Went to the dark side

I have a Gold Note DS-10 streamer/DAC with the Gold Note PSU 10 EVO power supply and they are a very musical and engaging digital front end with made in Italy build quality and aesthetics. I recently did extensive A-B comparisons at my local McIntosh dealer between my Gold Note streamer DAC and the new McIntosh DS-200 streaming DAC, through McIntosh amplification with McIntosh and Dynaudio speakers. Neither I nor my sales person could hear any audible difference in sound quality between the two.
 

I went ahead and opted to get a Macintosh DS 200 to match my other McIntosh components, and not because of any difference in SQ (to the contrary, with blind listening I could not hear a difference, and I have good hearing). If anyone is interested in the Gold Note streamer/DAC and PSU, in perfect condition with all boxes and papers, please reach out to me.

I researched analog vs digital for a long time. I like to research, buying is easy and quick. Research can take a long time.. Anyways, music depends on the source. A great song recorded badly, is no where as satisfying to listen to as a great song recorded really well.
There was a post I read by a recording engineer.  He had the luck to be paid by a major music company to make a specific themed music compilation. He had access to original master reel to reel tapes, original unplayed / unopened record albums and original digital recordings.

His conclusion was it did not matter what the media was, as long as it was recorded well. He had songs, where some sounded better on digital ( CD ) than on analog. In some cases, the same song sounded better on analog. In some cases the same song sounded better on reel to reel. The media did not matter, the way it was recorded was the main factor.

I can recommend a CD, Holly Cole, Don't Smoke in Bed.  1 track sounds so much better than the rest... The Tennessee Waltz... Whatever the recording engineer did, it was brilliant. All the proof I need. I have over 14,000 tracks recorded digitally, ripped from CD, lossless format.  Some sound amazing, some sound blah..  

@jpan 

"You went to the dark side?"  Funny, after over 45 years of 8-track, vinyl, cassette, reel-to-reel, and CD/SACD/DVD-Audio, about 4 years ago, I considered transitioning to streaming exclusively, at an extremely high level, as going to the "Bright" side Lol!!   As you continue to upgrade your digital streaming rig, you’ll discover just how brilliant streaming can sound, too.  Happy listening.    

The dark side has many advantages. Not least of which is that Roon can integrate Quobuz and Tidal with ripped CDs, downloads, etc. on local storage. Having so much music readily available is a boon, yet it can be overwhelming at times. 

This constant haraunging and hand wringing over which format one favors is bizarre but fits into the "human nature" narrative that everything has to be binary. If you like dogs, you have to dislike cats. Beatles/Stones, Pepsi/Coke, Packers/Bears, Alien/Predator, Ford/Chevy, blue/red ad astra ad infinitum. It's a very limiting, arbirtrary way to view the world - make this the year you break free from these self imposed rules and embrace whatever format you like without feeling as though you have to defend that decision without denigrating "the other side". Remember when you were a wee tot and your brain would do flip flops when a song you loved came on, regardless of the source? Try to return to that joy, it's very liberating. There is no "dark side" of the hobby really, matter of fact it's all great!