John, I've never heard the Ayre player but I can talk a little about the Cary. I wonder though if you're thinking of the CD-308 (MSRP $1500.00) or the CD-308T (MSRP $2500.00)?
I acquired the CD-308 last November via Upscale Audio and subsequently have been highly delighted with its performance. Out of the box the CD-308 sounded (to me) a lot like an inexpensive, mediocre CD/DVD player (except for an absence of digital grain, IIRC). Certainly nothing special.
Although Cary recommends a 100 hour (~4 day) break-in I found very little in the way of change. Not so after 150-200+ hours though. Big, big changes! IMO, Cary should really revise their number to something along the lines of 7-10 days (168-240 hours).
Anyhow, I never go out of my way to recommend or "push" the CD-308 for one primary reason. This certainly has nothing to do with the player's sonic performance (or reliability), which I've found outstanding, especially considering its relatively modest cost.
No, instead the reason is the player's occasional behavior when changing tracks on a CD, say for example, from track 5 to track 14. From time-to-time the player will clip a tiny fraction of a second of program material from the very beginning of track 14, to use my example. This only occurs intermittently and normally the clipping is actually so brief that it would probably be hard to notice unless an individual listened for it.
I recall that a CD-308 owner and corespondent at Audio Asylum reported that he was told by Cary that this issue is probably related to some kind of glitch in the muting circuit. It's no big deal to me at all, but I don't doubt that it could "worry" some users, LOL.
Other users have commented that the operational radius of the remote control is very narrow compared to other players, and I'd agree. Also, that the remote itself is somewhat "homely-looking", again I'd agree, LOL. In addition, my sample shipped without a hardcopy user's manual although Cary quickly sent one out.
BTW, I'm rather familiar with track 3 on the Gladiator soundtrack since I really enjoy that, as well as track 13 where some elements of the same theme are repeated. Listening with the Cary (plus RKV) at both 44.1 and 96 kHz, and at high SPLs I don't detect any problems at all.
I will state flat-out that the Gladiator CD has some of the highest low-frequency peak levels of any disc in my collection! In addition, at least parts of the final mix are highly, highly processed, in particular the passage I think you're probably referring to. I'm sure that's part of the reason that a lot of us (including me) enjoy it though.
P.S. Better not ask Tuberoller (or DanG, IIRC) about Cary's digital products, LOL.
TravelLite
