House sound of CARY vrs AYRE?

Thanks so much for your detailed response. Very helpful!

I now own the Arcam FMJ cd23. Have had it for many years and enjoy it immensely. But it is getting long in tooth, and I am thinking seriously of upgrading. I do tend to listen for long periods, and have never tired of the Arcam.

But I am intrigued, and feel I should replace for something new. Don't know how much longer the Arcam will last. Trying to get closer to an analog sound which is why I was looking at Ayre. The reviews look quite good. Stereophile seems to love em......

Heading to Europe, and hope to listen there. Some very good shops in London. Heard about a German brand T+A, which is now available Stateside. But will probably keep it narrowed down to Ayre or Cary.

Know anything about EMM scad?

Thanks again

"Thanks......but do you think you could describe the difference from The Arcam to Cary and/ or Ayre."

There is quite a big difference, but I think both are excellent. I have an Arcam FMJ33 myself so I can give you a pretty good idea what each sounds like. I understand that you 23 uses a different dac chip but I find that they are not too different sounding.

Ayre/Cary are 0 feedback, fully balanced designs and are known for their high resolution and very pure sound. Also, since both desginers are known for making state of the art analog equipment, the analog sections of the players are every bit as good as the digital. A lot of people don't take that into consideration when buying a digital product. For me, the biggest difference is the dynamic contrast. There's great seperation between soft and loud, and how transients have that jump or impact that vinyl does do well, but digital struggles with. There's also a lot more resolution and the imaging is outstanding. The downside is that their not quite as forgiving and will expose more flaws in the recording and equipment.

The Arcam is very different. Its has a polite, conservative, character to it. Its very smooth and can be listened to for long periods of time. Its not as "exciting" to listen to as the other players but that doesn't make it bad; just different.

If you have ever heard Wadia and like it, then go for an Ayre or Cary. If you like the sound of Levinson, Bryston, Parasound etc, I think the Arcam is the better choice.

One other thing to note is that if you choose a Cary, they give you a lot of options. You can choose things like upsampling vs not upsampling and switch back and forth between Tube or SS output section. I'm typing this from memory so I would look at Cary's website to see exactly what the different options are.

"many times bettet than LP" Be careful, some will consider that blasphemy (smile).
Regards,

I have the Ayre c5xemp and love it. It benefits from the best power cord and balanced interconnects. I have mine on Terrastones which clarifies the sound even further...many times better than LP

Thanks......but do you think you could describe the difference from The Arcam to Cary and/ or Ayre.

Thanks again.

Its really hard to define lush. It may mean different things to different people. As far as Ayre and Cary go, I think they both make some of the best CD players out there. They do sound different from each other but if you like one, you will probably like the other as well. They both sound very different from your Arcam.