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

@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

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

the 866 is very transparent. I’d say it’s neutral with extremely low noise floor. It will give you a very good idea of what upstream components and cables are doing. 
With my digital and analog setups it sounds natural and provides a fatigue-free listening experience for hours on end. I was hoping that it would compete extremely well with the Pass separates that it replaced but the 866 is more articulate and engaging to listen to. Overall I like it more than the Pass gear I replaced with it. Coming up on two years in July.

Today, I completed the transition of my NUC music server from Roon Optimised Core Kit, ROCK to DBpoweramp Asset UPnP with a stripped down Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC. I haven’t completely written off Roon as I’ve still got to compare it to Asset on the Windows NUC.

This has been the last leg in my improve the sound of streaming project over the past few months. All that’s left to do is convert a number of albums of DSF files to FLAC and generally tidy up the tagging. So tonight I’ve sat down and listened to the final results of my efforts. It’s only been local files ripped from CDs and not Qobuz so far.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I’m delighted with the sound. My phono stage is out action at present so I can’t make a definitive comparison with vinyl. However, it is certainly involving like vinyl. Are there even degrees of involvement? I’d argue that it’s either involving or it isn’t.

@newton_john 

Interesting question "are there degrees of involvement?" I might say that there are types of involvement. Earlier I streamed Horowitz playing Rachmoninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto with Fritz Reiner conducting. The sound was from an old record, compressed, but Horowitz's playing was so unusual, as if he were tripping to find the notes. As if he could hardly remember the piece. Yet he was explosive and I was totally involved. So, that's one type. Another could be when the sound of the recording is beautiful.