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

@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. 

My streaming rig with a Bluesound 2i and a Schiit Bifrost 2/64 sounds great with a Freya (original version) preamp (NOS GE tubes) getting things to the amps (Dennis Had Firebottle SEP or a Pass XA-25). I don't listen to any modern pop music so it's generally jazz for me, and most of that sounds amazingly good. My vinyl rig also sounds great but is used less often because I'm lazy...I have a new vinyl of John Scofield with Dave Holland that I can recommend as a system reference test of sorts as it's a very "real" sounding recording. The "analog vs. digital" issues seem like a waste of time as they can both be extremely satisfying unless you have a serious flaw someplace...like in your brain.

@wolf_garcia 

Brain flaws... hmmm. You do know, don't you, that audiophelianervosa is a disease that has no cure.