Hi @Deric_Chan , to answer directly to your question - NO, i did not do such comparison. In theory I would dare to think that properly ripped CD (say with EAC) with correct offset, thousand error checks, multiple runs and AccurateRip verification would be probably somewhat better quality that real time CD Transport run, no matter how much of the space technologies are involved in mechanics of CD Transport. Wheather this will be noticable, is debatable. But don’t get me wrong, real CD through HQPlayer sounds totally amazing.
To me this is not the point. I personally am going after CD’s for aesthetics, an artistic aspect, so to speak. And same as with streaming content some CD’s do sound impecable, and some are unexpectedly total disappoinment in the way they are recorded. And I don’t want to replecate a library of streaming service via my physical CD library, only the selected works (for my personal taste) to keep. The rest I can easily stream, no problem, or have recorded on a hard drive, all the same…
Here’s my earlier quote on the subject. It’s just me