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

@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.

I don't understand the controversy. Once the stream is picked up by the end device, it still has to traverse the output stage of the streamer in the home system.  There is where one streamer can sound better than or surely different from another streamer.  What's the problem?