According to the reviewer, the Cary's audio performance was the best he'd heard, with the Meridian 568, Lexicon MC-8, and Krell Showcase mentioned as other units he'd used. The feature set appears to be very limited, however, and it sounds like the unit has some interface design issues as well. As for components, the Cary uses the same Cirrus 49400 as the Outlaw units, but I didn't find anything that mentioned what DACs are used.