Not sure I agree with that. For example, I am having a discomforting experience with digital cables. I have cables of two formats sPDIF and AES/EBU. The cables are identical models from the same supplier and the same lengths. The brand is Inakustik and the model is their Air Reference copper. Coming out of my Mutec reclocker they sound VERY different. The sPDIF is more present, apparently more detailed and wider band but soundstage is somewhat flattened and busy passages a bit more congested. The XLR cable moves the acoustic center downward for less apparent treble; however, depth and soundstage improve and the low end has more umph (but less resolution and articulation). Which is right? Is either right? The difference is not really subtle. The fact that people's internet also impacts the SQ (switches, etc.) is another indicator of a substantial number of small but pernicious distortions that clearly impact the timing and interpretation of the digital stream by the DAC chips.
It is like the SS vs. Tube discussion. One (SS) has clearly better Objective measurements but this doesn't translate into clearly audible superiority and many would argue it is almost the inverse of distortion level that sounds better. Of course it is the quality of the distortion not the quantity of the distortion that is having the pernicious effects. I think the same is true with digital vs. analog. Digital has clearly lower distortion but the type that is there is wholly unnatural and has no basis in nature. Analog distortions are in some sense natural in that it is fundamentally due to vibrations of a needle physically tracing a groove with squiggles. That motion gets converted to an electrical signal. Digital works in a completely different way that has no precedent in nature and so it's distortions are also wholly unnatural and therefore detectable as synthetic at exceedingly low levels.
Does digital sound cleaner than analog? Often times yes but not universally. Does it sound more "real"? Almost never because of the issues stated above.
Forget algorithms, chip sets, filters etc. it is more fundamental and wired into our evolution of how we hear and what we evolved to hear.
I recently, in my cable struggle, was listening to the very well recorded album Llyria from Nik Baertsch on ECM. After going back and forth between RCA and XLR cables, I decided to listen to the LP, which I have to see which was closer. The result was that neither were really the same as the LP. The LP had the depth of the XLR but also had more top end resolution like the RCA without flattening the soundstage. Winner was the LP.
