CD / SACD players and transports — Cary Audio DMC-600SE

The DMC-600SE is a CD player from Cary Audio, built around a dual AK4495EQ and AK4490EQ conversion chip pairing. Cary Audio is an American manufacturer known for both tube and solid-state designs across its catalogue, and this player's dual-chip conversion approach reflects a fairly ambitious engineering effort for the disc-playback category specifically.

Key specs that matter

Rated bandwidth is 2 Hz to 22 kHz, an unusually low starting frequency that extends well below the audible range, a detail that suggests careful attention to phase behaviour and low-frequency stability throughout the analogue output stage. Both balanced and single-ended outputs are 3 V, healthy figures that should drive most preamplifiers, including passive designs, without difficulty. Signal-to-noise is 113 dB with distortion at 0.0004%, both strong figures for the category. At 133 x 438 x 413 mm and 15.9 kg it is a substantial chassis, consistent with a serious power supply and dual conversion architecture rather than a lightweight, cost-optimised implementation.

Sound and use context

Expect a low-distortion, clean presentation typical of a dual-chip conversion design - the pairing of two different AK449x-series chips suggests a deliberate voicing decision by Cary Audio's engineers rather than a simple cost-driven component choice, though the exact reasoning behind that specific combination is worth asking a dealer about directly.

Pairing

Both balanced and single-ended outputs at 3 V suit either type of preamplifier without a gain shortfall, giving considerable flexibility in how this player integrates into an existing system.

Alternatives

Cary Audio's broader amplifier and DAC range offers matching partner components for a system built around this brand, worth pairing together for a coherently voiced signal chain from source through to amplification. Cary Audio's broader catalogue includes both tube and solid-state amplification, giving buyers considerable flexibility in how they voice the rest of a system built around this player, whether leaning toward a warmer tube-based amplifier pairing or a more neutral solid-state one. The unusually low 2 Hz bandwidth figure at the bottom end is a detail worth asking a dealer about specifically, since it points to deliberate engineering attention paid well below what any recording could actually contain. Cary Audio typically offers a reasonably long standard warranty on its electronics range, worth confirming specifically for this model before purchase.