Arcam FMJ CD33 vs Cary 306/200

I recently auditioned the FMJ CD33 and Cary 303/300 at Sound by Singer both on the same system. CD33 would not do for rock music, sorry to disagree with previous posts. Cary player has better bass and smoother highs with delicious midrange. Arcam is a little on the bright side of things with much more gentle bass than Cary. I'd say it is a little bass shy compared to the Cary player. This was apparent to me. After about 20-30 minutesof switching back and forth and listening to same cds. However, one unit that did take me by surprise was Musical Fidelity A5 cd player. This one, 1t $2500, was so close to Cary 303/300, that it would be very difficult to distiguish between the 2 in the blind test. $1500 difference is a nice chunk of change, that could be spent on something else that needs upgrading in your system. One thing the sales person mentioned to me about the A5 player is that it does not play SACDs. Besides, he said he would discourage you from even puttin a hybrid SACD in there. They had a customer who brought the A5 into the store after he tried to play a hybrid SACD and the thing jsut kept spinning the disc, trying to read it, but the tray wouldn't open to take the disc out. Musical Fidelity is aware and is working on the fix, according to the sales guy at Singer.....for what it's worth.

There's also a lot of buzz over the Benchmark DAC / Bel Canto DAC. A friend suggested I should go that route, by coupling the Benchmark with my Sony NS-999ES universal player. I am not too thrilled to use the universal as a transport. I would rather get a kick-ass Redbook CD Player. Any thoughts on the Benchmark or Bel Canto over the Cary, etc.?

I'd say your feelings about using the Sony as a transport are right on. I wasn't blown away by the Sony on CD playback. SACD was pretty good however. I've heard good things about both the Benchmark and Bel Canot DACs, but haven't heard them in person. Good luck.

I compared Bel Canto and Benchmark at home in my system.
Liked the Bel Canto much better - much more involving, smoother, deeper soundstage, much more relaxed sounding throughout the entire spectrum, deeper bass. Benchmark kind of upset me a little, because I liked the features and the overall look of it better than Bel Canto, however, I care more about the sound, which in my system it was clear - Bel Canto came out as a winner. Both dacs were used with same transport, same digital cable. Differences between these 2 are very obvious in my system.
Benchmark sounded very much like what it is, a professional tool for recording studios. It did not have that kind of involvement Bel Canto offers. As far as comparing either of these dacs to Cary player, I can't say anything about that, sorry had never a chance to compare, but my assumption would be that if you like the way Cary sounds, chances are you won't like Benchmark DAC-1. Just my opinion. See the advantage with either of the dacs is that you can try 'em out if you order from audio advisor. Cary is the opposite, most likely it will not be possible to have a home audition of the player. It's all subjective as far as what you are looking for in sound. Just putting my $.02 in....

Hope this helps...

The Cary 306/200 or the Ayre CX7.