The issue with the comparisons is that they are rarely apples to apples. Is your CD original issue, 10 years ago, 30 years ago? Was the CD an original transfer? AAD? ADD? Is the streaming service offering you a digital copy of the original? the first remastered reissue, the second the third and so forth? Saying you have a certain chip set in a player doesn’t speak to anything more than that....and certainly not to power supply, cables and many other things that all count. I have and still occasionally use a Sony XA5400ES CD/SACD player. It was a Stereophile A+ recommended component a few years back so it should be pretty competitive today. My streamer is a Cambridge CXN v2 which, along with the Sony’s digital output feeds a Benchmark DAC 3b, also a Stereophile A+ recommended component. I subscribe to both Qobuzz and Tidal.and also play many digital radio stations for content discovery. Some radio stations are inferior to CD, some are not.
Where I have an original issue Jazz CD from 25 or 30, or more years ago it will be more musical and natural sounding than any version either of the streaming services has libraried. This is especially true with early 60’s - 70’s Jazz CD’s, especially noticeable with Mosaic reissues, which are better than anything else in comparable digital playback.,,, at least the 40 or 50 I have are. Too many masters spoil the broth, so to speak.
Properly set up digital streaming, and that starts at the wall, connected via Cat 6 or better Ethernet, and run through a good to great DAC should be every bit the equal and more of a typical CD through a consumer grade or mid-fi type player.
If you have not taken the time to shoot out speaker, interconnect, tubes, power and digital cables on your system, you may not be in position to make a meaningful evaluation of anything else.
Where I have an original issue Jazz CD from 25 or 30, or more years ago it will be more musical and natural sounding than any version either of the streaming services has libraried. This is especially true with early 60’s - 70’s Jazz CD’s, especially noticeable with Mosaic reissues, which are better than anything else in comparable digital playback.,,, at least the 40 or 50 I have are. Too many masters spoil the broth, so to speak.
Properly set up digital streaming, and that starts at the wall, connected via Cat 6 or better Ethernet, and run through a good to great DAC should be every bit the equal and more of a typical CD through a consumer grade or mid-fi type player.
If you have not taken the time to shoot out speaker, interconnect, tubes, power and digital cables on your system, you may not be in position to make a meaningful evaluation of anything else.