The system the OP is referring to was an all analog tube based system except for the digital crossovers. It was comprised of all REF Audio Research tube electronics, analog only front end and Apollo 12 active speakers. All crossover filters were digital. The processor we use has room correction capability which we used. The room correction (RC) should be called "signal correction for room compensation" or something similar. I have no doubt that part of what impressed the OP was due to the use of RC. The processor has powerful bass management tools. The rest of what impressed the OP was likely the very articulate and dynamic nature of the system. Our speakers are designed to work with DSP.
For some people signal processing seems to be an evil proposition. Maybe it is but from the first step of recording sound to playback through speakers there are dozens if not hundreds of processes that take place. Many analog and now many digital. I doubt anyone can say with complete certainty which form preserves music waveforms most accurately across the board. BTW, I listen to about 80% vinyl LPs.
"digitize the crap out of it" What does that mean? Once digital it's digital. There's no crap added, not by us anyway.
Not all DSP is equal. Learn about and listen to high quality DSP controlled systems before you pass judgement. RC is just a subcategory of DSP.