Cary 303-300

Sasonmusic, it's a lovely unit even in solid state mode. However, and sorry about this, please do use other tubes. Don't go nuts on rolling. The RCA Cleartops are pretty cheap and readily available and will do wonders for the tube output sound. It's only two tubes and it's real easy to switch them out. Trust me on this one -- I did go crazy and tried lots of tubes over a couple of months and finally settled on something more esoteric, but the Cleartops were right up there and were much more affordable and available. Try it ... you'll like it!

By the way, keep the interconnects to the preamp as short as possible.

This is an excellent unit. We are a dealer, and have a 303/300 on display playing direct through a Rocket88. At first, the tubed output was anemic and thin, but over time it has opened up dramatically, and played through that great tube amp. As far as we can tell, the upsampling works well, depending on the CD you play. Generally, we leave it upsampled to the highest (768mhz) setting, with great results, although some discs sound slightly strange on that setting - but if it is in your home system you can apply whichever settings sound right with your system.

These pieces are particularly interesting to play with cables - different interconnects will make a dramatic difference in sound, as will good power delivery. We have found that the combination of Analysis Plus and Richard Grey's works extremely well with this setup.

My 2 cents!

I am currently reviewing the unit for Positive-Feedback.com. It will be a while before it is posted as I have just finished burning in the unit (both the Tube and SS stage). My first impressions are favorable. I reviewed the 308T a couple years back and I think this unit is better. The on the fly switchable outbut and upsampling make it a very very flexable.

Keep swinging by the site and you will see my review posted within the next couple of months.

John