Music storage for best possible playback

Hello,

I have recently ripped my CD/SACDs as FLAC/DSF files and stored them on a Windows 10 laptop (Asus K52F) with 1TB SSD and 8GB RAM. I use Foobar to play these and really like the sound when upsampled to 256 DSD. But I also notice that when I play Spotify it sounds pretty good. One would think that the FLAC/DSF files would sound considerably better than Spotify - almost like night/day. But honestly, it does not sound like that in my system. I was wondering if I am using the full potential of my PC setup or is there a bottleneck, since the Windows OS and the files are on the same drive.

My question is - which is the best way to play the files? Stored on the same hard drive in the laptop OR use an external USB drive OR stream it through the network via a NAS. I do have the ability to hardwire the laptop to the network if required, though I have not attempted it yet. Any advise/suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!