to my ears digital audio does not sound natural? something is wrong!

@cd318 
I Really do think that Classical shouldn’t be judged, in audio terms, for the reasons that both of us cite, in the same manner as other genres, excepting jazz and other acoustic instrument favoring genres such as World Music.
  I find that most of the pop music I grew up with sounds worse on a high end system.  Take a typical Phil Spector produced girl group song.  These were recorded and mixed with the expectation that the typical listener would be enjoying this on an AM radio, in a car or elsewhere.  Even played on a KMart Special as a 45 single back in the day I remember feeling they didn’t move as much as on a $5 Japanese transistor radio.  Replayed back on a 5 figure system they just sound silly to me, the aural equivalent of watching kids wear their parent’s clothing.  I prefer them on a $39 Bluetooth speaker.
  Now, in the early sixties the head of Columbia Records got the bright idea to mix their Classical as if everyone would be listening on those same AM radios.  See if you can an original lp of Bernstein/NYP Mahler 7 to illustrate this, and compare with any CD remix.  The original lp sounds like the Orchestra has been crammed into a telephone booth

Here's my experience with digital. CD transport to a good dac sounds better than the streamer. It's not that the streamer sounds bad it's just that the vinyl sounds the most natural and detailed even with the pops and dust. My system started as digital and now I've acquired vinyl as well. Streaming with roon to an innuos steamer is still very good. Not the same league as vinyl. Not yet. That's my take.

I have a TOTL modern CD player and I'm always going back to my vinyl rig after a while. Like some people prefer tubes to solid state. Less accurate but easier on the ear.

Original LP's from the early days, say 50s to late 60's sound best, at least to me. There is no comparison to digital, or streaming for that matter. Somethings missing with anything digital, jmo and my ears...happy listening.

We listen to total systems not just the front ends.  It’s all about the total system. The end sound always depends on the complete system and room with this whole digital vs analog thing elevated beyond where it should be.  Care, effort and skill must be used when building a system around digital or vinyl.  One system is not necessarily optimized for both types of front ends.