I believe that Bob has commented that the 808 benefitted sonically from going 'back to basics' (my words not his) ie lack of video circuitry within the unit.

By inference, something with high levels of internal 'noise', ie a PC, would not cut the mustard. Even though the 800/808/861 is probably more PC than traditional HiFi, but it is optimised (at hardware and software levels) as a piece of audio kit rather than a general purpose computer.

How much of a difference this 'noise' makes to digital and analogue output would vary from application to application.

Meridian owner since 1992
Prime & PSU, Focal Elear headphones, Roon (ROCK 8Gi5 NUC), Explorer 1 & 2, F80. 200/203, various Sonos (via Roon).