I've owned the Cary and heard the Airtight, to me it's a no brainer, the Airtight is far better sounding IMOP. I sold the 300sei, I could never get used to that overly warm(dull?) sound, and the number of 300sei's for sale on A'gon says something, I think.
Airtight ATM300 vs. Cary 300SEI
I'm going to mate a SE tube integrated with some vintage Spendor LS3/5A spkrs. Had decided on the 11W Cary 300SEI (with WE's; I'm not a KR fan), but then see Gindi's review of Airtight 8W ATM300 in Ultimate Audio mag raving about the Airtight with, would you believe, these same 15 yr old speakers. Being the societal pawn and audiophobic guy that I am, or seem to be at the moment (we never admit it until that moment) now I'm intrigued about that combo. Cary is plentiful on used market at about $2K and, given the $6300 retail and newness of Airtight piece, it would be a minimum of $3500, so there is a difference. Anyone think its worth it? For context, system will have some type of CD player (Sony, Metronome,etc.), Audio note(Kondo) interconnect, Mapleshade Planar spkr cables, Well Tempered TT w/Koetsu. Thanks for the feedback.