Are there digital front ends with the body...

Thanks for all the responses so far.

I heard the Vyger table recently (RMAF) and it is a bit of a dry table. Cannot recall the cart. So, it is not horribly surpising it's close to digital.

My Merrill/TriPlanar/Ortofon setup has considerably more 'body'.

I thought the AMR CDP had lot of body when I heard it at RMAF. It's on my top list for digital front list.

In my own rig, AMR CD-77 fits the bill (although at $ 8.5k perhaps not what you meant by moderately pricey). Admittedly one third more expensive, there is YBA Le Lecteur CD1 Classic Sigma (or Passion 1000 which is the same player in a different outfit) that recently led me to think it would have been very serious competition for the AMR, had I heard it before, exactly for the reasons you mention (and some more).
I very much agree with what has been said on CD mastering, in particular the lack of dynamics, though: junk in, junk out. I guess that is what you get if you produce for all-day-long sonic drizzle out of small dickey boxes that only digital made possible, muzak instead of music (am I getting old or just a bellyacher?).

I guess that is what you get if you produce for all-day-long sonic drizzle out of small dickey boxes that only digital made possible, muzak instead of music (am I getting old or just a bellyacher?)

No you are right on - sonic drizzle!

I would say the best transport/dacs on the market right now are

1) orpheus zero transport/ orpheus heritage dac
2) Zanden transport/dac

Both of these options represent the best digital solutions money can buy.

i have auditioned both closely, and while the heritage IMHO represents the pinnacle of digital technology available today, the zanden combo was more musical and the most analogue sounding.