Is using streaming services worthy of an audiophile?

+1 @falconquest 
However the op has been conspicuous by his absence of late so not sure if he will respond to that excellent question.

And after saying all that I find myself on a vinyl binge tonight....lol

Sounds like I am not the only one who has added a Tidal feed to other parts of the house bar the "audio room".

However my findings are that Tidal streamed through my Bluesound Vault 2 and fed via digital coax to my exogal comet plus out to BAT power amp and into Wilson witt speakers sounds noticeably better than CD Redbook playback or even ripped wav files. That is to my ears in my system.
Especially the Tidal masters at 96 and up depending on the release. 

+1 @toddverone
Thought your initial post was perfectly worded
Was puzzled why it had been removed unless op complained about it?

Ah....
Modest as well

To the Op...This is a fairly interesting thread with some good points but you SERIOUSLY need to lighten up a little and lose the attitude

@cycles2 
I listen to mqa tracks through my vault2 and I am definitely a believer.
Non mqa tracks of tidal sound better using the vaults digital out and let the McIntosh handle it BUT mqa through tidal sounds better letting the vault handle it and sending via its analog outs to the McIntosh.
Of course "better" is wholly subjective and is just my results in my system with my ears.
Naysayers will ALWAYS be naysayers and the earth will remain flat...... 

@danvignau 
Not sure just how you are transmitting your tidal signal to your system but I am getting 96 and 192 from their masters via dig coax to my Blusound vault 2 then output by single ended analog out to my McIntosh pre and it is noticeably better than Redbook CD playback.
Maybe if you were using say a smart tv to receive and using the tv analog outs to your system I could see how the sq might be poor.
I know this as it was how I first used to listen to Pandora...ok but not hifi for sure.

@rbstehno 
Exactly
As I said I use tidal through my bluos app on my phone just using the home wired network(vault 2 uses hardwire not wireless to ensure no signal dropout) and computer is so far from my mind at all times.
Pushs of a few buttons and I am flipping between tidal MQA, my own ripped music and even internet radio stations.
Quality surpasses 44.1 Redbook CD imho

As a convert to Tidal I have to say that I do not even use a computer for it or even indeed a Tidal app.
I do it all from my LG smartphone through the Bluos app for my Bluesound Vault 2. I am logged into Tidal through that app and basically can listen to everything I own or desire to from Tidal,s vast ever increasing libary without having to do any more than push a few buttons on my phone, talk about convenience.
The masters can also be directly accessed from the phone now and is just so easy its silly.
As others have mentioned the available music on Tidal lets me listen to stuff I probably never would if I had to stump up 10 to 20 dollars on a cd on a "chance" I might like it.
So $20 a month on Tidal is peanuts in reality.
And there is no question in my mind on the SQ on the hirez recordings at all.

As a newly converted believer in streaming music I have to say Tidal must be hard to beat.
I am playing a lot of their masters albums which my bluesound vault manages to run at the full 192 via its own internal dac which I output via single ended analog outs to my Mcintosh c48.
I was able to directly compare this with the digital out from the Vault going into the c48 which is limited to 96.
The album I used for a 7 way comparo( read on) was crime of the century by supertramp.
The Tidal MQA at full 192 sounded slightly fuller, more lively than the mcintosh limited 96 version although both knocked the ripped flac files at 44.1 into next week for depth and realism.
Next up came a test of my original cd played via digital out and balanced xlr to the c48, here the xlr was a clear winner but I still feel the Tidal MQA was richer.
Finally I gave my vinyl copy a spin...well as you all know vinyl is just well VINYL and it is just so hard to compare it to anything else imho.
For $20 a month I am sticking with Tidal for a while and as it seems they are adding MQA albums daily I am quite content right now, I mean Uriah Heep at 192? Heaven!