Music from ripped CDs (server)

Why would you automatically suspect that ripped CDs sound worse than the CD itself? I ripped my CD collection of several thousand CDs starting well over 10 years ago and was never able to tell a difference in sound quality between the two formats. Remember, the CD itself was made from a digital file that was saved on a hard drive. 

That said, one does want to pay attention to the system to which you save your ripped CDs and use for playback. You want good equipment and an eye toward minimizing interference issues. I have my collection on a Linux PC in a separate room that runs the server program. It connects by ethernet to the player. 

And, once ripped and well-tagged, it should be easier and faster to find what you're looking for in your collection than just browsing through a bunch of CD cases. 

flrun

OOps meant  Oppo/Modwright 105

If you rip to a lossless codec such as Flac you won’t be able to tell the difference. 

It can be better. Sometimes it can be worse. Depends on just about everything.

No sound quality downside with ripping if done correctly at proper resolution.

More upside in general playing ripped files with most streamers compared to CD players that must always optically read often defective or damaged CDs in real time. Some do that much better than others. The difference is the CD is typically read in real time as the music plays whereas ripping software can take as long as needed to get a good copy of the data off the CD.

Ripping a damaged or defective CD correctly may take longer than a good quality CD as it rereads segments with read errors as needed until good, but once ripped you are good to go.

The DAC used in either case, either onboard with either CD player or streamer or separate, will then largely determine the sound quality of the source that feeds the amplifier upstream.