trying to decide between Cary 303/300 and BAT CD

PS:
I must add....The person I bought this player from felt that the SE version is even better....I would love to hear it...I love this player so much if/when I do upgrade I will focus on the BAT VK-D5SE...

Allegro12:

Did you buy brand new or used? When did you buy it?

If there's a manufactoring date on the unit, that should be an indicator. I believe any unit after 2004, is the 24 Bit dac, and any unit from 2004 and back is the 20 Bit units. But I'll have to double-check the exact year BAT started using the 24 Bit.....I could be off by a year or so.

I owned a VKD5se for years...nice organic sound...I switched last year to a Consonance Droplet....cost half as much and I liked the bass and soundstaging better, no loss of detail....
Larry

Having heard the BAT several years ago, I have a hard time believing that the Cary won't whoop it's ass. The BAT is definitely getting long in the tooth, while the Cary is a recent design taking advantage of more recent lessons in digital technology.

IMHO, the BAT was just OK, and was easily bettered by a Wadia 860x, which was easily bettered by my VSE modded Sony.