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

Though I don't follow current prices, I believe it is necessary to spend $25k-$30k on entire analog front end to have a great sound. You can have good or even excellent sound for less, that's true.

Yes, it’s not necessary to spend big bucks to enjoy great sound with vinyl. However, it can get better with more expensive gear.

My view is that vinyl can be better not necessarily because it’s analogue, but because it’s mastered better.

I have found that what’s good about vinyl still persists after the analogue signal is transferred to digital and back. In other words the AD and DA conversions can be transparent. With the Linn Urika Ii phono stage, doing some of the RIAA processing in the digital domain is beneficial, presumably because distortion  and noise is reduced.

@inna -

funny that you mentioned Nakamishi Dragon, I plan to get their 11.4.6 wireless surround system which got great reviews. Saves me from running wires all over the place.

These ethernet experts are so tiring, thinking that their knowledge is equivalent to knowing everything about high-end audio streaming.  Rarely bothering to do any additional research on why better components "sound" better.  Thinking that bits are bits but ignoring there fact that the data rides on an analog signal that is subject to picking up noise that we can hear on "transparent" (beyond box store) high-end audio chains.  Then there's digital audio jitter timing deviation that can cause distortion and noise in the sound.  Seems most naysayers are "I'm right until you prove me wrong" aka too lazy from trying it out themselves or looking up the evidence on their own. 

Agree that can have good/great sound for less, but high performing turntable, tonearm, phonopre, and cartridge can quickly get expensive.  Maybe someday I can afford to try out DS Audio cartridge systems and one piece diamond canteliver+stylus cartridge.

kennyc, besides being very useful to me, Nakamichi 682ZX tape deck that I have is a piece of audiophile history. It is also analog almost all in one component, you can listen to it with headphones. Its headphone amp is not great but not too bad.

The very best Nakamichi deck is thought to be 1000zxl, though some prefer ZX-9.

DS Audio cartridge system is very interesting, I read about it.

Dear IT guys claiming bits are bits

a) yes, I work for IBM too ;-)

b) yes bits are bits, agree

c) Agree, lots of snake oil with $1000 LAN cables...but thats nothing new in our hobby

d) And its not all Linux ;-) my windows server 2019 sounds better than Linux ;-)

But what happens when we print a doc, then scan, then print again? Are the two prints same?

So the conversion to Analog is the key, and ALL cables carry some other info than the 0s and 1s...a cpu doesnt care, but the DAC does, info on the groundplane and jitter adds info to the groundplane...thats the simplified explanation why it matters what happens in the digital domain ...just because you did not hear it, does not mean it does not exist ... ;-)