CD v Streamed

I both stream and play CDs. CDs are played through a Sony XA 5400 ES which was a Stereophile A+ Component for four years and is excellent on Red Book. I stream through a Cambridge CXNv2 to a Benchmark DAC 3b. I can also play CVDs using the digital out of the Sony to the Benchmark.
By far most of the time using the Sony through the Benchmark is noticeably better than the Sony alone. I like the sound of Tidal streamed through the gear listed better than the CD and I find Qobuzz also better, although sometimes Qobuzz sounds too digital vs. a more liquid sounding Tidal. Tube Audio Research pre-amp and everything is on Audioquest Niagara power conditioning and cords.
Just sayin......  & BTW, with digital everything starts at the wall and/or router.  Hospital Grade at the wall and clean noise reduced power to all gear. Router to streamer via Ethernet, not below Grade 6 and 7 or 8 preferred.  Isolate digital gear from analogue with sheet copper.  Streaming is a serious medium, treat it that way just as you would every other piece of gear you would try an achieve optimum performance from.

I decided a while ago that ripping a CD to a music server sounded better than the CD.  I do not have an uber CD player- maybe that's the issue.  There is no question in my system that music played from the server is much better than Tidal or Qobuz ( and I agree Qobuz is easily better than Tidal).  The Hi-Rez streaming is better than 16/44 and I am undecided on MQA as my DAC doesn't unfold it and I am not convinced Roon is helping with what it does.
I have 3 switches Etherregen, SOtM with clock, English Electric 8Switch and a Mutec clock on the ER and SOtM and that has greatly improved the streaming but it doesn't bring it to the level of the server files.  I have an Antipodes Core server and Innuos Statement.  I use Roon in Experimental (squeezelite) mode.
There was a time I thought Roon was better with the Core on the Antipodes and Endpoint on the Innuos but after adding the Mutec I went back to Experimental mode.  I still don't understand why, it doesn't make sense to me.  Maybe it unmasked some nasties from the network traffic or the Antipodes.

@daleberlin - yeah FLAC sounds no different than a WAV ripped from a CD. At least on my system, I find your claim to be the case for me too.

@relaks - I don’t stream my FLAC files, they are local on a purpose built fanless PC music server. The SSD the file is on had it’s own linear power supply.
And as I said to daleberlin, for whatever reason, my system resolves the information in such a way that I cannot distinguish a difference in quality between FLAC and WAV.
My DAC is not one you will know of, it sits somewhere between a PS Audio DirectStream and Denefrips Terminator in SQ, well at least in the system the meeting where it was reviewed.
This is just my experience, of which I can only account.

@sns - "I’m also agnostic about superiority of high res vs 16/44, quality of studio mastering is the biggie!" - I agree on that for certain.

CD is better. All the time. No contest in my system. 

Compression? How about cd vs vinyl.