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

Hi, 

I use a Meitner Ma3i and I would be willing to put it against any analog setup.

the detail, air, and soundstage mixed with a medium that has no dust, scratch, or warping to contend with has me hardly ever using my analog set up which cost over double the Meitner cost. Even using a cd transport running into the Meitner sounds better.

@hysteve @falieee 

Interesting that you mention Aja and the Meitner MA3i. I just played Aja through my MA3i and on my VPI Prime Signature 21 with a Pass Labs XP-25 phono stage. Bottom-line I could have happily listened to the digital version through the Meitner, but I know that album pretty well and it sounded a bit washed out to me streaming. The transcient attacks were too smooth, etc. I played the vinyl album and I could hear that it sounded more "present." So, in that case, I would obviously choose the album. 

Another example is Cat Stevens "Foreigner Suite." It is only recorded at CD quality in digital and obviously my album sounds a lot better.

I don't really care about vinyl vs. digital. I am using the Meitner to discover new material, much of which isn't on vinyl. It was recorded digitally and lives in the digital domain. I just discovered Javon Jackson. His album "Jazz in the New Harmonic" sounds as good as vinyl to my ear. And what would be the point of putting a digital recording on vinyl, although it's happening a lot.

So, I have quit comparing. If I have a decent vinyl record, I will play that, but AAA vinyl pretty much ended after the early 80s and there is a lot of good music recorded after that. And the Meitner MA3i captures it beautifully. 

@audphile1 

I have had a few more drop offs and I realized that they happen when the air conditioner comes on or the garbage disposal is turned on. So I bought a battery backup to plug my fiber hub into. I am guessing when something is drawing enough electricity to make my lights dim, then the fiber hub is taking a hit too. I had a discussion with chatgpt, and settled on a $100 fix. To be tested. 

@audio-b-dog hmm not sure it’s the network that drops off when your AC or garbage disposal hits. 
I would highly recommend running a dedicated line to your system. It could be the appliances are impacting the power delivery to components. 
It shouldn’t cost too much to run even two dedicated lines, one for analog and one for digital. You will hear an improvement in sound quality as well. 

@audphile1 

I do have a dedicated line running to my stereo. When we remodeled the house I made sure that one was put in. Everything important is plugged into a Shunyata Venom 16 power conditioner which has plugs for digital, so the digital equipment is separated from the other equipment.

I think it's worth $100 to give it a try. In layman's terms, it seems as though the handshake between the iPad and Meitner is momentarily failing. I'll put the battery backup, which is made for backing up routers and computer equipment, in tomorrow. The drop-offs have become very rare, but I did notice that two times they happened when something drew on the power. I no longer have drop-offs in the cuts you and I talked about earlier. So, something has definitely been fixed with the Eero mesh system. 

The reason why I don’t think it’s the network but rather the system components is because Meitner buffers the incoming data stream. It’s good for around a minute or so. You can try it - when music is playing in the middle of the song just pull the Ethernet cable out. It will continue without a hiccup for at least 45sec to a minute. 
What you described sounds like a momentary voltage drop that cuts power to most likely your preamp or DAC, or may be even the amp. 
So again, even if you unplug your network or pull Ethernet cable out, the music will continue playing.