My experience is that a pretty decent CD player used as a transport only or a CD transport into a really nice DAC outperforms the servers into the same DAC.
I use the Aurender with my music burned onto the internal hard drive, listen to the same music streamed via the Aurender. not much change at all. But streamed via Qobuz sounds better. However, when I use my CD transport into my DAC with the same music, it definitely sounds better. match levels, play the same music and listen. There are definitely differences.
Don't get me wrong. The Aurender streamed into my DAC, sounds great. The Aurender playing from the hard drive into my DAC ounds great. The CD transport into my DAC sounds better. Depends on how lazy I am. However, if I'm really not lazy, turntable into the phono stage sound best.
enjoy