Big source improvement using CD player

The Marantz CD players (especially the ones that play Blu-rays and DVDs) are not that expensive and have excellent sound.  

I have found that it is not so much the medium as it is the particular mastering.  A lot of streaming sources do sound bad, but then, so do a lot of currently available CDs of the same music.  In many cases, older CDs sound WAY better then current reissues.  It comes down to how the digital mastering was done.  That is one of the reasons why certain CD reissues command exorbitant prices on Discogs, such as Japanese reissues.  

I think it is worthwhile having a CD player and buying used CDs; they can be quite economical to collect.  But, I don't think one loses any quality by ripping the CD to put on a streamer/server.  The sound quality of a server can be as good as that of a CD player and a server makes your collection much more accessible and convenient.  Also, streaming services can give you access to way more music than you can possible own, even though quality is sometimes not ideal.  

Why does a good CD player make a difference? Does it have a magical dac or is it how it reads the information? 

Spotify Premium streams at 320 kbps, a CD is 1411 kbps...the rest is magic...Tidal HiFi is 1411 kbps...so a CD even without a magical DAC is better sounding than Spotify...though some believe bits are bits, many believe both the transport and DAC make a big difference...plus of course quality source material which Spotify is not, and doesn’t pretend to be...the more serious debate is Tidal or Qobuz on a good streamer vs CD with the same DAC...

Here's a thread on that topic:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/why-does-cd-sound-so-good