Looking for opinion, Cary 303/300, thinking about

A cd player is never a "good investment", especially if you buy one based on others opinions. All high-end machines have their own unique sound. I own the Cary and have owned ARC, Classe, Wadia, Naim, Rotel, Marantz and heard dozens of others. They all sound very different from one another. Go out and listen first is my advice.

Reb1208, of those players that you tried which, to your ears, was the most analog/warm? I recently tried the 303/200 in my system and was disappointed by how bright it was...

I think the 300 is a different animal from the 200. I much prefer the sound of the 300, not fully broken in, to the 200. Smoother up top and the option to switch between tube and ss ouput, as well as upsample at differing levels makes this one flexible player. YMMV, but to me this is an improvement on the Cary house sound, which I like.

Mdp0430,
I hope you don't mind me jumping in to answer your question. I've heard all of the players mentioned except the ARC, and found the Resolution Opus 21 to be warmer than any of them, with Naim a close second.
Just my two cents...and back to the Cary matter at hand.

I forgot that I also owned the DV-50----how could I forget???
MDP:
Anyway, I find almost all cd players sound closed in on top. That is my main problem with them. The only recent cd players that I found to actually sound extended on top to the point of brightness are the new Marantz SA11 (owned that) and the Musical Fidelity A5. It is a false sence of openess, created by a roll off in bass response.

Now I don't find anything warm about analog playback. So I don't equate warm sounding digital to analog. No digital in my experience routinely sounds as open as analog...case closed.

The ARC CD3MK2 is by far the "warmest-darkest-most closed in", the "worst" for me- so there you go.. Naim is also "warw" but has an electronic signature.

The Cary 303/300 is definitely not bright. It has edge definition though, that gives off ambient cues similiar to analog playback. But it still is not open on top like analog. Years ago I heard an ElectroCompaniet at a dealer. I'd say the Cary has a similiar but much more refined sound . The Cary is full bodied, powerful bass, dynamic, large soundstage, sweetly burnished highs. A player that is easy to listen too but not to the point of being too warm and dark.