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

@kennyc 

It kind of took me up. I’ve never been good at drawing and so in high school thought I could not be a visual artist. I took an art class at Berkeley just for fun. I was an English major. I had a lot of trouble with the drawing part. I was drawing a nude modell, frustratingly pushing down hard on the charcoal. My teacher came up behind me and said, "Loosen up." That made me all the more tight. She started throwing coffee on my drawing and it made me so angry that I just started wildly swinging around my charcoal. And the model magically appeared. Out of my right brain where we see images. Our left brain awkwardly tries to measure and use symbolic strategies. The right brain just sees things.

Beginners in poetry try to tell people things, like philosophers. It’s when you learn to paint a picture in images without any philosophical (left brain is logic) underpinnings that the right brain’s brilliance comes out.

I am sure it is the same in music. Mozart, probably the most prolific artist year for year of output (Haydn is up there) was probably just able to let his right brain flow and bounce back and forth with his left brain. A very difficult thing to do, but artists must learn. I write a poem or paint a picture trying to stay in my unconscious and then later mold it with my conscious mind. It’s a very difficult balance. And why great artists are owed our admiration.

I do envy you for being in a band. I bet the other players help to generate your creativity.

@audio-b-dog you can listen to it initially. Shouldn’t be terrible. But keep it running 24/7 with some Qobuz playlist

@audphile1 

Sounds like a plan. I can mute the speakers while running it and it will still be burning in, right?

In regards to your Boulder versus Pass, I think it's good that I don't have a Pass amp. I thought about it, but I really love this amp and have never heard anything quite like it. The SF speakers were demoed on Macintosh tube gear, and Macintosh is smooth stuff, but not nearly as resolving as the Hovland Radia. There are so many variations in putting together a stereo. 

@audio-b-dog what I like to do when I break in a new DAC or streamer is put a playlist with different bit rates on repeat. Let it play redbook and high res. 
Amp and preamp don’t need to be on. Just DAC streaming. 

@acrespo 

What is the $300 software package you use?

@parkergetdean @audphile1 

I agree that analogue is also evolving. I have a lower-upper tier turntable (VPI Prime Signature 21) and it sounds absolutely neutral. Theoretically, VPI favors the mid-range, but it seems natural to my ears. I have had turntables since the mid-90s, and yes I keep upgrading pricewise, but it has been worth it. I am now upgrading on digital, and I'll have to see.

Analogue seems to have more air than even great digital. But I'm receiving a Meitner MA3i which is supposed to be a great streamer, so I'll see if it compares to my turntable. I can't imagine myself selling my albums, though. I have floor-to-ceiling record racks on each side of my system, filled with 1,000 records. It would be psychologically hard to get rid of them. I like the tactile angle, also.