I have an Aurrender streamer hardwired to my router and hooked up to a PS Audio DirectStream Dac with the latest software upgrade(big improvement). My transport is a 2 belt drive CEC TLN2 up-sampling transport hooked up to the same PS Audio Dac. (Even though I do not have a MQA decoder, the Tidal MQA files sound consistently better than non MQA files, although some of the non MQA files on Tidal can sound very good without MQA.)
But the issue at hand is CD vs. Tidal and in general, CD sounds better than streaming at least thru my system. I will say, however, in some circumstances, I have found some of the higher res MQA files to better CD in sound quality. So I have found it really comes down to software. If everything on Tidal was a MQA excellent recording one wouldn't need CD but that simply isn't the case. So both have their places in a system. I am listening thru a tube preamp with a separate power supply, a Luxman low power tube amp and reasonably efficient Focal speakers.
But the issue at hand is CD vs. Tidal and in general, CD sounds better than streaming at least thru my system. I will say, however, in some circumstances, I have found some of the higher res MQA files to better CD in sound quality. So I have found it really comes down to software. If everything on Tidal was a MQA excellent recording one wouldn't need CD but that simply isn't the case. So both have their places in a system. I am listening thru a tube preamp with a separate power supply, a Luxman low power tube amp and reasonably efficient Focal speakers.