Did you notice....

In some cases people have their systems tuned to deal with all the issues associated with analog so when pure clean accurate digital comes into the picture it is a problem that requires more changes.

In other cases the reverse is true.

In others, nothing is really all that good so there is no source for reference

Still yet in others the stars are aligned and everything sounds similarly excellent. But this usually happens by design, not by chance.

Just do it well no matter what and it will all work out.  Otherwise probably not. 

CD is better.  My kit: Aurender to MSB DAC.  MSB TRANSPORT to MSB DAC. STREAMING OPTIMIZED WITH UPTONE ETHERREGEN SWITCH , AUDIOQUEST Diamond USB , AUDIOQUEST Jitterbug .  Power cables all exactly the same ;Transparent Audio Reference.  Cd is easier on the brain and holographic. 

I read responses to the question.  What is "Outperform" is What? I hear advantages in both depending on the music and age of CD. Type of mixing and EQ. With streaming you might find the same song mixed. EQ better than what the CD had. Strictly RedBook? I have never heard one so have no idea.

@alfa100 

CD is better.  My kit: Aurender to MSB DAC.  MSB TRANSPORT to MSB DAC. STREAMING OPTIMIZED WITH UPTONE ETHERREGEN SWITCH , AUDIOQUEST Diamond USB , AUDIOQUEST Jitterbug .  Power cables all exactly the same ;Transparent Audio Reference.  Cd is easier on the brain and holographic. 

I’m curious why would you have an Audioquest jitterbug and an Audioquest diamond usb cable in the chain between your Aurender and your MSB dac? Do you have the pro usb msb interface? Unless you have an Aurender that only outputs USB then why wouldnt you compare a burned music file from the aurender fed through AES/EBU to your MSB dac? The reason I ask is I have done the same experiment and there is little discernable difference between the sound quality with the Aurender sounding slightly better, which I assumed was its caching advantage over a transport only. The usb output of even the most basic Aurender when fed into even the base usb input of a MSB discrete dac would not be positively influenced by the Audioquest Jitterbug.

Maybe a tad off the subject but relevant I think. I Don't stream but have been playing some MQA CD's on my Esoteric K-03xd which supports MQA. They sound stunning far superior to standard CD and better than most SACD'S I have. I fequently hear from those that stream MQA coded files from TIDAL, Qbuz et al that MQA is nothing to write home about. Based on this variation on your scenario I would say there is merit to your observation.