How much do you need to spend to get digital to rival analog?

Most music in the last several decades was recorded with DSD ADCs, then converted to PCM for mixing and mastering. Conversion from DSD(Delta-Sigma) to PCM and back is a mathematical process and if done with enough mathematical precision introduces no noise, losses, or distortion within the limits of useful audio, i.e. will be  bit perfect to 24 bits.

DSD is a different story since DSS native conversion is different than PCM and basically it's again more straightforward than delta-sigma PCM conversion. So DA converters with direct DSD DA conversion path (no conversion to PCM prior to DA) can benefit in sound since DSD conversion doesn't require output filter at all, so no ringing as well. However typical cheap DAC converts DSD to PCM, then processes DA as with ony other PCM signal.

Well one thing we can be 100% sure of is that GK will at some point make a post that is totally irrelevant to the topic at hand.

geoffkait18,240 posts11-14-2019 11:05amI’ve said this before, gentle readers, but I’ll say it again. By the time the signal gets out of the transport and goes to the DAC it’s TOO LATE. The damage has already been done! And it can never recover. Sadly, the Reed Solomon Error Correction Codes are NOT TOO GOOD for scattered CD laser light 💡 interference, seismic vibration interference, vibration produced by the CD transport and the self-inflicted vibration and flutter of the CD itself whilst spinning. 💿

And this I agree of wholeheartedly. It is the same with the ridiculous turntable/digital debate. Some people prefer what comes out of turntables, some prefer what comes out of DACs, and some prefer what comes out of NOS DACs, and whether what comes out is accurately portrayed or not for that listener matters exactly 0. There is no debate over whether these 3 things sound different. They do.  It is much different from the debate about whether a tweak does anything at all.

mahgister755 posts11-14-2019 11:13amBut for my pleasure all that is of no avail because I enjoy tremendously my "illusion"... My best to you ...

Geoffkait, My old Nakamichi Dragon is in a box buried under a lot of other boxes up in the storage room right where it belongs. To compare cassettes to Hi Res digital is like comparing moonshine to Remy Martin XO. 
Zalive, if you do not like the symbals on digital recordings just focus on the bass.
Mahgistar, exactly. So my solution to the problem is just have them both then you can decide for yourself. In my experience...it depends. 

If I were you I’d dig the Nakamichi out of the closet and find out what you’ve been missing. Tape is a natural medium. It breathes.