While we have seen decent early Black Friday deals on headphones, wireless earbuds, TVs and even a few Bluetooth speakers as the sales event week approaches, we haven't seen a huge number of hi-fi bargains to get the pulse racing.
Thank goodness for Cambridge Audio, then. The British brand has dropped the price on the Award-winning Cambridge Audio MXN10 music streamer, which has just picked up a What Hi-Fi? Award and sets the benchmark for sound performance at its level.
Thanks to a $100 price drop for Black Friday, the MXN10 is now $399 at Amazon, Crutchfield and the Cambridge Audio webstore.
This marks a new low price for the outstanding network player and is a stunning deal that should be considered by anyone looking to build a budget streaming system from scratch or add streaming to their existing set-up.
Best Cambridge Audio MXN10 music streamer deal
As far as early Black Friday hi-fi deals go, this is certainly one of the best. The Cambridge Audio MXN10 proves that good things can indeed come in small packages, serving up some of the best sound and design you'll find from a network player at this price point. Put up against similarly priced rivals, the MXN10 is a class above.
Why? Part of its charm comes courtesy of how versatile the small, shiny little box actually is, with the MXN10 offering support for Google Chromecast, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Tidal, Deezer and Qobuz, as well as the choice of connecting via Bluetooth 5.0. There’s built-in high-quality radio streaming across practically any global station you can think of, and the Cambridge can also locate and play any music file stored on the same home network, such as from NAS devices.
For physical connections, the MXN10 is fitted with an RCA line level analogue output, one coaxial and one optical on the digital side, as well as an ethernet port if you’re planning on plugging the unit directly into your router. Bigger units will naturally give you a bit more around the back, but there’s enough here to satisfy the essential requirements nicely.
Internally, the compact Cambridge network player comes equipped with the ESS Sabre ES9033Q DAC, allowing it to stream high-resolution files of up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512 resolution, so you’ll rarely find your dinky streamer caught out by something it can’t handle.
If all of that wasn't enough, allow us to fight the MXN10's corner some more. The dinky music streamer offers the best sound we've heard at this entry-level price point, impressing us with how utterly poised, balanced and wide-ranging its sonic talents are. Across practically all genres and assessed across pretty much any set of criteria, the MXN10 outclasses its rivals to produce a sound that has all of the rhythm and energy you could want, all balanced by so much space and detail that you can often feel spoiled by the sound you're getting. To our ears, it's a true 'best of all worlds' performer.
If you're getting into hi-fi and want an entry-level streamer to kick-start your streaming journey, this $399 Black Friday hi-fi deal should be strongly considered.
MORE:
The best early Black Friday 2024 US deals: headphones, OLED TVs, Dolby Atmos soundbars and more
Best music streamers 2024: top network audio players tested by our experts
Looking for a new cheap TV? Our TV experts would happily live with Amazon's cheap 65-inch Omni QLED – now 25% off for Black Friday