The idea of digitizing the phono cartridge signal and applying RIAA EQ, crosstalk cancellation, and other phono related massaging in the digital domain, and then converting it back to analog, is kind of a fascinating, but sort of weird at the same time. I mean, if pure technical perfection is what you want, why not just stick with digits from the get-go?
You're trying to make sense of it...
There's your problem.