CDP 2K for Cary sli80 Shearwater H.R.


Okay, time to ditch the last of the mid-fi links in my system, (Marantz cd63se). I'm hoping for even better soundstage & naturalness. I've heard nice things about the Cary 303, but its a little more than I want to spend. The Planet & otheres in the 1K range may even give me a nice improvement, so perhaps I can save a little $. What'ya think?
jay_carlson
I'm looking for the same thing. I'm using the sli80 with Soliloquy 5.0's and now need to replace an old rotel cd player. What cables are you using with the cary?
I'd highly recommend the 303 as long as the rest of your system is up to that level. For a little more, try to find a used Electrocompaniet EMC-1. It will likely be the last CDP you'll ever buy. Just my .02.
Jay, I would think about a DAC for the 63 as a transport; upsamplers like Bel Canto, Birdland Odeon lite, and add a good Ac cord to each as well. JPS Digital for the DAC, and JPS anaolg Ac for the MArantz. Maybe work some isolation cones in the budget as well. For your 2k budget, you may even try Ac cords for the Cary sli80 sig. If you are set on 1 box players, c/o a 777es/SCD-1 sacd player; or for redbook only used Audio Research CD-2 or Naim CDX/3.5; Arcam 23, Audio Refinement Cd Complete (over the Rega Planet). There are a host of desicions in this $$ range, not just Cd player? but also system ?'s/issues.
Krocdoc, I have a pair of DH Labs silver sonic interconnects, the newer one, and also a pair of budget silver ones, I believe they were called Stealth, ETS (Enter the Silver). both pretty modest @~ $100/pr, at this point I like the Stealth thin silver ones a little bit over the S.S. As for a power cord, the stock Cary sounded much better than the stock Parasound that I stayed with for a while.. Then I bought a Coincident power cord form Kevin Deal, from whom I bought the amp. It seems to give an even more solid defined soundstage, I like it.
Jay, thanks for the input. Did you try any other power chords with the sli80? I swapped in a synergistic master and it did not seem to make much of a difference so I kind of gave up that route. I am using Blue Heaven for the cd to cary and cary to the speakers. I like the sound i'm getting right now, even though the cd could be improved. Last night I played Patricia Barber's Nightclub for the first time and still can't believe how well the cary/soliloquy combo sounds.