CD or Streaming... am I missing out?


I listen to CD in my headphone office system. Use a Theta Compli transport and a very nice and pricey tube 16/44 DAC. Have thought about a streaming capability and all its benefits but am both limited by SPDF and by 16/44 only. I also love the analog sound of my tube DAC. Does streaming sound far surpass CD? Am I missing out?
mglik
Hi mglik1   I never heard streaming that was as good as a CD. Compare Nina Simone's "Baltimore" with the streaming versions - doesn't sound like the same session. Why bother? New music, I know. Good Luck!
@mglik
Qobuz has 50 million songs while Tidal has 60 million songs which I believe is the most economic way to hear various songs. Many songs come with significantly higher resolutions files compared to redbook (CD) files which sound significantly better on highly resolving audio systems. If you want to do in-depth research such as which albums does a particular artist contributes to, try searching on Metadata and Roon.

Like vinyl, CD albums usually contain a few songs you may like and sometimes songs you don't.  But with streaming, you can choose individual songs and even create playlists. Might be a good idea to find an audio dealer with streaming hooked up for a demo.

I plan to burn all my CDs to a Innuos Zenith server, then use Roon player to seamlessly combine my server files with Tidal and/or Qobuz to look like a single library of songs on a iPad (I believe you can use a PC/Mac/laptop instead). If I want to spin CDs, I can always add a quality transport later.
I'm a recent streaming convert as well

Tidal and Qobuz delivered via Roon to a streamer capable of rendering bit perfect playback of HiRes and MQA formats

Everything in the streaming network is wired and nothing connected via wifi or BT

The SQ is much preferred over my Audiolab transport

Add in the convenience of changing music without getting out of my chair, the advantage of the vast music libraries (est 35 million tracks) and my favorite part..... the new releases just keep getting added

I hope I never have to purchase another piece of physical media again

The mobile benefits of streaming is another nice feature - car stereo, PC, headphones for bike rides and dog walks, etc

We all have our preferences and for different reasons but the value proposition of streaming works for me

This is a wonderful hobby that we all enjoy and great to share our experiences and ideas

Happy listening and enjoy the journey
If you’ll spend at least twice more on your new streamer then you did spend on Theta Compli you’ll definitely will not be regret.  Decent streamers starts from around 2K and up... don’t go budget on it, get high res service and you’ll definitely will be surprised by streaming SQ superiority.