White Paper No. 303-1
Cary Audio Design CD
303/300
Design
Parameters and Musicality
Exceptional musicality is a recognized hallmark of all Cary Audio products. The CD 303/300 proudly displays its pedigree and audibly transcends previous Cary players, all well-respected for their own musical virtues. This sonic achievement is not an accident. It is the result of Cary Audio’s cumulative knowledge and experience with both vacuum tube analog and solid state digital topologies, yielding hybrid circuit designs that coax out the most euphonic characteristics of both. But the process does not stop there. Thoughtful attention to all component assemblies, hand-selected for sonic integrity, ensures faithful delivery of the purest possible musical information.
The
specially-selected
ROM drive used in the CD 303/300 allows multiple laser passes to be
made,
ensuring correct data recovery from the disc.
This improves the standard compact disk error-correction
capability one hundredfold
by allowing complete buffering of the recovered data.
To reduce bit stream jitter
to an absolute minimum, the digital circuitry incorporates three data
buffers.
Two of these operate in a ‘First In-First Out’ mode where the data are
held for
several seconds and re-clocked before being passed on to the
Digital-to-Analog
Converters, or DACs. As a result, data
entering the DACs are practically jitter-free, with the jitter
bandwidth held
below 0.1 Hz.
The digital signal path incorporates both
proprietary error
correction/concealment circuitry and Cary Audio Design’s acclaimed
'Resolution
Enhancement' digital signal processor (DSP).
Here, the 16-bit audio signal is expanded to 24 bits. Upsampling from the standard 44.1 kHz rate to
96, 192, 384, 512 or 768 kHz occurs in one of three 48-bit processors
operating
at 190 MIPS. The overall DSP
algorithm
with selectable upsampling supports D-to-A conversion filtering far
above the range
of human hearing. The result is
elimination of audible sonic artifacts and the release of pure music
from both
HDCD and standard Red Book disks.
In keeping with Cary Audio’s optimized hybrid design
philosophy, the CD 303/300 employs high-precision, multi-bit, over
sampled
delta-sigma D-to-A converters feeding a sonically-matched proprietary
analog
output stage of the highest quality. User
selection of either the tube or solid-state output stage is available
via remote. Each circuit is highly
musical; however the
tube output stage significantly increases depth while expanding the
soundstage
in all directions. Both single-ended
and balanced outputs are provided; the latter providing exceptionally
low noise
and high signal integrity when long (> 3m) interconnects are used. The signal path is fully balanced
throughout.
To ensure the finest possible sound quality, the CD 303/300 is constructed using a separate motherboard and DSP board, each with its own buffered power supply. Five distinct analog power supplies energize the main computer, decoder, FIFO buffers, upsampling DSP and DACs. In tradition with all Cary Audio Design products, the CD 303/300 uses audiophile-grade capacitors throughout. Each component - even each resistor - has been carefully selected to achieve the greatest possible transparency. PC boards are multi-layer, many being 6-layer constructions ensuring the lowest possible noise and jitter while providing optimum grounding. Reliability is guaranteed by conservative operation of all critical components. Close-tolerance parts are used throughout, ensuring the design’s exceptional performance will be maintained through years of continuous operation.
Describing the sound quality of the CD 303/300 creates a challenge for even dedicated audiophiles. New owners are universal in their praise for its ability to reveal inner detail, with solid three-dimensional images, while radiating warmth and harmonic richness heard with only the very best analog playback or live music:
“The reviewers will have to invent new terminology to describe the 303/300. It is truly musical in a way that I have never heard from digital before. That enveloping sound field - it just extends out…from the speakers. And musical, musical, musical.
“The 306/200 was a great CD player -- very enjoyable, non-fatiguing, musically right. But the 303/300 walks all over it. More air. More space. More harmonic info. More MUSIC.
“The real strength of this unit is its presence. I have really only listened to the tube output stage so far and I can tell you that it betters the…at ‘being in the moment’.
We
consider the CD 303/300 a statement piece, as it incorporates Cary
Audio’s
cumulative experience creating analog, digital and hybrid products that
are
among the most naturally musical sounding available.
We are justifiably proud to offer this unique player that
realizes, finally, the full musical potential of the vast CD catalog
music
lovers the world over have embraced.
Some
additional comments from an email
exchange with Cary:
The drive is a CD/DVD ROM
drive that is multi-speed. You are correct; it can spin
up many times faster than traditional CD drives to accelerate
data acquisition for the buffer stage, ensuring the most accurate bit
extraction in cases of damaged or poorly manufactured disks, vibration,
etc.
The drive is able to make
multiple passes if corrupted data or gaps in data get into the
stream. This reduces the need for data interpolation and, in
theory anyway, improves the accuracy of the data delivered to the DACs.