Streaming is not as good as CDs played from transport or WAV or AIFF files from drive?

[woodford]

you’re not imagining it, and i made a similar point here:

Qobuz vs Tidal compared

i subscribe to both, and have had both for years, dating back to WiMP and before Qobuz officially launched in the US. I’ve spent a fair amount of time comparing sound quality between the two, initially in the squeezebox ecosystem, now in roon, and further with the more widespread adoption of MQA. I’ve also compared both, and MQA to my own rips, which are mostly AIFF files (ripped years ago for use in iTunes). my impressions have been pretty consistent: Qobuz 16 bit sounds better than Tidal 1…

(tl;dr: Tidal<Qobuz<Qobuz HiRes<AIFF<MQA)