I am by no means an expert on Cary gear but I have been a happy owner of a CD306 SACD since July of 2006. My player experienced a few hiccups during that time (an occasional skip or no disk error) and Cary and my dealer Upscale Audio were wonderfully responsive and communicated to me all through the process. I was told by Dennis Had and Kevin Deal both that there were a couple of issues at hand. First, the reader board from Sony (the transport maker) had some hidden faults under certain rare circumstances and another mission critical chip(may be a DAC, I am unsure) also malfunctioned given certain situations.
Both have been remedied and my player is performing flawlessly. I highly recommend this player without reservation. Even with a minor problem here and there, this cd player has the best redbook playback I have heard. As far as an $800 upgrade, I would be a bit surprised as all CD306 SACD players should still be under warranty. As far as a new transport, I doubt it. The transports are bullett proof Sony SCD1 drive and what you heard is likely in reference to the Sony logic board to which I referred earlier. Regards.
Both have been remedied and my player is performing flawlessly. I highly recommend this player without reservation. Even with a minor problem here and there, this cd player has the best redbook playback I have heard. As far as an $800 upgrade, I would be a bit surprised as all CD306 SACD players should still be under warranty. As far as a new transport, I doubt it. The transports are bullett proof Sony SCD1 drive and what you heard is likely in reference to the Sony logic board to which I referred earlier. Regards.