Elizabeth said: "Well MY digital is great, and so is my analog."
Voice of reason.
Some of my digital -- even redbook, is glorious. Much of it is terrible. Some of my albums are glorious, some are terrible. HUGE POINT HERE - often its the SAME recording that is glorious in both formats. Case in point: "Ella and Louis", Verve recorded with two mics onto a Studer A-77 in like 1961. Recordings matter. Mixing matters. remixing and digital masterings matter. Format, to me, is less important if all the above are done correctly. Sadly, they are not, and early digital recording, mastering and pre-eq was just terrible. No mystery why those sounded as they did.
KEY POINT #2: both formats are capable of excellent sound. Perfect? Of course not. Neither are LPs.
Now, back to the OP’s question - which was basically around the incremental value from $1500 to $15,000. This is a subjective matter, and a slippery slope. Just as racers inevitably wind up with dedicated race cars, trailer, trucks, etc., so many audiophiles wind up with crazy-costly systems. I only hope they are well chosen and enjoyed. but its likely not necessary - I’ve heard very good sound from iTunes, Bitperfect and a Schiit BiFrost Multi-bit.
Above i noted where some differences can certainly exist. I’m currently evaluating how to hit the 80/20 rule on many of them. My personal opinion is that the biggest differences today, especially for the dollar spent, come from speakers and sources, both analog and digital. You can get really, really good electronics for more modest spend (note: i design and [hope to again] sell electronics, I’m stabbing myself in the back). Note that "modest" might range form $1000 - $6 or 7k, and some speakers are very challenging loads, while others can be driven by an NAD 3020 (like Vandy 2s). While cables no doubt impact sound i find the benefit/$$ ratio wildly bad - better spend that money on speakers or DACS (or a great TT/arm/cart). Oh, that’s still a tough area of electronics - RIAA stages for low output cartridges...
