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

@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.       

@audphile1 

Cassandra Wilson's "Blue Light 'Till Dawn" sounds fantastic streaming on the Meitner MA3. It also sounds fantastic on CD playing through the Meitner MA3's DAC. I would have to listen very hard to pick out the differences with the album, although there are some. With your upgrade, it may be equal.

@goose 

After 1980 the music industry turned to digital. Most albums were recorded digitally and from a digital master pressed onto vinyl. Not all, though, I have a few exceptions from the early 80's. I go on adventures looking for good vinyl. It kind of takes a love of the hunt. I have a newer copy of "Graceland" that I'm pretty sure was pressed from an analogue tape. It sounds great. "Rhythm of the Saints," however, sounds terrible. i had to go looking for a well-pressed copy. I talk to Chatgpt a lot about recordings, often giving it record numbers. It helps steer me down the right path. But then there is always finding a truly mint- copy.

If you want to hear a really terribly pressed album, listen to Springsteen's "Born to Run." I listened to it through a new phono preamp and was sure something was wrong with my new piece of equipment. Earlier Springsteen stuff sounds good. "Born to Run" was just at the point where digital took over, plus it was pressed hot to be played on car radios not our mega-buck rigs. And now there are purist engineers and recording labels going back to analogue tapes to press AAA vinyl.