Are there digital front ends with the body...

"Body" has nothing to due with accurate, neutral and transparent reproduction of a recording. In addition, there is only as much "body" as exists in the recording's mix, which varies from disc to disc (or lp to lp).

If one seeks "body" beyond what exists on a recording and what is reproduced by a transparent system, then one seeks coloration to please their subjective taste. There's nothing wrong with that, but the term has no bearing on "the best" digital or analog source machine, which by definition should be neutral.

If we're defining "best" based on subjective rpeferrences, then all bets...and comparisons...are of no value unless one happens to know the listening preferences of the person offering the opinion.

IMO...

As surprising as this may be I agree with Tvad and Mrtennis.

Mrtennis, for me, best is a live performance, preferably unamplified. I have this favorite local jazz trio playing in a nice restaurant for Sunday brunch. It is very noisy on Sundays but I went there on a week day and recorded the piano player live. My brother knows how to play acoustic guitar so I recorded him too. I did this so I can recreate the live performance as close as I can with my audio system. If you can have a natural and realistic reproduction of a piano, guitar and violin, with all details, resolution and natural decay, then your system is indeed “the best”.

In order to properly evaluate my digital players, I have designed and built the rest of my audio system. It is not for sale, it is for a reference.

Regards,
Alex

Tvad, you are absolutely correct. This is why I am always recording my vinyl to CD and DVD-A and A-B in real time with my digital. According to the ears of local audiophiles on a recent test, the digital sounded preferable to my vinyl. We used the direct-to-disc Bassface Swing Trio "Plays Gershwin" and its SACD copy. And the 45rpm Patricia Barber "Nightclub" on Mo-Fi and its SACD copy.

Regards,
Alex

I have a Forsell Transport hooked to an EAD 7000 DAC, the upgrade bug bit me recently, so I tested a bunch of DACs on my system, none were even close, Chord (closer), DCS (good detail,annoying hiss), AN (lower model), Accuphase (nice tone, missing bass), etc.... Of course I have my system highly tuned for this DAC (my own horn speakers and passive attenuator) so I guess that had something to do with it...
Anyway this setup kills my mediocre Analog rig.