A Lot of this apparent disparage of sound quality, Isn't coming from your streamer but from the source of the music that the particular site is using or even the engineers that originally recorded the album.
I get angry when some people accuse some device for bad sound quality when they are listening to a poorly engineered or mastered album. And I see a lot of this.
On the other other hand there is a matter of what the quality of the is when listening to streamed music. I know on Qobuz that you can see what their source quality is supposed to be, i.e. HD or CD. I seldom see HD even offered on may of the songs I want to listen to, so just because it is coming for XXX.com streaming site doesn't mean it is a superior quality recording that you are reviewing.
Finally I often see certain albums offered on Lets say, Youtube that are from the exact same source as Spotify or Qobuz. So many people will talk trash about one over another yet they are the exact same source file being played. This can be seen and proven by noticing that on some cuts they tunicate a song or have a particular oddity like a skip in the middle of a song that is apparent on all sites. This shows that possibly much of our music is given to the sites from some 'OFFICIAL' source, to al sites. This would indicate that it isn't the source that is different, but "POSSIBLY" something like a sites streaming algorithm or web connection is the fault.
Digital Dilemma
I purchased an inexpensive Onkyo C-7030 CD Player more as just a transport, but also to use as a benchmark to compare to streaming music on-line. With intentions to get the streamed content to sound as good, if not better, than the CD player could muster.
After sitting my wife down for a listen (she has better ears than me) and playing Tidal, Quboz and then the same tracks on a CD, the CD was the clear winner every time. It also seems the CD playing without using the Gustard R26 DAC didn’t even sound all that much better than when played through the CD Player only, bypassing the R26. That doesn’t say too much for the R26 DAC or alternatively, it says a lot for the DAC in the CD Player!
I am using the R26 as the renderer via a LAN connection that is optically isolated. There are a few filters and adjustments on the DAC, but tweaking those still didn’t get the sound quality up to that of the CD Player.
A lot of you say you have achieved streaming that sounds as good as your analogue systems. What do you think, do I need a betted DAC?