Does anyone have a digital system that is as involving as their analogue front end?

@audio-b-dog You and me both brother!!! Fortunately, I have a few audiophile buddies that my wife likes so at least my madness is supported!!  All she can do is roll her eyes because my hobby allowance is sacred and indisputable!!!

a)  A well executed digital rig is its own flavor to be enjoyed as such.

b) A well executed analog rig is its own flavor to be enjoyed as such.

c) It’s the turntable sales guys’ marketing ploy to claim the holygrail of digital is for it sound analog. That’s nonsense! 

d) I have vinyl records that sound more digital than some of my sacds.

e) I have sacds and hires digital studio masters that sound more analog than some vinyl records.

f) Here’s a real problem for the turntable sales guys, however. A disruptive guy called Mark Levinson came up with a software called DanielHertz Master Class that processes any digital file and makes it sound like analog master tape.

g) When you have the sound of master tape from your hires official studio master, you’ll be throwing all the vinyl records and redbook cds in the trash.

h) A 800 dollar dac decoding master class processed files for analog master tape sound = A mediocre horse pulling a carriage

i) A Mola Mola dac decoding master class processed files for analog master tape sound = A fine stallion pulling a carriage

j) A 200k suspect dac claiming it reached the holy grail of analog sound on its own  =  A cat draped in jewelry fed with muscle milk trying to pull a carriage.    (it is still a li’l cat, the wrong creature deployed to pull a carriage)

k) Use the right tools for the right job.

p.s.

(Fremer is 80 years old....... a.k.a age associated hearing degradation coupled with decades of severe psychological bias. Fremer tasked with a/b comparisons in a blindfold will sink quicker than a rock in the pacific and become fully irrelevant.)

@audio-b-dog  wrote

I think the analogue/digital issue is partly subjective. As I said in my last post, I have audiophile friends who simply do not hear what I do regarding analogue. Digital can have a kind of precision that a lot of analogue rigs can’t match. What I have never heard from digital, however, is the "air" I hear in analogue. I think some people either can’t hear it or it just doesn’t matter to them. I would be very curious to hear the 1/4 million dollar dCS rig. Again, I will repeat that Michael Fraemer said it was "almost" as good as analogue. But one might argue that he is quite biased. I am committed to continue to experiment within the confines of my budget which is tied to my wife’s sanity. She and all of my friends just cannot understand the thousands of dollars I spend for an upgrade they cannot hear. And even if they could hear it, they still wouldn’t understand.

@deep_333 

I am very interested in Mark Levinson’s software that makes digital sound analogue. Could you suggest some recordings for me that have gone through the Levinson process? Thanks.

So now I gotta buy a Mac and run all my music through it??? 

@audio-b-dog 

When you get the Meitner MA3 and doing listening tests be sure and hook the Meitner directly to your amp bypass the preamp and give it a couple days and you might be pleasantly surprised. I am a Pass Labs fan, I had the Pass Labs preamp, went back and forth in the end the Meitner MA3i is hooked directly to the Pass XA-25  amp or when I want a different sound directly to the First Watt Sit-4, the preamp is sold, and you won’t see any vinyl or CDs in my listening space…no need for all that…now it’s the Meitner MA3i dac, Pass or First Watt amp to the Volti Lucera speakers..no need for all those cables, gear…a glorious simple sound..and access to all the music in the world with my iPad…

I am old too, 73 lol