Putting aside mastering, I think well tuned digital surpasses analog above about $6k. Hi-rez is really exceptional, but even SoX upsampling from 16/44 is quite good now. Everything matters, and you have to pay a lot of attention to source PC, program, OS tuning, noise, power supplies, tweaks, etc but spinning disks are legacy tech now IMO. The bit about "good digital sounds like analog so why bother" is missing what's happening. As digital improves, it loses that harshness, glare and eventually becomes liquid and then tonally rich. So that trend is towards analog, but it retains all the benefits of digital too, low distortion, no surface noise, RIAA, wear, and physical limitations and resonances.
I’m very happy with a few years old Bel Canto stack RefLink, DAC3.5mk2, VBL, and looking forward to my next upgrade, probably the Black DAC-Pre with MQA and fed by an Ether-Regen. Agree with Jaytor, sold my TT and records in ’95 haven’t looked back, but it did take 20 years longer than I expected for digital to really excel. It’s still climbing faster in price/performance than analog too.
I’m very happy with a few years old Bel Canto stack RefLink, DAC3.5mk2, VBL, and looking forward to my next upgrade, probably the Black DAC-Pre with MQA and fed by an Ether-Regen. Agree with Jaytor, sold my TT and records in ’95 haven’t looked back, but it did take 20 years longer than I expected for digital to really excel. It’s still climbing faster in price/performance than analog too.