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

@audphile1 

Thanks. I’m interested to find out what it’s sounding like for you.

This is a game changer for me. I just got a stack of new vinyl because it was my birthday, but I’m more keen to explore all my old CD rips because they’re sounding like they never have before. They sound more like vinyl than vinyl, if that makes sense.

I’ve put a lot of effort into tweaking digital over the past few months. I’ve been getting gradual improvements, but last night and today has been something else altogether - the icing on the cake.

That and Sunderland getting into Europe has made this one special week.

@newton_john streaming’s been great since roon deployed that major update. 
My analog setup was down for couple of weeks and I was listening to roon playiqobuz and tidal. 
What I’m hearing is a more realistic sound that’s not restricted. It’s dynamic, resolving and natural.

I’m suspecting that in addition to Roon updates the Qobuz migration had something to do with this improvement as well. .It’s definitely more enjoyable. 
Bad news is, at any time a new update can undo all of these improvements. It’s not very consistent. That’s why it’s good to have a nice analog set up!

@audphile1 

I now have both Mcontrol and Jplay working. Roon will take more work. With the other two I had to find the list of other network devices and click on Meitner MA3. I can't find a list at all on Roon. It wants me to give it an IP address or technical name. I'll check more deeply into it and I'm sure I'll get it done.

Streaming on my rig is "involving" and I like searching out new music. It does not, however, sound as "good" as analogue. To try to boil it down, at their best, analogue sounds more present. More like the instruments are in the room. I have a really decent analogue front end.

I do remember past analogue systems with a Rega 3 (mid-80's model) and a phono preamp I paid a few hundred dollars for used. I think I used a Sumiko Bluepoint Special cartridge. It was fun and I liked it, but it did not reach out into the room. A big part of the reason is my Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V speakers. They are not the old romantic Sonus Fabers with the tipped down treble. These are extremely transparent. Bad recordings sound bad and good ones make it all worth it.

@audio-b-dog Roon architecture is different than jplay or mconnect. It consists of 2 components - roon core that’s an application that runs on your pc or mac and that is your Roon Core. The iPhone and iPad apps are just Roon remotes. You can also run Roon Core on their own Roon Nucleus machine. 
Downloading and installing roon app on your phone or iPad with running roon core won’t work. 

Roon is great especially if you have local music library on hard drive. If you only stream qobuz or tidal, use jplay. 
 

As to sound quality…it will most likely boil down to master. If you have a better version on LP, it will beat streaming. 

Try the Cassandra Wilson high res on qobuz and compare to LP. 

My CD system sounds better than my analog system.  The points to consider with analog are.  Is it a new (digital) or analog record pressing.  The variables of analog are the turntable, arm, cartridge, set up, and phono stage.  Then you have the noise and limited dynamic range. I believe an excellent analog set up will be more expensive than digital.  In digital I'm only talking about Cd or SACD, not streaming.  I have an Esoteric K-01XD se player.  With the correct media, i.e. good to excellent Cd's the sound is wonderful.  Most analog is from ProTools digital masters.  The native format of digital (Cd) sounds better.  If the source is an analog master tape you could claim it sounds but those are being transfered to digital for production.  The masteing or potential re-mixing contributes greatly to the final product.  I'm not going back to analog with the great digital that is out there.