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

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. 

Dear @tzh21y @zalive : """ I have never heard drums, cymbals and overall air sound right on any digital system................................
........as it sounds in say an orchestra hall. """

of course not, you can’t hear it that way not only in digital but in LP neither:

first because you can’t have the live music exprerience in true/real way in any room/home system and second ( between other reasons. ) becdause in a Hall your seat position maybe it’s at 20+ meters from the instrument source where the recording microphones pick-up the same information " seated " at near field: 1m-3m.

Now if you listen cymbals or drums seated at nearfield position and at real SPL those cymbals/drums will crush severely your whole body not only your ears and you can’t stay listened in that stage for more than 5 minutes, maybe less time before you will deaf for the years to come.

Microphones can support SPLs in excess of 130+dbs continuously.

Our ears follow a " protocol ":

https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/how-ear-works#top

and all those is only through our ears but we have to remember that we listen through the whole human been body: hair, skin nervous ends, muscle, bones and the like. Body has a lot of resources to listen almost anything. So, both of you as amghister too needs to live the live nearfield experiences with real MUSIC at real SPLs.

Btw, @geoffkait :: """ Tape is a natural medium. It breathes. """

natural medium?, maybe only for you. Breathes? certainly digital shares that characteristics in excess.

So what’s your point down there?, as a fact I don’t care about your answer but I can tell you that casettes is not the issue in this thread. Btw, I still own the Nakamichi 700ZXL:

https://audio-database.com/NAKAMICHI/player/700zx-e.html

beautiful and great vintage machine.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

of course not, you can’t hear it that way not only in digital but in LP neither:

first because you can’t have the live music exprerience in true/real way in any room/home system and second ( between other reasons. ) becdause in a Hall your seat position maybe it’s at 20+ meters from the instrument source where the recording microphones pick-up the same information " seated " at near field: 1m-3m.

It's all correct what you say, but differences between live sound and production/mastering plus reproduction applies to all the frequency range. Yet many report it's least credible in a HF range. Obviously it's not all related to mikeing and production, there are specific additional problems related to production and reproduction of a HF range.