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

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.

Yes I believe a streamer can be as immersive as a vinyl set-up, although the vinyl set-up might sound warmer. My streamer is the Eversolo T8 (transport) connected via USB to my Hegel H390 integrated amp using Audioquest Cinnamon cables with Ethernet direct connection using Cat8 cable. It’s like an excellent CD player on steriods.

@deep_333 

The point I would make is that it really doesn't matter what anyone else hears. What is important in this discussion is what each of us hear. I am familiar with synesthesia, and have done a lot of reading about it. Vladimir Nabokov had synesthsia. Once I found that out, it explained a lot about his writing.

I know my hearing is declining. I have a hearing aid in one ear. Luckily, the other one remains analogue. Whether my hearing is not great or fantastic like those soundmasters you mentioned, when I buy stereo equipment it is to please me. And I certainly don't want to start comparing myself to people who have better hearing, I might start buying stereo equipment whose benefits escape me.

So, you're quite a bit younger than I am, and you're doing a lot of comparing. My basic advice, from my older perspective, is that people should buy what they can afford and what sounds better to them. There is a lot of advice about things most of us never could afford, like tens of thousands of dollars in electrical equipment. I think on forums like this one people should try to help one another but remember that all of us have budgets and our own preferences in terms of how we want our stereo to sound. I would for sure keep a soundmaster out of my listening room because he might tell me about all these expensive things I can't afford and I might become disallusioned with my stereo. I buy equipment to make me feel better, not inferior to someone else.

LP’s!