Streaming vs traditional

I think it is useful to distinguish between two kinds. The first is streaming from your own hardisk. This was the common way to do this: you rip (i.e. copy) your cds to you rown harddisk, or you buy downloads, and then access those from a device. The other is streaming from the internet, from services like Spotify, Tidal or Qobuz. If the latter are also full cd red book (losslessly compressed in e.g. FLAC) they will sound identical to cd's.  For now, Spotify only does 320 kbs (lightly) compressed, but Qobuz and Tidal also offer full red book cd quality. Whether you can hear the difference is a matter for debate (BBC research believe you cannot, and I am inclined to believe them). Anyhow, more bandwidth uses a lot more energy, and hence produces more pollution. However, in the footsteps of Qobuz and Tidal even Spotify is about to introduce full red book cd streams. My own preference is for streaming with a Chromecast Audio.

Despite denials, there are many multichannel hi-rez downloads but it depends on genre.  There are more real (from hi-res original recordings and not up-mixed) multichannel hi-res files in classical.

Thanks for the input.  I'm referring to hi-resolution streaming.  I believe I read that Spotify is starting to stream in hi-res.  As far as convenience goes, I don't mind getting up to change a CD, as opposed to uploading my collection on a hard drive.  I'm mainly interested in the highest quality reproduction I can get.  Sometimes I get lazy, or if wanting to play at a really high db level, I give in to CD's  I get some acoustical feedback on my vinyl playback, if playing at very high volume levels.  Always looking for the best reproduction I can afford.  As Festus used to say "much obliged."

If you can do it, find someone with a streamer/dac that can unfold MQA files from Tidal. If you are really exploring, just buy the Bluesound Node 2 or Vault 2 and play MQA files and rip CDs for your own library of networked music. I was amazed how much I like the music I was hearing via the Bluesound system of playback.