CD v Streamed

I am relatively new to the streaming game. I just recently built out the digital side of my system. I have found that streaming an MQA file off of Tidal, or most of my high-res files on my NAS sound far better than CD’s through the same DAC. (Berkeley Alpha Series 3). However, CD’s sound better than 44.1 bit rate streaming on Tidal or Spotify. I’ve been truly blown away with how close streaming higher resolution files can be to vinyl. My two cents...

The bias towards the physical medium of the cd is the nostalgia for physical medium, much like lp vs over the air fm.  The cd came out when a computer with 1k of ram was 999 dollars.  The reading of the cd even with the most high end transport had 5% error rates and dacs were programmed to guess what information was missing.  Even my car audio can stream with data already in a memory cache that is error free.
use your cd’s like a rom storage device and an asynchronous dac and you will lose the all the negative attributes of digital music

Great topic georgehifi, im interested to see what comes out. Im not sure where you get your 10.6 megabits/min figure, but with Internet Providers offering 100mbps speeds, 10.6 mbpm is no problem. Please correct me if I am wrong, but here is my 2 cents worth.

I think duckworp hit the nail on the head. My RME ADI-2 FS DAC displays the bit rate of the stream it is processing from Qobuz. As duckworp pointed out, the bit rate tells us how much data is being streamed per second. When my DAC tells me it is processing 24bit at 192 kHz, I believe it. So 2 x 24 x 192000 = 9,216,000 bits/sec. My internet service provides 100Mbps, so streaming 24bit 192kHz is a piece of cake.

So the question becomes, why would Qobuz transmit to me 9 megabits/sec (24bit 192kHz) from a crappy highly compressed audio source file when it could send me 24bit 192kHz from the finest source available? Sounds like bad business to me. Remember, a CD is only 16bit 44.1kHz, which is 2 x 16 x 44,100 = 1,411,200 bits/sec.

From what I have read, Qobuz transmits FLAC files to me. I really don’t care what other people say, it is a FACT FACT FACT, that when a FLAC file is uncompressed, it is identical to the original WAV file it was created from (except for a few bytes of metadata ID). So unless the act of uncompressing the FLAC file is causing interference, the FLAC should sound identical to the original WAV file.

Looking forward to reading more reply, thank you.

Dale

I am using Innuos ZEN to stream Qobuz music and also as a file transport/server. The stream quality is great, but when I really like something, I still buy a CD to rip it to the ZEN hard drive. Why? Because a ripped CD sounds better than a streamed FLAC file. 
And I don't think it is about the quality of the file, it is about what happens to it on the way to my DAC. I don't subscribe to the simplistic theory that a digital signal is just 0 and 1. If a USB cable makes such a difference, surely a router and the whole ethernet structure with its ground voltage etc. should affect the SQ. 

I both stream and play CDs. CDs are played through a Sony XA 5400 ES which was a Stereophile A+ Component for four years and is excellent on Red Book. I stream through a Cambridge CXNv2 to a Benchmark DAC 3b. I can also play CVDs using the digital out of the Sony to the Benchmark.
By far most of the time using the Sony through the Benchmark is noticeably better than the Sony alone. I like the sound of Tidal streamed through the gear listed better than the CD and I find Qobuzz also better, although sometimes Qobuzz sounds too digital vs. a more liquid sounding Tidal. Tube Audio Research pre-amp and everything is on Audioquest Niagara power conditioning and cords.
Just sayin......  & BTW, with digital everything starts at the wall and/or router.  Hospital Grade at the wall and clean noise reduced power to all gear. Router to streamer via Ethernet, not below Grade 6 and 7 or 8 preferred.  Isolate digital gear from analogue with sheet copper.  Streaming is a serious medium, treat it that way just as you would every other piece of gear you would try an achieve optimum performance from.