trying to decide between Cary 303/300 and BAT CD

Having owned both the BAT VKD5 and VKD5SE I can say that both are quite musical and make a great addition to your system. I have not heard the Cary 303/300 however the Cary gear I have listened to is quite good also. You have a tough decision ahead.

I can say that the VKD5 with the 6922 tube has a rounder, more tubey sound than the D5SE, the D5SE has more resulution and a touch better bottom end.

Best,

Paul :-)

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!