Input/Output line level transformers for digital glare

I agree with the last part of Ralph's comment that getting better digital gear is much smarter way to go. 
However, even though I don't doubt the technical discussion re: transformer, IHMO the approach of adding bandaids is a bad idea when it can be avoided. Going for the simpler approach with the best quality components, and those in turn made with the best quality parts usually gets the superior results especially for those like me who are on a budget. Think about it this way, if you spend on things like tube buffers etc. that you'd remove if you had better gear in the first place, it is indicative that those bandaids are taking your further away from musical truth. Cheers,
Spencer

Spencer, as I read Ralph's post it was entirely consistent with your comment, although the sentence in your post beginning with "however" seems to indicate that you may have read it differently.

Very informative post, Ralph, which makes perfect sense to me.  Thanks!

Best regards,
-- Al
 

I agree with Ralph and Al. Just last night, I decided to listen to a CD of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos that was previously unlistenable on my former CD player.

To my surprise, my Esoteric DV 60, which I bought used a while back, made this CD sound quite good, and I was able to listen to both CD's, and enjoyed it greatly.

I'm not suggesting that you go out and buy an Esoteric, but it just falls in line with Ralph and Al's comments. Digital has improved, and "band aids" are not necessarily the best answer.

Good luck, Regards,
Dan

@almarg Thanks, to clarify, my "However.." was because I was surprised by one small part of Ralph's post...the first sentence. I didn't know that would be the case, realize that it was not intended as a recommendation and I didn't want a "quick reader" to take that sentence alone and skip past the meat of his suggestion which goes in the better bigger picture direction. Cheers,
Spencer

@sbank  The reason a transformer might help if it has limited bandwidth, would be to filter out digital noise. I've seen at least one DAC that sounded pretty good in its day that incorporated the inductance of the transformer as part of the smoothing circuit for the output of the actual DAC.

Of course this points to one of the major limitations of digital IMO, which is not much bandwidth on top. A typical LP record and playback chain has bandwidth to about 40KHz no worries.