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

@charles007100 unfortunately, or fortunately, Boulder 866 is all I got. It’s very transparent. I’m sure if I had a Boulder 1163 stereo amp and ran Meitner direct into it, my jaw would drop to where the hobbits live. But alas, I don’t yet have the means to run that level of amplification :)

@audphile1 If you run into a sweet deal on a Pass Labs amp grab it, nothing wrong with having a spare…

I found cracking the Meitner volume to 100 vs without a preamp and you are down around 16 to 25 on the volume is a total different ball game…smooth, the details in the music especially if you have bright sounding speakers with the wrong gear…with my Volti Lucera speakers a hybrid horn…the Meitner doing the everything is night and day better then with the Pass Preamp..of course with the preamp I could lower the volume from 100 on the Meitner, that was flat sounding and boring…had me scratching my head, Humm then I remembered what someone told me, all you need is the right dac with a great volume control, amp, speakers..if you try it say bye bye to vinyl….

@charles007100 

Ten years ago I would be experimenting with the Meitner directly into my amp, even though it would only be an academic excercise because I need my preamp for my analogue front end. I have in the past, however, experimented with the "straight wire" theory by trying out very good passive preamps, which is what Meitner is essentially offering. I never liked the sound much. A good preamp does more than switch from one audio front end to another and turn the volume up and down. In my mind, the preamp is the most important piece of equipment in the audio chain. I have owned many good preamps. My ear is attuned to their sounds. So, not only would the experiment be academic, I would approach it skeptically. Although one might argue that preamps only distort sound, I happen to like the way they do it. All that being said, I would kill my back doing that experiment, and since I know I won't go without a preamp even if the Meitner's preamp sounded better, I will preserve my back for now.

@audphile1 

I am 73 and I hear you about amps and backs, one great thing about my speakers and at 99 efficient don’t need many watts in an amp.  So the Pass Labs XA-25, works great not too heavy. And now nothing is changing unless broke down. 

@charles007100 my strategy in buying vinyl records is to stick to pure analog releases mastered by some of the best engineers (I deviate from time to time but the exceptions are high quality vinyl releases by MoFi, etc, or for something I’m very curious to hear and compare). These AAA masters are drastically different from what is available on streaming, and almost always better sounding. So there’s place for both vinyl and streaming and streaming in my system, for me.