if Cambridge Audio is going to put that in firmware update. It’s a possibility with Oppo , I wonder if they’re gonna do that as well because that’s a new format that’s kind of coming around and being introduced in the new Panasonic players. So I’d be surprised if they didn’t add it to Cambridge or the Oppo. We’re just gonna have to wait and see.

Final Thoughts

So all in all, I’ve had this for about a weekend, and it’s pretty much on par with the Oppo-203. I actually like the exterior and the way it looks , it’s aesthetic. I think it’s nicer, I think it’s more “high end” looking. I did take that British flag off of the front of it. I know there’s a bunch of comments saying “Hey, can we take the British flag off the front of the machine?” Yes. The answer is yes, you can. One of the things I did notice is that the remote control does light up with the press of a button , unlike the Oppo’s remote where you’ve picked it up, the whole thing turns on and it’s pretty bright. However, I’m not sure I’m gonna be using it that much because I do use a Logitech Harmony remote so it’s kind of like a non-issue there. The one thing I wish Cambridge would change if they could is that home screen image. I’m sure there’s tons of ways to change that  because like, come on. Like that’s kind of lame there, Cambridge. I don’t know what you guys were thinking there. Anyway, other than that, I think this player is pretty good and I might end up selling my Oppo-203 and keeping this. So I’m still trying to figure it out , I know a lot of people are like “Well, the Cambridge doesn’t have a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) and if you see my setup I actually don’t connect my Oppo via analog. It’s HDMI for movies, and I use the optical out to go to my halo integrated when I’m listening to CDs or FLAC files off a USB thumb drive. So for me it’s not a big deal that it doesn’t have a DAC, and that’s what Cambridge Audio says is the biggest difference and you’ll actually get a better picture and sound experience because it’s all digital and there’s no DAC or no analog circuitry to mess with that digital signal. We’ll see what happens in the coming months and I’m gonna figure out if I’m gonna keep the Oppo or keep the CXUHD. Now if you guys have any questions about this player , you want me to look at something in particular, go ahead and leave them down in the comments below or hit me up via email or use whatever social media you like to use to contact me and ask me some questions. As you guys know, I’m gonna keep this for about a month, and see what I like, what I don’t like and if I’m actually gonna sell my Oppo-203. Well that’s pretty much it!  Once again my name is Channa D and I’ll see you next time.

CXUHD – Amazon: https://amzn.to/2QJ2Tom

CXUHD – Crutchfield: https://go.magik.ly/ml/ccn8/