IMO, you need to spend 2-3x more on analog to get better sound than good digital. It will take more than $3000 to get a really good dac just like it will take much more than $10k to get good analog. Sure, you can get a $1k rega or music hall, and you get $1k worth of sound. I had $15k as my analog setup which I sold because I like my digital MQA/DSD/hires setup much better. What does a decent cartridge cost? $1k? $3k?
How about the tonearm cost: $1k? $5k? How about the turntable itself. Then you have the phono preamp. For a decent system, $10k or more isn’t out of the question. For digital, you don’t need a special server and you don’t really want 1 in your audio room.
Besides the cost, analog is much more limited in source material. Most of my new music in jazz, blues, or rock, doesn’t come on vinyl and more and more are using hires and/or MQA.
How about the tonearm cost: $1k? $5k? How about the turntable itself. Then you have the phono preamp. For a decent system, $10k or more isn’t out of the question. For digital, you don’t need a special server and you don’t really want 1 in your audio room.
Besides the cost, analog is much more limited in source material. Most of my new music in jazz, blues, or rock, doesn’t come on vinyl and more and more are using hires and/or MQA.