Well, What's the Verdict on the Cary 308T

I can't help with a real comparison, because I don't have an actual Arcam CD23. What I do have is about four months use/experience with the 308T and two years experience with an Arcam CD92. My system is Cary SLP2002, V12i and B&W N804s. With a powersnake Viper v2 and Luminous Audio Synchestra Signature ICs, the Arcam was a great Cd player.Initially, after 30 hours with stock tubes, the only thing the Cary brought to the dance was better deeper wider soundstage. Tried NOS Siemens 5814As and got better tighter bass. Switched to Mullard NOS "long plate" 12AU7s and was captivated by midrange to die for. All this with same cords as were on the Arcam. After about three weeks, I began to miss "something" that I suspected was the PRAT and detail of the Arcam. Took the Cary and its cords to a friend's house that has a slightly more revealing system looking for his opinion. Nice, but a slight bit too laid back. It sounded pretty much the same in his system that it did in mine.
Got home and resolved to either change it's character or sell it. Thank God for tubes. Changed the Mullards for NOS Bugle Boy 7316s and the Viper for a TG Audio SLVR I had been cooking about six weeks on my office PC monitor to use on my preamp. Much better, bring on your Arcams. Same great soundstage, but detail and PRAT and shimmer off high hats that slowly fades into the distance.

I just wanted to clear up the problem I was having with the tray. This isn't a problem common to all CD-308's. On mine, the front plate on the tray (semi-transparent blue plate to match the LED display) was mis-aligned by about a millimeter. The plate is glued to the front end of the tray at the factory. To fix this, I sent the unit back to Cary and they put a new plate on it in the correct position. This corrected the problem with reading the disk.

Sorry about that. I didn't realize what the "T" standed for. I'll be interested in hearing if anyone upgraded from the standard to the tubed output, and how it changed the sound.

Yes, what I am looking for is a "sound quality" comparison between the brand new Cary "tube" CD player (308T) and their 303/200... not the $1,500 straight 308.

PeterS,
Thanks for the Cary 308 comparison.What Fullrum is lookin for is info on the new $2500 Cary 308T that has a true tubed output section with two 12AU7s.There has been some discussion on Audio Asylum "digital" forum.
claud

Well, I've had the unit for about a month now. I placed a comparison of it, the Heart CD 6000, and the Arcam FMJ CD23 on bottom of the following forum:

Cary CDP Comparison

To summaryize about the Cary (worth reading the whole comparison): This unit is warmer sounding than the Arcam. The upper mid and treble are more present, thus providing a more substantial soundstage and a better sense of 3D. The music envelopes you and provides more spatial experience. Yet the upper treble and midrange are a bit thick, like someone inched up the reverb knob just a bit. There is bit less detail. The bass is very solid, like the Arcam, and a joy to listen to.

I've had a few problems with my unit. They needed to ad a resistor to mine because inactive digits on the display were flashing gently. Apparently a few units got through without that this problem being corrected. Also, the tray is very flimsy, and about 30% of the time when I load a CD it says "no disk" - unless I give the tray a little help. Hopefully this is just a problem with mine, and I will send it back for repair.