trying to decide between Cary 303/300 and BAT CD

I found that a nice solid state preamp did wonders. Try to borrow something

The older BAT VKD5 I liked less that some much cheaper competition (Arcam fmj23 for example). Sounds like from the above description, with the SE they might have cured what I didn't like about the original.
In any case, my reason for chiming in is that I really think you gotsta go take a listen to make a decent decision about high quality cd playback. There are many good players out there, and unless you are dead set to spend 5,000 you might find happiness closer to 500.
The other thing, happiness fer me on the cd side ended up being two mid priced playback options with different voicing to accomodate different recordings. Sort of the same tack as the Cary but not all in the same box.
Good Luck!

While I cant comment on the BAT, I do own the Cary 303/300 and have a pair of Cary V12R's. In my system the two are very dynamic, musical and three dimentional. Certainly not muddy. I really like the tube output stage, esp. with better tubes, such as Tele's, Siemens,etc.. Things get even better when one drives the amps directly from the CDP via balanced cables.Occasionally on some rock recordings the SS stage seems better. All in all, the two Carys seem to really mate well together, as one would expect. I love this player. Hope this helps, Jim

Jeff I agree with you, unfortunalty I live in Alabama and there is very little chance to demo any equipment. that is why I started a company that deals in high end equipment of all sorts not just Audio and Video that caters to the southeast. It will be a website as well as a retail location that will allow you to sell your own goods, we will sell them on consignment, or if you are the original owner and have a service history we will buy it from you. The name is Audiolexis and the site is Audiolexisonline to launch in two weeks. Anyway I have purchased a Jolida CD that I did get the chance to demo and liked well enough to put it in the chain for now.

Jim do Iunderstand you that you changed the V12r tubes or the CD?

I was talking about the 12AU7's in the 303/300, however I have NOS tubes in my V12's as well. Jim