Musicality, coherency, build quality and relative affordability.

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My quest for a better digital front end led me a merry chase...I used my Arcam player (9, upgraded from Alpha 8)happily for a couple years. When I started on the upgrade path with higher resolution speakers and cabling, I wanted to improve the CD player - but could I do it without spending megabucks? Could I get more detail and air without etching, brightness or losing warmth? Was this an impossible proposition at under $3000 new????

To keep things simple, and because I have several hundred Redbook CDs, I wanted to stay with a one box player. After auditioning several (see above), an audiobuddy who was purchasing Cary's new top of the line player offered me the 303 at a very attractive price. After trying it in my system over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I called him back to let him know the 303 was not leaving my house.

I had listened to a Cary 301 at the dealer, and while it had a gorgeous, rich, midrange, on the large scale classical, big band, and rock music I prefer, the bass wasn't up to the task. On chamber music and small scale jazz it was very nice indeed. The 303 retains the 301's smoothness and warmth while adding additional clarity and a deep and more satisfying bass.

Well recorded CDs through the Cary 303 have a very realistic presence, with a wide & deep soundstage and palpable images. You get the 3D "musicians in the room" thrill of tubes but with a tighter, deeper bass. The unit has plenty of resolution and detail but without sacrificing the gorgeous mids & smoothness of th 301. Dynamic swings are handled with aplomb, and it has no difficulty sorting out the complexities of a symphony orchestra at full throttle. Yet it also has plenty of toe-tapping rhythm and pace for rock and electric music. Instrumental timbres of acoustic instruments are very natural sounding.

In short, with the Cary 303 you can have your cake and it it too. A very musical player with plenty of detail and info at frequency extremes that doesn't call attention to itself, just gives you all the music, thanks very much. While other players might be more arresting at first listen, the 303 is a player that will give long term musical satisfaction. Plus it's built like a tank. Very heavy.

There are several excellent CDP alternatives at a price point above the 303 - Electrocompaniet, Metronome, Accuphase et al. But you are going to be spending at least at least $1000 and maybe as much as $4000 more to significantly better the Cary. The 303 can be bought for less than list - I saw Kevin Deal at Upscale audio had a special on this player and he highly recommended it.

As to the comments from the Chinese gentleman below: I'm sorry for his troubles, BUT the unit he describes bears NO resemblance WHATSOEVER to the player that I and others have in our systems. His last post appears to be here solely for the purpose of bringing down the rating of the 303. For reviews at this site to be useful, not only should they be reviews of the same product, but duplicate reviews and "stacking the deck" should not be tolerated. While one review of the "Chinese market" player (whatever the heck it is) can be justified here as a warning to our Asian audiobrothers/sisters to be wary, once is enough. I firmly believe the post below should be removed - not only is it not a review, it's not even of the same player for heaven's sake!! Whatever he had, it wasn't a Cary 303 as manufactured and sold in North America. A better place for this person's further posts would be the discussion forums at AR. This review section is not the proper avenue for further debate. We need to be comparing apples to apples, and sticking to REVIEWS here.

The Cary 303 may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's a fine, fine player. Give it an audition if you're looking in the $2000-$3000 price range.

My current system:

Cary 303 CD Player
Rogue 66 Preamp (w/Amperex Bugleboys replacing stock tubes)
Meitner MTR101 Mk2 Monoblocks
Alon V Mk IIs
Nordost Quattro Fil ICs
Coincident CST Tri-Wire
A few mild and innocent tweaks...

Similar Products Used:

Arcam Alpha 8 & 9, FMJ; Resolution Audio CD55; Theta Miles; Cary 301; Sony SACDs

Excellent sound, accuracy, build quality

power / HDCD lights to bright, plastic remote, display to small (cannot be read from a distance)

I wanted to upgrade my current player and I tried for a few days the CEC but by co-incident I found the Cary at a dealer for a very interesting price and after reading some test reports about the older Cary players I decided to go on with the new 303, even without hearing it.
While listening mostly to jazz and chamber music, I found the 303 giving me great musical satisfaction. This player is not only very musical with a warm "tube-like" sound, it produces also a wide and deep soundstage with excellent reproduction of a deep bass, smooth midrange and clear highs connected with an absolute silent background (if necessary). Especially acoustic instruments as harps, guitars and saxophones are produced with great accuracy and naturalness. It's a feast for your ears.
This player is heavy, built like a "tank" with high quality connections at the back. It requires a burning-in period of minimum 48 hours, but better you give him 100 hrs.
Only disadvantages are the cheap looking (but good working) remote and a power cable, not good enough also to develop the players full potential.

Similar Products Used:

Thorens TCD2000, Cambridge CD6, CEC TL5100

Musical, Detailed, Nice bass, HDCD function, 24/96, all the things you can imagine.

Mechanical noise when loading CD, but no relation with sound quality

I don't see why we need really expensive CD player. I put some vibration isolator under the player, then it sounds like the most expensive Wadia model. Every edge -if this expression is proper- is alive. Simply cannot find any weakness in sound quality.
Small ping pong ball could be the isolator. One ball for one leg.

Similar Products Used:

CEC, Wadia, Denon, etc.

This is an update on my review below. I upgraded from the 303/100 to the 303/200. If I thought the 303/100 was an amazing player, I was simply floored by the 303/200. Musicality is job #1 with this player. It's everything I said about the 303/100 only much better. Sound is as close to analog as I've come. You will not be disappointed with the 303/200. A marvelous player on all counts.

SOUND! Footstompin' SOUND! All the standard audiophile superlatives - big soundstage, transparent, non-fatiguing, etc. Great build quality. Looks.

Not sure about the wooden feet. Power light is designed to be on when unit is off. Plastic remote.

I won't bore you with the standard audiophile superlatives. Suffice it to say that the Cary 303 is all of those and more. What is really important is that the 303 brings music to life. I finally found myself "feeling" the music and being inside the soundstage rather than just passively listening. The 303 really made me forget about the components and allowed me to just enjoy the music. I repeatedly found myself tapping my foot, playing air guitar/drums, and just having a good time.

The 303 is VERY musical and is warm without being "tube-like." All sound ranges are great - highs and mids especially. Actually, there's just a SLIGHT bit of roll-off on the highs which takes the bite out of hard/harsh transients. It's a very nice quality. The 303 beats the pants off of the Arcam and Krell (see my trashing review of the Krell).

I highly recommend listening to Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" (or "Dark Side") on the 303. AMAZING! Especially with the lights dimmed. Actually, any well-recorded CD will sound fantastic. What's really neat is that even moderate to poor quality CDs (i.e., Neil Young's "Harvest" - an absolute abomination of a Redbook CD) will sound great. Forget SACD and DVD-A. I am now snuggly ensconsed in sonic bliss.

My rig:

Cary 303 CD
Musical Fidelity A3 CR pre-amp
Nakamichi DR-8 tape deck
Rotel RB-1080 power amp (200 wpc)
Rotel RLC-900 line conditioner
B&W Nautilus 804s (on Sound Anchors stands)
Harmonic Technology AC-11 power cords
DH Labs Q-10 bi-wire speaker cable
DH Labs BL-1 interconnect (CD to pre-amp)
Transparent Link 200 interconnects (tape to pre/pre to power amp)

Similar Products Used:

Rotel 961 and 991, Arcam FMJ 23, Krell 300 CD, too many others to name.

Open sound stage, 3 dimensional sound and well placed instruments

Power light is too bright

I was looking for an upgrade to my current player. I tried the Linn against the Rotel 991. It always upsets me when my wife says she doesn't hear that much difference between the players. She has an excellent ear but isn't a critical music listener. The Linn did sound better but was it 3 times better? At my next stop I listened to the Rega Planet 2000. It was a nice player but when the Cary came on it was in a different league. The subjective sound was louder, the base was larger and more well defined and the high end was smooth and not harsh. The soundstage grew to a 3 dimensional sound and was just more musical.

I knew if I could get the player for a reasonable price, it was the one for me. At the price I paid, nothing can touch it. It is built like a tank and just sounds great. My wife commented how open and involving the music sounds.

I now know that my pre-amp is now the weakest link and an upgrade will make it sound even better. Other equipment includes:

McIntosh C-28 pre-amp
McIntosh 2205 amp
Kef 107 speakers

Similar Products Used:

Listened to Linn Ikemi, Rotel 991, Rega Planet 2000

Superb sound, excellent build

None so far.

I'm surprised by our Chinese friend's review which is so contrary to all other experience. I can only assume that he was conned by a clever knock-off, not, unfortunately, uncommon in many Asian countries. Otherwise, I cannot imagine a company like Cary risking its hard-won reputation on an inferior product, no matter where it's sold.

As to my 303, I can only endorse the praise of the other reviewers. Even out of the box it beat the socks off the Musical Fidelity, the Ah!Tjoeb wasn't even a runner-up. Once burned in, the sound was so superb it cannot be adequately described in mere words.

My other equipment? Sonic Frontiers Amp-1, Creek passive preamp, (actually little more than a switch box), Paradigm Monitor 100 and DH Labs interconnects and speaker wires.

Similar Products Used:

Musical Fidelity, Ah!Tjoeb

Accuracy, coherence, timbre.

Not Sound related (see below)

OK, so I have had this about 3 months, its connected via the balanced outputs to a SF Line 2, then to a BAT VK-200 amp via balanced outputs of course, and Vandersteen 2Ce speaks.
/////////////////--SOUND--//////////////////
I have found the sound to be superb (don't know what the "chinese" unit below is??) and very accurate, coherent. Acoustic instruments have a presence, and you can easily tell whether guitars, for example are out of tune. Highs are crisp but cymbals are not "tinny" as with lower quality players. The balanced outputs are much louder than the balanced outputs on my Proceed DAP, so watch out for overload on the preamp. I have not tried the RCA outputs, as I have balanced interconnects, a balanced preamp, and a balanced power amp, balanced seemed the way to go. Back to the sound, very clear, background is absolutely silent. You can hear the instruments jump out at you from the speakers. This is an excellent source.
//////////---Mechanical----///////////////
From a mechanical standpoint, the transport is super-fast, you can get to any track on a normal CD in under 1 second. Its quiet and smoooth, except for the disc tray, which is cheapie looking and appears loose, althoug the dealer says that is how its supposed to be.
Here are my gripes, they don't detract from my rating because none relate to sound quality.
///1. The remote has no "pride of ownership" as its a cheapo plastic unit that almost floats because it weighs less than air. OK, so it has a very wide beam and you don't have to point it right at the player, so in use, its great....For $3,000, I want a metal one!!! My SF remote is much nicer, but lacks the powerful wide beam.
///2. The "off" light (yes it lights up when off) and the HDCD light are intensely super-bright and purple, and actually can hurt your eyes if looking at them in the dark! Note: same color as the BAT lights, but smaller and brighter. The display is also bright and blinks the current track number from a grid representing tracks 1-16. I would prefer a "dim" control to save my eyes from this display too. Further, the display is obviously adapted from a DVD player (see #3), its small and you can't read a thing from a good distance. I have also found an error in the "remaining time" field which you can have displayed via a remote control button. Sometimes it displays a "P" (without the top horiz. segment) in the "minutes" field (1st character) when you are at the end of a disk.
///3. Hey, the Cary DVD player (now up on the Cary web site) is listed for the same price ($3,000.00) as the CD-303??? Looks like it has the same features + adds DVD??? Why didn't I wait and get the DVD?? Surprise-- it looks the same? Note: I tried to play DVD's in the CD-303 and it doesn't work. It would make me feel better if someone could tell me why the CD player is a better buy at the same price.
///4. The thick aluminum faceplate is skillfully masquerading as a plastic faceplate, took me a week to even recognize that it was metal.
///5. (not a gripe) the CD player is heavy and the connections on the back are all looking like high quality stuff. Plus it sounds awesome, so who am I to complain? I am happy with the unit for now until DVD-A or SACD takes off, and would recommend it to anyone who likes good audio.

Similar Products Used:

SACD, Nakamichi CD players, Sony CD source through Audio Alchemy and through Proceed DAP.

timbral accuraccy, solid bass,

My first impression of this unit was the weight, coming in at 35 pounds this is a serious CD player. It required a 24 to 48 hour initial burn in before it really came to life. I also recommend the balanced outputs, the single ended output sounded a little thinner. This is the first CD player that I enjoy as much as my VPI TNT turntable. It has unbelievable resolution, the bass is tight, and the timbre is on target.Kevin Deal of Upscale recommended it to me and I bought it without hearing it first and am glad I did. There is one problem with this unit though, the top of the case rings like a bell, I placed a sheet of Dynamat under the cover and it damped it perfectly. I compared it CD on the Sony SACD, the Cary was the hands down winner. I dont own any SACDs yet so I stuck with the Cary.

Similar Products Used:

rega planet, sony 333ES SACD player.