Depending on your equipment there are many levels of performance available from the red book CD. In general, the sound of a CD from a $1k, $2K, $5K, $10K, and $20K CD player will vary increasing fidelity with a pretty big jump in sound from each of these classes of machine, assuming you have equal equipment downstream.
If you have good equipment streaming can sound the same in the case of red book CDs at any of these levels, and frequently better since streaming services often provide higher resolution. If you want to stick with CDs then it is likely staying with a single disk player is the way to go.
A CD player is a transport, streamer, and DAC.
It is unlikely to find a high quality multi-disc player. The most logical thing to do would be to rip them and put them on a hard drive or network drive. But of course, then you are streaming. If you want to make that sound good you need a high quality streamer… like an Aurender, Auralic… etc. The sound quality of any of these pieces of equipment is like every other piece of equipment… how “good” it sounds… generally dependent on your investment level.
My streamer sounds as good as my CD player (at the limit possible from a CD), usually better. I have 2,000 CDs which are collecting dust as a wall sound diffuser. The trick to great sound in any system is to have one and only one of each component of the highest quality possible that are synergistic with the rest of your system.
If you have good equipment streaming can sound the same in the case of red book CDs at any of these levels, and frequently better since streaming services often provide higher resolution. If you want to stick with CDs then it is likely staying with a single disk player is the way to go.
A CD player is a transport, streamer, and DAC.
It is unlikely to find a high quality multi-disc player. The most logical thing to do would be to rip them and put them on a hard drive or network drive. But of course, then you are streaming. If you want to make that sound good you need a high quality streamer… like an Aurender, Auralic… etc. The sound quality of any of these pieces of equipment is like every other piece of equipment… how “good” it sounds… generally dependent on your investment level.
My streamer sounds as good as my CD player (at the limit possible from a CD), usually better. I have 2,000 CDs which are collecting dust as a wall sound diffuser. The trick to great sound in any system is to have one and only one of each component of the highest quality possible that are synergistic with the rest of your system.