Synergism

I finally saw the very first SACD that i would want to buy today. As such, i personally am not even remotely considering the purchase of an SACD player until i start seeing a multitude of discs that i would want to purchase.

Besides that point, most of the posts here have concluded that SACD players are not the greatest at doing "old school" or "redbook" CD's. If you have a lot of standard CD's that you want to listen to, i would suggest going for a player that does redbook only.

As to what make / model you should go with, i suggest listening to as many different models as you can, especially if you can do so with your components at home. Adding a Mu-Fi player to a Mu-Fi amp / preamp combo would give you more of the same sound, which might be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences.

In your hunt for a new digital source, i would try to calculate in the cost of a good yet reasonable power cord. In my experience, this can take a player up another notch or two in both transparency and liquidity for not that much more of an investment. Obviously, much of how well the PC works will be based on how well the power supply of the player is filtered to begin with. Sean
>

The advice of ONLY matching your rig to another MF component is a bit simplistic, if that were the case most Audiogoners would have matching gear. Definitely audition what you can, but also don't discount what other A'Goners have said about the pieces you're considering and look at what they're using it with. Sean is right about factoring in the cost of a good power cord, digital sources seem to benefit greatly from a good cord. I think something else to consider is what sonic character you want the new CDP to introduce.

one factor in favor of the Cary is that it will play HDCD's a big bonus IMO (I am obviously a big fan of HDCD, of which there is much greater availability than SACD, & at equivalant cost to redbook). Ayre makes some great stuff too, so chosing between the two may not be easy if HDCD isn't of interest to you. Regarding Musical Fidelity, if you can find a NuVista 3D machine, you'll have HDCD & probably the better of your other choices, but they are reportedly hard to find.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/frr.pl?rdgtl&1037849911&read&3&4&

See my review.

KF