Which device you prefer reason for sound better between cd or files streaming
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It depends.
I do find that CDs sound better than Tidal or Qobuz on my system but I happen to have older / outdated kit when it comes to streaming.
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I find it varies. I always used to struggle to tear myself away from the CD player when it was on.
I’ve now put my CDs on a Core and access that through my NDX2 so hopefully that gives me a reasonable basis for comparison.
Typically I prefer to use the CD file but not always as sometimes the playback from CD can sound overly bright on certain notes and frequencies, though the equivalent Tidal file (even those with a ‘res’ ? tab next to them) can be a bit lifeless in comparison so what I take from it might depend on whether I’m feeling tired or not.
to add - all my CDs are ripped and on a NAS; don’t have a player to compare, but my earlier comment still stands. ripped CDs of the same mastering generally sounding better than streaming
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I have all my CDs ripped and stored on an SSD plugged into the 333 or Star. To my ear, the rip usually sounds a bit more engaging than the Qobuz stream.
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Both my streaming and CD digital output go to the same DAC and under those circumstances I almost always prefer listening to the CD.
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And you Meni, as you have the Melco N10 and the ripper. Have you compared Qobuz vs Melco cds?
@frenchrooster There is no perfect answer. I find that sometimes the CD sounds better. Other times streaming. Sometimes I feel these contrasting comparisons are not very meaningful.
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I don’t even have a CDP so I have to say streaming. I recently changed my DAC, so even if I had preferred CD before I might not now because my new DAC sounds significantly better than what I had before. It’s a lot more analog and musical sounding. I find myself listening to digital more than I ever did previously. I stream using Qobuz (and some locally stored files) via Roon.
I prefer ripped CDs, generally speaking the soundstage and airiness are better. More nouances, detail and clarity to my ears. Some Hi-Res is very good, but it’s far from the hype IMO. I’m sure there are exceptions, I just did not come across them.
For me, the two formats come with very different expectations. Physical media—CDs and vinyl—is about revisiting my own collection. There are memories attached to them, markers of different phases of my life, friends, etc.
Streaming, which I’ve only recently embraced, currently feels more oriented toward discovery—finding new music rather than reconnecting with the old. This medium allows us to tap into what our teenagers might be interested in - and that’s helping create new memories!
Inevitably, though, I’m guilty of falling into the trap of comparing sound quality, and that pursuit quickly becomes counterproductive. 
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That’s a great selling point for streaming, and maybe the best one. Since I started streaming I have been introduced to a lot a great music I might never have discovered just playing CDs and vinyl records. And now that I finally have a DAC I think sounds very musical and more analog, vs sounding digital, I am enjoying it more often these days.
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I had the same CD vs. streaming conversation with my dealer after he’d got me into it. I must admit I’ve been a late adopter of different musical formats. I jumped from a vinyl only system into CD’s as late as 2002. Streaming came much later in 2017 I think. What I found with streaming, once I’d sorted out the ‘noise’ reduction issues, is that you could hear deeper into the music than you can with CD. As good as CD was I was always conscious of the ‘mechanical’ colourations caused by the micro vibrations of the moving parts. Again, this comes across as a slight blurring and edginess to the high frequencies. Similar in fact to streamer noise except streamer noise can be tamed a lot easier than mechanical noise.
I feel my streaming system is better than my vinyl system on around 50% of the music I play and far better than my CD player that was a CDP555.
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@Geko sir! You have a Triple 555! 
@Geko one quick test about the CDs Micro vibrations, that I am forced to do (CDX2 is in the graveyard!) is ripping them l, with an Apple SuperDrive via dbpoweramp as Flac into USB thumb drive.
I plugged the USB stick into the front of the NDX2. Sounds quite nice. revealing, matter of fact!
Ok. So running this test again…cd burnt to usb drive via dbpoweramp FLAC - into NDX2 vs Streaming Qobuz…
Let’s just say, I was wrong…[Qobuz wins…]. Time to move to the next generation. And let go of nostalgia!
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Wait…wait…wait…wait. WAIT! I just played U2 Joshua tree on Vinyl …molto buono…Man….absolutely holographic…either I am getting old, or I have the world’s best Vinyl source! . Brain says former….heart says…well ya knaw…!
Yes, but you don’t have an audiophile Nas with a high quality ripper.
It puts things into perspective.
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Streaming to me means listening to music stored on a server on my network.
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