If you haven't seen it, worth a look at my latest post on this thread:
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...istening-impressions.27044/page-2#post-824327
I think a lot depends on the internal system synergies, but my experience is the opposite from described as above - streaming or computer audio of any sort generally leaves me cold. Going round Munich hi-end (which is the only place I would customarily hear hi-end computer audio) I generally found that the most musical and enjoyable systems were pretty much exclusively the ones with turntables (or R2R), and that the vast majority of computer-based front ends sounded clinical and soulless. CD in my experience gets closer to vinyl (after all that's what many of us been working towards for 30-odd years).
That's quite apart from the dismal user experience associated with streaming - searching databases, clicking buttons, faffing with settings, worrying about resolution (when it's been fairly well established for solid technical reasons that well-done redbook typically trumps hi-res approaches), the hassle of inconsistent metadata. Had enough of that at work - why make listening to music like work? It puts an unwanted technological layer of distance between the listener and the music. It's also human psychology that an over-abundance (in this case, an infinite library) doesn't satisfy, rather it unsettles, cheapening the whole experience and encouraging a butterfly mindset.
Then of course you have the issue of fragmentation - it's already the case that certain labels are unavaiable on some platforms, and I suspect it's highly likely that over time audio streaming will suffer the same sort of walled garden disease as video streaming - requiring multiple streaming subscriptions to cover repertoire of interest, with the constant risk that whole labels or the entire back-catalogue of particular artists can be turned off for reasons far outside customer control. File-based audio gets round this, but then you have all the issues of storage, backup, bit rot - a fair degree of technological nous required to manage this securely. And all you own anyway is a limited license to 'use' the content, according to T&Cs that are constantly updated for commercial reasons.
Given all these factors it's no surprise at all that CD is making something of a comeback, and that from their nadir a few years ago, CD prices are on the rise again. Those of us who watched the madness of people dumping their LP collections first time (and filled our boots with vinyl at the time) round are unsurprised by this, but I suspect many who in recent years have junked their CD collections in favour of computer audio will live to experience similar regrets as those who sold off their LPs.
Give me the old world of casting an eye over the shelves, selecting an LP or CD, reading the sleeve notes and following the libretto, carefully selecting purchases and conducting repeat listening until a work is properly known and understood, and the comforts of long-term ownership - as with LPs, there is satisfaction in owning an object (including a CD) for many years, and using it repeatedly, with all the memories and associations over time that come with this experience.
To be fair I do have a Qubuz subsription and the means to play it into my DAC - but it's used primarily for selection of which LPs (and CDs - most recent classical music is unavailable on vinyl) to purchase. The notion of this being my main (or indeed only!) way of accessing music is quite horrific. Though I fully accept that my conclusions surrounding computer audio may be more influenced by my feelings on user experience than on sound quality, I still think it's a pretty awful way to listen.
