I found the deficiency that bothered me most was the analog portion of the ADC. Once that has muddled through the capture process there's not much that can be

I found the deficiency that bothered me most was the analog portion of the ADC. Once that has muddled through the capture process there's not much that can be done regardless of DAC upon playback. Besides that, the original engineers, working closely with the classic rock musicians (or scrutinizing conductor) during the original recording & mastering of their potential smash hit record, were probably paid about 10x relative to a digital mastering re-engineer decades later. Or if the artists were not established hitmakers, worked about 10x as hard to try and make it come true. Sometimes both, since you need to improve the odds all you can technically if you want to better leverage the fundamental popularity contest. Naturally the analog section on playback can also be a nasty issue for both digital and vinyl sources.