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

I’m thoroughly enjoying my Wilson Sabrina speakers. Not analytical at all. 
I think the older Wilsons with the Focal inverted metal dome tweeter could sound bright depending on the room acoustics and associated equipment. My Sabrinas have a silk dome tweeter. The sound is very natural and realistic. All depends on the setup and obviously personal preference. But I’m not a fan of analytical presentation or overly detailed artificial sound. My setup sounds great. I would even say it leans slightly warm. There are challenges with Wilson speakers yes…but when dialed in they are great. 

@audphile1 

Remind me of the electronics you use in front of the Wilsons. When I heard them demoed I was almost twenty-feet away from them. We used an ARC REF. 2 Mk.2 preamp and the Hovland Radia amp. That should have softened the Wilsons quite a bit, but to me they had a kind of British sound. Exacting but lacking color. I have the same problem with Vandersteins. It's like I can appreciate their technical abilities, but I can't fall in love with them. 

@audio-b-dog boulder 866 integrated. Previously had pass x30.8 and x260.8 with xp-22. And you know the dac. Table is VPI Prime X running Hana Umami Blue cartridge into Whest 30 RDT SE phono. 
 

I owned Dynaudio before and absolutely did not enjoy them. Prior to Dyns I owned B&W N803 with pass X250.5 and ARC LS25 and Ref 1. Loved B&Ws but they took a while to get right with electronics and room. 

Any of the modern high end speakers can hunt you down and hurt you in an untreated room, badly placed and with crappy electronics. 

I’m familiar with SF Olimpica Nova. Easy to make them sound bright. But with the right electronics and room they sound great. 
 

@audphile1 

I’m sure my room is problematic with windows along the side of the left speaker and a large openening about 12’ on the side of the right speaker. Still the speakers can sound great with the right music. Not much I can do about the room, though. I am trying to get over my audiophilia-nervosa and relax and enjoy what I have. Just about everyone could make their system sound better. 

I think I may have told you this story, but the most I ever enjoyed a stereo was when my father bought me a Sears Silvertone $100 suitcase stereo which I took to college. I never gave a thought to whether it could sound better. I remember standing on my bed naked conducting Bernstein’s version of the Firebird Suite. 

I published a letter in Stereophile in the mid-nineties talking about a group of young people in their twenties in 1890 sitting on the grass having a picnic. A friend joins them with a wind-up record player. I posed the question about whether that first hearing of music outside a concert hall, away from musicians, would be more suprising and enjoyable than we experience with our expensive rigs.

BTW, how would you characterize the sound of your Boulder?

Hi @audio-b-dog,

As audiophiles, we live trying to understand the complexities of the laws of physics on our audio systems, but in the end, what matters is getting closer to our audiophile goals. 

Without getting into too much technobabble, all cables including LAN cables, act as antennas, are subject to many sources of noise RFI, EMI, static, dielectrics, connectors, noisy grounds, switching power supplies, etc, etc. The problem is complex to say the least. 

I have used very expensive streamers, cables, etc. But now thanks to other forums, and more experienced audiophiles, I use a very inexpensive solution for the network and my streamer costs less than $100 USD. The power supply that powers the streamer is $800 USD, but the sound is sublime. 

Here is the article with the details and it has all the references if you decide to research it more. 

The NanoPi Streamer — A $50 Endpoint That Competes with the Best