Media Choice?

Jordan,

There are people more knowledgeable that can address this but for one I would say you have the equipment, do a comparison.
Take a few Hi-Res songs via streaming that you also have on CD. Rip from those CDs and then compare.

When I want to compare a Hi-Res download if I have it on cd I will play both to compare them.

Over half my library is Flac from cd the rest are downloads, the Flac from cd almost always sounds much better. I am slowly replacing all the downloaded with cd.

Will

I don’t think there are enough HDCDs around that this would be a good option for building a collection.

Cds are generally cheap and plentiful right now so that’s a plus. However, many cds have been dynamically squashed. They are loud all the way through, no soft sections and loud sections. That can make finding good sounding cds difficult depending on your taste in music.

I think that streaming can sound as good as cds or better, and streaming appears to be the future of digital audio. However, you don’t own a copy of the music you stream, so if your streaming service disappears or removes certain albums or artists for whatever reason, you no longer have access to that music.

So I would try to find on cd the music you want to own and keep forever.  Buying downloads is also an option.

Resources for finding good sounding cds are the Steve Hoffman Music Forums and the Dynamic Range Database. Once you decide which mastering of a particular album you want you can find cds listed by mastering on Discogs, but check with the seller before buying because sellers don’t always list their cds under the correct listing.

I also recommend you stream because it gives you access to a tremendous amount of music, it sounds great to me and the sound quality will probably improve beyond cd as time goes on, and the scenario where you lose the music you want to listen to may not happen.

So, I am going to stream regardless. However (in the event there are other options such as downloading files), I am assuming that playing a Flac file from the server transport will sound better than the same resolution streamed via a streaming transport. Is that correct? 

Is it also correct that a 24/192 Flac will sound better than a 20/44.1 HDCD ripped to Flac, then played via the server? 

Thanks all!