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

I am not anywhere close to that, and my radar is not even picking that up as a faint blip in the distance. 

When I upgrade my cartridge, I will likely seriously reconsider my analog signal chain and bring those B&Ws back online.  The addition I am building will help considerably with the room accoustics as I designed it with the golden ratio in mind.

This hobby never ceases to give.  😄

I have the EMM Labs DA2i and the TXi CD transport. Fabulous DAC. As close to analogue as I have heard. The TXi extracts more from a CD than anything I have heard. Of course it is a transport only and must go through the DA2i for processing. The pair are formidable for a digital front end. 

To jaulbrich's point once you spend above a certain amount personal preference will be the driving factor for what is "Best".

@audioman58 

I don't quite understand why all that expensive electrical stuff is necessary. I do have a Shunyata Venom 16 to clean up power, but it is my understanding that digital audio is delivered in packets. Each packet is double checked. The DAC says here is what I received and the sender will send another packet if the DAC received an error. Jitter, as I understand it, is a matter of timing, and that accuracy depends upon the DAC's clocking. So, I'm not sure what all this extra electrical expense is for.

audio-b-dog 

... it is my understanding that digital audio is delivered in packets. Each packet is double checked. The DAC says here is what I received and the sender will send another packet if the DAC received an error ...

That's true if you're talking about TCP/IP streaming, such as Qobuz. But digital audio such as CD does not rely on packets.

A consistent authority on sound is someone who can consistently nail different attributes in a blind comparison.

It's not just high frequencies with age, a lot of detail/resolution comes that at a band much below and older ears just don't hear it. There are also genetic differences, some people just hear better than others. 

I was in a room with the late Ken Ishiwata (Rotel's former soundmaster) when he could consistently nail even changes in different hires sample rates, which was impossible for a couple of us in the room to do..He must have been early 60s at that time. That's a unique kinda guy...Yamaha, TAD, Technics, etc have soundmasters who have such capabilities. It's their livelihood, they are of a different caliber, built/forged a certain way.

Fremer, Guttenberg, etc are not the caliber of guys who fall in such a category..

There are others, some professionals who are tied into the mastering process, etc...there's a woman i know, quite unbelievable....There are instrument enthusiasts, etc that i've known who may fall in a similar category as well.

I am in my mid 50s. I don't presume to be the same as above mentioned  folks on different attributes they can distinguish. But, i spent 45+ years with a couple of instruments. If anything is off on their sound, it is as obvious as night and day to me. For example, i have 4 violins. 2 of them sound might sound the same to a non-violin player. The difference is night and day to me..it's one thing i know....You give me another instrument, let's say a sax. I have a very friend who's an amazing sax player. You ask me something about his instrument, something doesn't sound right on his instrument or not? I am 0% expert there...can't ask me that..It's ok to admit when you're not an expert of something...that someone else is an expert on...

Other conditiions exist as well... Ever hear of synesthesia? It's technically a health condition, but, i hear/experience sound very differently than some others because of it. Things they may not hear i can hear it and its not entirely auditory either, its something else.

But, there are very simplistic statements made by these measurement type of guys that everyone hears or not within the same threshold based on some very coarse auditory test...it's a bit foolish to be in the latter camp.

@newton_john  wrote

You are repeating a prejudice about ageing. We all lose our ability to hear high frequencies with age. This does not affect our appreciation of  music per se because that is dependent on our ability to distinguish tiny timing differences between harmonics. Our ability to hear these timing differences does not necessarily deteriorate with age to the same extent as with high frequencies. You are slandering Michael Fremer along with all older people.