So I couldn't resist and picked up the CEC 3300 because A.A. had a demo/return for $349 and free shipping. So judging by AA's claim that it's the best sounding sub $1000 player out there, that's what I judged it against. Some of the sub $1000 players that I'm pretty familiar with are the Arcam CD72, Rega Planet 2000, the Exposure 2010, and the Marantz CD 6000 OSE.
First thing was that this seemed to be a very heavy and solidly built unit. It appeared to be pretty well made for a $500 player. I think it's also heavier than the other players that I made mention to above. Looks were nice (although it's kind of a champagne color) with a nice display and a functional remote.
Upon listening, the first thing I noticed that it had nice tight bass- not overdone, but definitely present. The top end was a liittle rolled off and a little grainy, but not terrible for a $500 player. I like the top end of the Marantz 6000OSE a little better than this player, but I liked the bottom end of the CEC better. Dynamics were adequate, but a bit on the soft side- I think both the Arcam and the Exposure are better if you like a bit of snap in your music. A friend of mine that has a Rega Planet 2000 listened to it and he really liked it, but felt that the warmer smoother top end of the Rega was a little better than the CEC. Mids were good and not overly "fat" or forward.
I also listened to the headphone jack on this unit with my Grado RS-1's- it had more punch than the line outs, but even more emphasized the grainy top end of this player.
I ended up returning the unit, but despite some of my negative criticism, it wasn't an easy decision- I wouldn't mind having this as a spare because it's easy to listen to. Most of my criticism was because I was expecting to be better than the $1000 players I put it against- it wasn't. But I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this player over the $500 players out there in the market. If you're looking for a decent entry level player, it's defintely one to consider. It's also a good choice if you're looking for a player for your home theatre system- I think the CD playback on this is better than most of the CD playback on even the $$$ universal players- buy a DVD with good picture quality and use this for 2 channel CD.