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In Reply to: Cary 303/300 vs 306/200 posted by imnfwong on May 17, 2005 at 21:48:53:
I recently bought the 303/300 as a replacement for my ageing Sony XA-777ES. I auditioned the unit in the store and through the system there the Cary seemed impressive with good dynamics and reasonable soundstaging. I was pretty sure it would blow my old Sony away on redbook.At home it was another story. The Cary was bright with very narrow staging and mechanical tonality. The Sony has a very lush analog sound to it with the filter enabled on redbook (I remember reading that it converted PCM to DSD) and as it is now the Cary sounds very much like a CD player.
In favour of the Cary I did find it was processing more detail than the Sony. The Cary sounded best through balanced output with the tube stage enabled. I found that using any of the upsampling made for a brittle sound, and it seemed best with the upsampling off. There are some build quality issues with the Cary as well...it in no way feels it's price and I found the drive tray to far too flimsy for a quality player.
Now maybe with more playing the tubes on the Cary will open up. I am going to look at getting some NOS tubes for the Cary and see what happens. If anyone has any recommendations for tubes please post.
Follow Ups:
Give the 303/300 time to settle in. These players need a LONG break-in, and each output stage will need separate playing time to break in.My experience with the Cary 303/100 and 303/200 was that it takes about 100 hours of continuous play for the Carys to start coming into their own. I found 200 hours to be the absolute minimum for break-in and somewhere around 400 hours as the point of maximum improvement.
Bright, mechanical and synethetic is not the Cary house sound, at least not as I ever experienced it - in fact, it's about as far as you can get from what Cary normally sounds like. One of the Cary's chief virtues is a large soundstage, very wide and spacious, with a warm tonality. My two Carys didn't throw the world's deepest soundstage but it wasn't narrow.
I think you'll also want to roll the tubes. Others can guide you there.
I used both my Carys single ended, and I thought either of them beat any Sony SACD player I ever heard on Redbook, including the 777ES.
I gave mine 400+ hours and then gave up on it. I can assure you that the 303/300 does have the Cary house sound. For my taste, the top end did not exhibit enough sparkle. The bass was much too prominent. And high resolution was noticeably absent. Yes I experimented with tubes and cables.The above post is my opinion only. Take it with a grain of salt. After reading this forum for 5+ years, I have come to realize that is what opinions of audio gear are worth.......A grain of salt.
Hey Reb.......originally you LOVED the 303. Your posts prove it. IMO you did not seek out the best tubes. NOTE the same time you were raving about the 303 you were selling one on Audiogon. Your comments are suspect IMO.
Why are you so paranoid?
Why do you care what someone posts here?Your happy with the player and that is what should matter to you.
I'm with you, and that prompted my smart aleck response to the original post. You should be happy with your player if you like it, and not need to denegrate any other. Sing your units praises from the highest mountain if you so choose, but there's no need to show it is superior to or run any other player down, that's purely subjective.
Note I am not denegrating any piece of equipment. I am merely pointing out a poster who has written dramatically different comments about the same piece of equipment, while selling the unit. Make your own judgement about bias. I happen to like and own both of the CDPs being commented upon in this thread.
NT
You insist on being anal about this.Get a life.
It's not just this thread, and I'm sure you would agree. This type of thought process has infiltrated and dominates this interenet forum.
Life in general....it's not enough for me to be happy and feel like I've won...someone else must be unhappy or have lost to complete my satisfaction....
...at this level, it all comes down to system syngery and personal taste.
> > > I found that using any of the upsampling made for a brittle sound, and it seemed best with the upsampling off < < <
I found that true of the 306 and the 308T as well. Very synthetic sounding with the upsampling on.> > > There are some build quality issues with the Cary as well < < <
Ditto for the 308TAs for tubes, assuming its sonic signature is similar to the 308T, Teles will nake it more laid back, and sound more detailed and linear-could be boring in the wrong system. Amperex 7316s are nice, depending on the vintage. I found Mullard long plate bass heavy, thick, and slow. Early tungsols aren't bad. You may wish to try philips E80CCs too. There are lots of 12AU7s out there, and I didn't care for most of them.
good luck
Jack
The 308T has a special place in my heart. I still think it competes with the new 303/300. I preferred Amperex Bugle Boys in the 308T. That player was very transparent (with the Bugle Boys) with nice top end sparkle. I didn't care much for the Mullards and agree that they sounded heavy, thick, and slow. Bugle Boys were more open, detailed, and 'crisp' w/o being bright.
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