Would you still pay $10k or more for a turntable not full analog front end these days ?

@soix 

At the moment I’m running a 30 yo Thorens with Goldring 2300 cart and Herron phono.  My Aurender n200 through an Audio Mirror 4se does not make music as well but is more accurate at reproducing sounds than my vinyl is.
Ghprentice has spent much money climbing the ladder to a $23k streamer and says it matches his mystery analog system, set up by who, we don’t know.  Has he spent as much time and money exploring the best analog has to give, we don’t know.  He may be right, he may not, we don’t know.  We do know he was not saying his digital equalled vinyl with a $10k streamer.

It appears that more and more audiophiles switch almost fully to digital, and I don't think that's progress, regardless of how good digital may sound. There are older analog recordings and new ones can be made too, so turntable should never become obsolete, along with tape deck. Personally, I'll spend real money, real for me, only on analog. Besides, I believe that digital can in fact be more expensive to make it sound good and you have to constantly upgrade it.

So, yes, I would spend $10k on a turntable if I had them and felt the need. Probably more than $10k.

@wlutke

No mystery here. My systems are shown under my UserID. My analog end is a contemporary near Klimax Linn LP12, with a Ekos SE tone arm, Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge set up by an advanced certified Linn technician in my home. It sits on top of a Silent Running Audio Ohio +++ Class isolation platform designed specifically for my turntable. I use an Audio Research Reference 3SE phonostage… instead of a Klimax phonostage because it sounds better.

@soix - thank you, I know how computers and technology works fully and completely. They are all identical Linux boxes, just fancy cases and screens.

If you think there are some sort of "bit errors" or "jitter" on the Net, think why is that Word document opens perfectly after travelling half of a globe over 100s or switches, fiber, electric, radio, satellite transmission and so on, converted to analog and back 100s of times.

Please spare me lectures on network stacks, OK? The transmission is designed to be reliable even in nuclear war.