Audio Logic v. Audio Note v. Audio Aero v. Audiome


I have been reading the great comments about the Audio Logic DAC. Have any of you have compared it to any of the DACs or one-box units from the above manufacturers?

My system consists of:
Cary 308-T CDP
First Sound Pres. Deluxe MKII Preamp
VTL MB -450 Sig. amps
Merlin Milennium speakers
the Bobby P. recommended Cardas Golden Ref. interconnects and speake wire
Various power cords

I find that complex, dynamic music gets congested. Bass is a bit muddy. And, on faster music, it seems that my combo. of equipment has trouble keeping up.

My hope is that an improved source will address some of these issues.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
brooksl
I am encouraged to hear that my short list is a good place to start. I wish I had the opportunity to hear some of them. Unfortunately, in Chicago, none of them is available. I have spoken with a few out of state dealers. However, none of them is familiar with more than two of the units in question. So, your help is very important. Thank you.

By the way, any thoughts as to a good ratio of ones budget to spend on the DAC v. the transport? For example, would a $7,000 DAC w/ my $500 Sony 5 disk DVD player be preferable to a $4,000 DAC with a $3,000 transport? Given my history of upgrading something every several months, I think that would probably be more cost effective in the long run.
I posted earlier on another version of this thread. To answer your later question I again echo Mejames on the Audio Aero as a great one-box solution at it already has a great transport and DAC and it is a Cd player. When you asked about a $7,000.00 CAD with a $500.00 CD player, I want to confess that I sometimes use the toslink connection from my Yamaha 5-disc player into my Audio Aero when I don't want to bother changing CDs. The sound is still great.
I have ordered the Audio Logic 24MXl. I am sure it will be a step up from my Cary. Thanks for all your help.
Congratulations, you made a fine choice, although really you could not go wrong with any of your choices. Just remember to give the Audio Logic some break-in time, as the caps it uses take a very long time to sound their best, and the unit needs to be on for a while as well to sound its best (I leave mine on continuously). Tube rolling can wait for a while; there's another recent thread that has my recommendations, although the MX version only uses the two 6922/6DJ8s, I believe.
Rcprince, thanks for the notice to be patient. My initial expections will be low because I will be using an 6 year old Sony 5 disk DVD changer for a transport while I research a better one. I read your suggestions on Forsell and CEC. Service for both seems difficult. Have you encountered anything transports that you would recomend that can be serviced in the US?