a308 or a5 cd player?

why do you want to upgrade your cd player ?

what are your sonic preferences ?

i owned the a5 for about 6 months and sold it.

i found it to be spectrally balanced but not very forgiving of poor quality cds. i beleive the cary may give you more flexibility to tune the sound of your stereo by changing the tube.

The diffences will be very little. I have the 308. Why not add the External DAC the 21. Nuvistors will be very smooth.
The 308 is excellent from top to bottom. Really good but tubes are better, addition of thier 21 should be great.
Canary audio makes a great player also.

I've had a A308 integrated and A308 CD player for over three years. There is great synergy between the two components. Neither is forgiving to poor recordings, because they are accurate and if you want to color the sound go tubes!