Just sharing an anecdotal story, a few years back I needed to audition several Focal speakers. Thankfully we have a Focal/Naim store in my area (great store). But I kinda knew I that I would need to have the best possible source to really hear the speakers could do (and coming from many decades background of Linn/Naim), and the shop was probably using a garden variety streaming setup. Soo I lugged the heavy CDT3 up there, and fortunately the kind sales person was receptive to hearing it.
My hunch proved (very) correct and the sales guy was a bit slack jawed at the magnitude of the improvement vs the streaming they were using. Had I not brought it I probably would have been a bit "meh" on the gamut of the Focal's, but with it, and a few of my fav disks one pr stood out for me in a big way. Couldn't have heard it that way without the CDT3 sourcing and those spkrs are still playing here now in my system :)
TK