Help settle a streaming argument!

@fastfreight , yes your argument is of course clear. But curiously, based on my personal practice and  observation, the better are your amplifier and speakers, the better they do their job and these differences somehow diminish. 

Yes. Look at this in this way. Take a 8 cylinder car and a four-cylinder one. When you run fast or go up to a hill you feel that your 8-cilibder car is less forced than the 4 cylinder one. 

You can look at this also in a different way. Consider a car engine as an amplifier and accessories, perhaps tires as a streamer. Most of us, in terms of cars,  have a V6 or V8 or at least V4 turbo amplifiers (which as you know note can have a lot of power). As to cars, I like to drive fast but prefer V4 car with turbo to V6 car, which I also have but do not use it often. V8 feels somehow better but, for me, it is completely unjustified, and anti-ecological, so neither I am a V8 car guy. I associate  a good V4 turbo car with a good class D amp (I have three of them), V6 with a big class AB amp, and V8 with a huge class A amp that is too heavy, consumes too much of energy and gets too hot (a typical Pass Lab amp). I do have one, but it is a 5 watts tube SET,  it is not huge and it consumes not that much of energy (a very compact v8 car which consumes less gas than some V6 cars). 

I somehow missed the electric cars, a good point. They are closer to  class D amplifiers.  Perhaps, future Class X amplifiers will be conceptually closer to the electric cars? And yes, if i buy another car, it can be a performance electric car.  For the moment, I see one major obstacle, the number of miles that one can run with a single charge of the battery. 

Sure, in a luxury 8 cinder  sport car even the ashtray "matters"...

If you are using the same DAC for both, your CD transport and the streamer, then you perhaps may check your CD transport and also other your audio  components, the amplifier on speakers. In general do not expect a huge difference in sound quality.  If you have a good system both sources will give you dicent sound quality and often it is a matter of taste which source you like more. 

As an example, my son liked more the sound from Node 2i over a much more expensive Melco server. And yes, the Node a nice steamer it is compact, easy to use and its software is quite flexible.

OP ,  I'm using Bluesound Node 22i for years as a streamer with an external DAC  (it's DAC is not good) . It is a good streamer, the software is nice, easy to use and works  reliable enough. Reading so much, in threads like this, on a "day and night" difference between the sound production of different streamers and also because I wanted to have a digital music library as well, just recently I bought a Melco N50 series music server. While the Node can work both, wireless and with Ethernet connections, Melco servers work only with Ethernet cable. Melco still needs burn in. I did a  careful a/b comparison using  ethernet connection of the Node and the N50. In general the myth about night and day differences is clearly an exaggeration. At the same time, despite the fact that I was pessimistic in finding any tangible differences in sound quality, there is some difference: the server gives a little more cleaner sound reproduction, with more open and wider soundstage. Just to say, my wife would not distinguish the two, but for me the difference is still  essential: the Melco gives a nice finish that makes the sound closer to perfect, for me. At the same time, I think the better is your system, in general, the less you will note the differences, although this may sound contradictory for some guys.