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

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 ... ;-)

@total111 - certainly. Conversion to analog is a wholly different subject.

The issue is in pure digital, and not just digital like with jitter, but computer networks. Streamers. Routers. Firewalls.

I am happy with my streamer/dac box. With the right set up, It sounds great. Digital changed the music business. Record labels, musicians, etc  are not getting paid what the used to. So, why not keep the old medium alive. No one mentions how distracting are the hisses, noises, and pops of vinyl. Yes, it sounds warmer, but at what cost? Frequency limitations? Old habits are hard to break.

I listen to digital, I pick up a book.