Cary DMS 700 vs Aurender A300

Thank you everyone.  I was leaning Aurender, but you’ve helped me decide on the Aurender.  Financing is not part of the equation thankfully.

@rkfaberdds I am an Aurender dealer, but I used to have an almost all Cary system. The two units approach the solution very differently.

The A200 is a streamer/server first and a DAC second. The chassis design, power supply, and isolation characteristics overall will result in a lower noise floor and wider, and deeper soundstage. The DAC implementation is very linear and truly focuses on simply converting the signal as pure as possible without the addition of any coloration. As others mention, the A200 features the ability for internal storage, and if you have a local library, be prepared to be amazed at how good this sounds because of Aurender’s implementation. Finally, the user experience of the Conductor app is quite good, and there are product teams actively improving the app since that is a center point of their offering across products. 

Cary designs the DMS DAC first. While they unit sports a streamer, most of the love in the unit goes to the DAC implementation and analog stage of the unit. It produces a more harmonic, but ultimately less resolving sound. Depending on what you want the unit to do, it may actually be the more musical and engaging unit and the one you gravitate to. The DAC implementation and output stage actually results in sonics that are quite pleasant, and I cannot contest that, but you may be looking for immediacy and separation in the long run.

If customer support is a factor, I would go with Aurender hands down. I have had a few encounters with Cary support in past years, and unless they’ve changed that for the better recently, I can say they weren’t the most positive of experiences. Part of their operations went down when Dennis Had stepped away. 
 

Great financing also on the Cary

I don't know what Aurender's policy is, but Cary allows a 30 day trial period, you just pay return shipping cost.  Another difference is Cary sells direct to consumer which may be a better value and if you're buying new, Cary Direct runs sales throughout the year if you're patient.

I had a Aurender A100, Cary 600,700 and a Lumin T2 so maybe I can help. 
The Aurender and the Cary both use AKM chips. While the T2 uses the Sabre chips

You can’t beat the Cary for features. Wireless,Bluetooth, can be used just as a streamer, SD card playback etc. Swiss Army knife. Will always sound good, never fatiguing . Their app is good but quirky.  For me it just didn’t dig deep. I moved on to  a Bricasti which just sounds much bigger and lively. 
The Lumin T2 sounded great on 90 percent of the music played on my system but with the Persona 5F beryllium midrange and tweeter could get edgy, ,but if the rest of your system is on the warmer side of neutral it may work well. 
 

Have not heard the A200 but I assume it will be similar to the 700 but have the advantage of local storage which the Cary lacks. 
 

Really comes down to features as they are both great companies

 The Cary’s remote is the best I ever used as it will run everything if you lose Wi fi. The Cary’s manual is 80 pages and written very well. 

My two cents: when I was in the market for a streamer/DAC, I gave the Cary DMS 700 serious consideration. (I even attended AXPONA that year to listen to it in an optimal setting.) One clear feature it had, in my estimation, was its being Roon ready. Ultimately, I decided on the Lumin T2, which has served me well. The Lumin unit has recently been upgraded to a T3, and I recommend you consider it as a possibility for you. While the Cary unit has much to admire, it is quite costly.

In reading the reviews of their products on the Cary website, I found interesting the comment regarding unbalanced vs. balanced outputs. The sense I got is that its noteworth performance is somewhat dependent on using the balanced outputs. Consequently, don't lay out that amount of money unless your preamp has balanced analog inputs.

I believe you're referring to the Aurender A200 as it is comparable cost wise to the Cary DMS 700.  I can't speak of the Aurender as I've never heard it, but the Cary DMS 700 is a real sleeper.  I've owned it for over 2 years now and have no regrets or inclination to consider anything else in this price range.  Cary DMS 700 is made in USA and rarely comes up for sale on the used market and  Aurender is made in Korea if that matters.  Be aware that Cary can do Roon, Aurender is not Roon compatible to my knowledge.

Aurender all day.