Product Review: Cambridge Soundworks

About the company: "At Cambridge SoundWorks, we sell our award-winning speakers direct from the factory, eliminating distribution costs and passing the savings directly to you, our customer. This same high value formula allows us to match our high-performance speakers with electronics from brands like Sony, Onkyo, Samsung, Toshiba and Marantz, and offer incredible deals on great-sounding complete audio systems.”

The big pitch: Cambridge SoundWorks sells a great product for less because they cut out the middleman.

These guys were one of the first businesses to be selling online. Cambridge SoundWorks sold their first stereo product on the internet back in 1994. The company itself was set up over 15 years ago as a catalog business, and would later open retail stores based on their online success. They are still powered by their philosophy that “…the only good value is when you get a great price on a great product."

Naturally their business is founded on speakers and subwoofers, but their stereo products include all kinds of home electronics, including LCD televisions, DVD players, radios, multimedia units, soundcards, digital cameras, flash players and more. They have a wide variety of portable music players which includes a large selection of MP3 players, and if you’re looking to build yourself a home theater system, you don’t have to look any further than these pages.

The layout of their online store is simple and easy to navigate. Every product is logically categorized and can also be found through a search bar. Product pictures are clear and easily enlarged. Items can be viewed in all of their available colors, but the only thing lacking is a 360 degree view of the electronics, which you find on many other manufacturers websites these days. That said, the written descriptions are as good as you’ll find on any home electronics store website.

When you’re trying to narrow down what radio, flat-panel TV or subwoofer you want look at their “good-better-best-wow” rating system. This helpful tool will instantly identify which products are entry-level and which ones are fully loaded with all there is to offer. If you have more questions then the site seems to answer, their customer service offers more than most. Email them at one of several departments or phone them up during their generous business hours.

Cambridge SoundWorks has been given high ratings from consumers and reviewers alike. Their products stand up to the test of feature quality and durability. If you like to shop around, they offer a price guarantee. Once you’ve bought it, you have a 45 day satisfaction guarantee. If you like what you see, there isn’t much to lose by trying these guys out.

Unlike a lot of small startup companies these guys are able to offer a lot of other great shopping benefits. There are frequent clearance specials and even an online outlet store for people who don’t care if they have the latest gadget or don’t mind if it’s from an open box. Best of all there is free shipping on most purchases, and for customers with approved credit there is a great monthly payment plan for larger purchases.

The Product Trends rating: If you’re in the market for a sound system or other home electronics this is a great place to shop but it wouldn’t be fair to say that each of their products is as good as the next. You’ll likely find yourself looking for individual product reviews before making your final purchase. On almost all counts though, this is a great store with great products so it’s an easy four stars. ---Reviewed by Phil Pivnick

To try Cambridge Soundworks for yourself, click the image below:

posted by Oz @ 2:50 PM