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


I have a good analogue front end. Not stratuspherically good but good enough for this comparison. VPI Prime Signature 21 turntable, Pass Labs XP-25 pono preamp, Pass Labs XP-30 preamp and Hovland Radia amp. It has a lovely, very involving sound. On the right recording, I just drop everythng and am drawn in to listen.

My streamer, on the other hand, is decent but not spectacular. It is better than my CD player, but it is not jaw-dropping like my analogue front-end. My question is this: does anyone have a high-end, tier-one streamer (dCS Bartok Apex, Lumin X2, or something like them) that can rival a good analogue system?

audio-b-dog

I was pure analog in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. I fought digital clinging onto reel to reel and Nakamichi cassette for years after. Never liked CD but always had one but loved the convenience. That changed when I got the Wadia 27. I now slightly prefer Cd over everything else. Even streaming. Best move I ever made.

I am listening to Cassandra Wilson's "Blue Light Till Dawn" on my Moon 280D. It is an excellently recordeed album, which I am thinking about purchasing on vinyl.
 

just got this recently and the recording and vinyl quality is excellent

https://store.bluenote.com/products/cassandra-wilson-blue-light-til-dawn-lp-blue-note-classic-vinyl-edition

 

@audio-b-dog If I had 1000's of albums I would have probably made a different choice.  I donated my rather modest vinyl collection to a local record store close to a decade ago.  Sounds like you have a significant amount of music that is likely not even available from streaming services.  I had the great fortune of being able to retire a little early but I am quickly getting into the "old man" category.  I will always agree, getting up to change an album and slowly dropping the tonearm remains a much more elegant aspect to this hobby than pressing the face of an iPad!  

My vote goes to Lumin.

I have the basic but nice D2, like at App, and while an upgrade is in the future, this little device is spectacular.

I purchased back when it was fairly new, and they have upped their game with a new platform.

A+

Edit - just realized I answered the opposite of the question the OP posted, but I am working towards a more engaging "analog" experience.

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I will say yes, but I may be cheating a little and any purist who reads what I am doing is likely to reach for their pitch fork.

My listening room is nearly a square which is very far from ideal.  So room treatment and correction are a real need. I do have around 2000 records which I continue to enjoy, but analog is limited in what you can do to address room constraints with digital always sounding better in my room thanks to digital’s enhanced tool box.

To solve for that, I feed my SMA Reference TT (with a denon dl-103) into a goldnote phono stage.  From there I use the XLR out to a raspberry PI based ADC which converts it to a 192kHz digital signal.

Roon sees that signal as a radio station (using a Roon extension which is quite nifty for convenience). 

Then I use HQ Player (which is another rabbit hole for OCD audiophiles who like to fiddle with settings) to do some massive upsampling before sending the signal to my Danville DSP nexus which I used to make my speakers active, add a little more room correction (focused on fixing bass drop outs from room modes), and DAC.

Then the DSP Nexus sends the analog signal through some very modest Topping PA5+ amps into my GR-Research NX Tremes and triple threat open baffle subs.

The results are quite impressive, and as a side effect, I am able to share a link with my friends to listen in on a high quality stream when I am playing vinyl.

I also have a more analog signal chain using the RCA out from the phono stage which goes straight to the analog in on the DSP Nexus.  Since I converted to active speakers, I can never totally remove digital processing from the signal chain, but the improvement over traditional speaker crossovers, which are so dependent on the quality of materials used, is undeniable.

Anyway, it is incredibly engaging, and some pressings I find superior and more engaging than the streamed digital versions.  I am hoping that list expands with a cartridge upgrade.

I may change my mind when I move my listening room to a more sonicaly friendly addition I am building.  But this solution has served me well.

One other side effect is that all the processing of the signal adds a bit of delay, so when I lift the needle off the record, the music still plays for around 10 seconds which is a really wierd thing that took time to get used to. 😅