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

@goose @audphile1 

I have compared a well-recorded CD played through my Meitner MA3 DAC to a well-recorded streamed recording through the Meitner. The streamed recording sounds more fleshed out, the individual notes are more resonant. The CD is thinner, but its transcient attacks sound better defined. Is that because the music sounds thinner? I don't know. I think, though, that some recordings I would rather play streamed and others on CD. One example of what I consider a well-recorded album is Cassandra Wilson's "Blue Light 'Till Dawn." I have it on vinyl also, and that is the best of all worlds. The sound is fleshed out as well as the attacks. I don't think I'll ever have enough money to purchase a streamer that sounds better than my analogue front end.

@audio-b-dog I have that CD, it is also ripped to SSD, and I got the blue note vinyl mastered by Kevin Gray. I only have my buddy’s old Audio Research player now that I used as both player and transport. The player is leaving my system soon. I have listened to this album and yeah the CD sounds cleaner but slightly leaner. Vinyl sounds warm and full bodied. Streaming is somewhere in between. 
This is actually a perfect example of what I was talking about - completely different master/source material. My original CD bought when the album was released, the Kevin Gray analog mastering to vinyl, and who the heck knows version that’s on streaming. We’re not exactly comparing apples to apples and we’re not even comparing formats in this case. But rather both the format and the master. 
My favorite is vinyl in this case. But even then there are variables - the associated equipment. I heard this recording on 3 different phono stage and I actually preferred streaming and CD to one of them. This was in my system. 
That’s what makes this fun and mind boggling all at the same time. 

@audphile1 

What I can say aobut "Blue Light 'Till Dawn" is that it is among the best-sounding recordings that I've heard streamed. I think it streams at 24/96 which also makes a difference. I can tell when something is streaming at 16/44. It's a flatter sound.

My analogue front end is very transparent. Before I purchased the Pass Labs XP-25 and XP-30, I played analogue through an ARC PH-7 (the first ARC phono stage to use trickle-down technology from the Reference series) and an ARC Ref. 3 preamp. They had a slightly more "musical" sound than the Pass Labs which are more "transparent." I would say extremely transparent unless you get up into the uber-expensive stuff. Anyway, I have other good equipment to compare to what I'm now using. 

I believe that the streaming version of "Blue Light" is a very high-end recording because it sounds so good. The CD also sounds very good. Better than almost all my other CDs. I think we're as close to apples to apples as we can get on this conmparison. BTW, I use a McCormack UDP-1 as a transport. It used premier parts 25 years ago, and although those parts are a generation old, I think they still put out a solid 16/44 signal. Especially since I purchased the more expensive coax cable.

Interesting to compare these things. Everybody I know would think I'm crazy if I told them I spend time and energy on such comparisons, but I do have various interests to keep me awake.

@audio-b-dog I’m very familiar with ARC and Pass. I’ve owned LS15, LS16, LS25 and Ref1 as well as CD3Mk2 cd player. I had Ref3 in my system for a few weeks driving Pass X260.8 mono amps and compared it with my then XP-22 preamp I owned at the time. I owned Pass X250.5, XA30.8 and X260.8. Also owned XP12. But never had the pleasure of owning Pass or ARC phono stages. I know exactly what you’re talking about though.

I have simplified my system since and no longer own separates. I wanted different sound from what I’ve lived with for years, and less clutter. 
I run Boulder 866 integrated (analog version without the built in DAC) amp with Meitner DAC and Whest phono stage. A very accurate and transparent setup. 

I only compare analog to digital when I want to know which format sounds best with a specific album. And at that point I move on. 


 

@audphile1 

Yeah, I'll stop playing around so much when I have tested out this streamer.