Cambridge Audio L/R S review

Cambridge Audio might not be the first brand that comes to mind for desktop speakers, not least when the space has been dominated in the past by the likes of KEF, Ruark and FiiO in recent years.

However, the brand’s L/R S were shown off to me at an event in December at its London HQ, and I’ve been itching to get my hands on them since. After months of waiting, I’ve finally been able to get my hands on them to judge how they sound and how easy they are to live with as a set of $549/£399 desktop speakers.

I’m a particularly big fan of the way that the L/R S looks, with a stylish and minimalistic finish to it. My sample came in a modern white colourway, although it’s possible to get them in black, dark green, dark blue, bright orange, or, for an extra fee, a walnut veneer. My pick based on the models I’ve seen would be the white or orange, I must admit.

These are on the larger side for desktop speakers, I’d wager, being taller and deeper than competing options from Ruark and FiiO, although they aren’t so big that I found them unwieldy on my desk or sideboard. I like the ‘floating stand’ these speakers come on too, as the chassis tapers off towards the base to give the illusion they’re floating—neat.

The front of the L/R S confidently boasts the two drivers, with no option for grilles, be it magnetic or from the factory. Personally, I’ve always been a big fan of the exposed driver look for added style and intrigue, although I can see why you might prefer a grille.

As is typical with a lot of other active speakers, Cambridge has opted for the ‘slave and master’ combo, with one speaker handling all of the ports and smarts, with the other connected to it by a pleasant, locking braided cable.

On the one with all the ports and such, you get a pleasant array of inputs with standard RCA line-in, an optical out and a USB-C. The optical out and USB-C inputs support resolutions of up to 24-bit/96 KHz PCM, which is why my SACD rip of Genesis’ Abacab wouldn’t play… There’s even room for a subwoofer via a dedicated port for when you need more thump. You also get two toggle switches so you can ‘tell’ the speaker where it is, be it near or further away from a wall, or whether it’s on a desk or not.

Wireless connectivity is limited to aptX HD Bluetooth, which is switchable with the dedicated ‘source’ button on the rear, and pairing to my Honor Magic V3 worked decently well. You don’t get any streaming smarts, unlike some slightly dearer active speakers, if you wanted some Wifi powers for Tidal, Spotify or otherwise—for that, you’ll need to look further up the range.

(Image credit: Future)

That’s not to say the L/R S isn’t happy to take inputs from a streamer for added flexibility. If you chuck a WiiM Mini or a FiiO SR11 with these, you’ve got a very competent desktop hifi system with streaming smarts and minimal fuss for under £500/$750. For my testing, I not only used these speakers with my main Windows gaming PC and a MacBook over optical and USB-C, respectively, but also with my WiiM Ultra desktop streamer for a more ‘typical’ use case.

As these cans are bereft of a companion app or similar means of phone-based control, Cambridge provides a small Bluetooth remote to use with these speakers. It provides an easier way of choosing inputs than dealing with the guesswork of using the input switch on the speakers’ rear and the associated LED under the right-hand unit.

There are also some basic EQ presets for voice and movie use, with the former upping the prominence of the mid-range and the movie mode bringing a little more bass, not that I found the L/R S needed much more bass.

And now the important bit—how these speakers sound. Well, if the headline is the fact that I was very sad to have to box these up and send them back to Cambridge, that should tell you enough.

(Image credit: Future)

For a set of desktop speakers, I was pleasantly surprised by the strength and power of the L/R S’s sound signature. These certainly sound bigger than the more modest size of their cabinets, and had no trouble at more reasonable volume levels, filling either my dining room on the sideboard or in my office on my desk. There’s 100 W of Class D amplification to play, with each driver getting 25 W—we’ve got a 21 mm hard-dome tweeter behind a waveguide and phase cap above a 76 mm mid/bass driver in each speaker.

A lot of that is due to the power of these speakers’ low end, as they’ve got some tight bass with lovely extension. Granted, the L/R S isn’t designed as the last word in reference speakers, but more as a fun and engaging listen, which they certainly are.

For instance, spinning up Rush’s Digital Man demonstrated the presence and depth of Geddy Lee’s bass and the gritty guitar riff from Alex Lifeson. The same was true in using an SACD rip of Big Time from Peter Gabriel, which perfectly demonstrated the power and punch of these units, although I found the lower frequencies could encroach a little in the song’s busier elements.

The prominent low-end helps the L/R S’s gaming chops. It helps provide an immersive touch for explosions and heavy gunfire when I use them in Counter-Strike 2, while they help to prove Los Santos can be a real hellscape of PvP battles when I boot up GTA Online.

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I was also impressed with the directionality and precision afforded by these Cambridge speakers for use in music and games. Loading up the new 2026 remix of Marillion’s Go!, I got a lovely sense of width and expanse for the track’s elements, such as everything from Steve Rothery’s guitar riff and solo to the quieter acoustic in the background, and the rounded texture of Pete Trewavas’s bassline. The L/R S can also extract a lovely amount of detail.

Likewise, a live cut of George Benson’s Affirmation provided further evidence of that lovely sense of space and a wide, precise soundstage. This went for elements such as clapping hands from the audience as the song’s intro began, plus the percussion that was further back in the mix against the melodic guitar lines.

A really tricky test for any audio kit that I like to use is a track from seventies jazz fusion band Brand X called Dance of the Illegal Aliens. A good set of speakers or headphones will be precise in its organisation and provide enough room for the track’s individual elements, be it the persistent drum hits, percussion or the pounding bassline. Listen to it on a less precise system, and it can turn into a muddy mess. On the L/R S, that certainly wasn’t the case, with it acting as a real demonstration of these speakers’ width and precision.

Likewise, the more immersive note to the L/R’s sound quality helps Forza Horizon 5 with precision of where other cars may be when I’m sat in cockpit view, and I want a little more awareness of where the next punt into the wall from another player may be coming from.

I could go on about the L/R S all day, admittedly, but it’d just be more of the same of me waxing lyrical about them. These are a big brute of a desktop speaker that makes for a real entertaining listen with deep bass, crisp mids and a smooth treble that makes for an ideal companion for games and music alike. Connectivity is good, and they’ve got some real style, too.

Granted, they are bigger than the likes of the Ruark MR1 MK3s and FiiO SP3 BT, and slightly more expensive, but I have no hesitation in recommending these for an entertaining and stylish set of desktop speakers that I have been very sad to have to send back. I might just have to go out and spend some real money on them.