Would you still pay $10k or more for a turntable not full analog front end these days ?

Spending that much on one component would make me want to upgrade everything else too. Well, maybe except one power cord and a set of RCAs.

@mikhailark I write code every day ETL-ing Gigs of data so I know a bit more than the basics.

@soix - your question includes multiple other components. Please re-read my information. I said bits come identical from $50 device and from $50K device. It is trivial to verify having proper equipment.

Now, you are changing this to "sounds different". In this case you have to consider the entire chain. Maybe DAC is over sensitive to RF noise? I don't know. "Sounds" is subjective. Did they stage experiment properly? Who knows.

I know that amp that looks nicer to me also sounds better to me :-) and this is normal since our perception is not isolated. 

@grislybutter good for you, so you already know everything you need.

Now, you are changing this to "sounds different". In this case you have to consider the entire chain.

@mikhailark No! My only point from the start was refuting your assertion that there’s no benefit to spending more than $2k on a streamer. That’s just absurd. Period.