Which Has Best Sound Quality -- CD vs. Tidal vs. FLAC Uploaded From Burned CD


I will start the discussion noting my experience using Roon and Tidal, which enabled a direct A/B comparison between my FLAC library which I transferred from my CDs and Tidal.  It was easy to A/B compare because in many instances I uploaded the same album in FLAC that Tidal had in their general mainframe for our listening pleasure.

As an example, I listened to both versions of the Ratatat album LP3.  I found my FLAC version superior to the Tidal version based on being crisper, more refined and less bloated in the bass.  The Roon software clearly identified that I was playing the same album from the two different sources.

I have not compared the CD, as this would require adding a CD player.  What has been your experiences in this area?





 
hayw
Tidal MQA (compressed 92kHz/24bit)> CD (original 44.1kHz/16bit)= FLAC (lossless 44.1/16)
Cary Audio 200ts -- quite nice with a tube option. 

Since I was using the same DAC for both my uploaded FLAC versions of various albums and the same albums that loaded directly from the Tidal server, I think this eliminates the DAC as the variable which might explain the difference in sound quality.  It is interesting that with the Tidal 19.99 a month expense, one is supposedly getting the same CD quality as one of my CDs transferred to uncompressed, lossless FLAC.