Streaming vs Physical Media

@charles1dad , as usual, you head the bullseye with your comment on the Technics SL-G700. Any company willing to do what is necessary can build a fantastic  CD/SACD player, can do so.

All the best,
Nonoise

I have been personally blessed to have owned and still own some of the very finest cd playback systems ever made. And I have never heard a streamer on a display that I was taken aback with or one that I could say kept up with the cd systems I had at home.  That being said I have never bothered to ask about what they were running for the demonstration as I just wasn't interested. Now a few things to keep in mind there are not that many stores around here anymore so likely have not heard many different setups. Also I don't make the trip up to the big cities that often anymore the one city is a two hour drive the other is a six hour drive twenty years ago went almost every weekend and heard many systems that were on display. I can remember being blown away by a few systems and what cd playback system they had in them. I bought one of my favorite of the group and likely should have done what it took to buy the Linn cd12 at the time. Likely what I thought was the best redbook cd player I ever heard but I had the sonic frontier dac and transport three and it also is superlative. The one person commented on the thread  about the connection boxes on either end of the streaming system likely not being optimized for audio might be what I have heard at cost no object HiFi stores that I don't like about streaming. Not sure what it is and as I said I was never interested enough to learn about them or buy one as I felt is was a step down. I have wondered they way fellows write about them if I have only listened to cheap junk and not a real good one. But at the present I am more than happy with the four top end cd playback systems I have and easily live with two of three three I had in the past. CD playback has always been important to me. 

@retiredfarmer 

If you do not mind what are your most often used (Favorite) CD playback choices?

Charles

@retiredfarmer

I appreciate your post and sentiments on importance of CD playback in your system.

As far as streaming goes, a decent streaming setup is far from plug n play. The biggest nemesis of any streaming playback system is the ‘noise’ emitted by your router. As you’ve probably read here, many here have gone above and beyond to reduce or eliminate the noise. I am going to go out on a limb to say that a good streaming setup is close second to a Vinyl setup in terms of complexity. Once you address the noise, streaming can be as satisfying as any other playback medium. And then there is this whole endless debate on “CD is better than Streaming” without much consideration given to provenance of a recording you are listening to on a CD and Streaming services which BTW, is the single most important differentiator as to why a CD may sound better than its Streaming counterpart and vice versa. Then there is level of commitment to electronics between CD and Streaming setups :-)

In my system (featured here in virtual systems) streaming has transcended both CD and Vinyl. I still buy CD’s and Vinyl but with clear emphasis on finding ultimate recordings. For me, it’s no longer about which medium is superior sounding.

@charles1dad  well my list of the best cd playback systems I have heard are as follows. A Linn cd12, DSC Elgar Purcell pair(yes not particularly fair as it upsamples), sonic frontier transport and DAC three, Wadia 270/27 separates, Naim CDS, Mark Levinson DAC 30.5 and driven by the Oracle transport. Of that group I bought a sonic frontier transport and DAC three. The other players I have and have had that I consider a small step below these are a Krell kps20i,wadia6, Theda universal transport and gen three DAC, enlightened audio design seperates.another step down was Roksan dp1 transport and DAC, the transport was very good the DAC I didn't care for I replaced the DAC with a chord 64 and that took it up comparably to the others In the one step down category.  I was offered the Linn cd12 at at great prices the dealer was wanting rid of it and I should have done what it took to buy that one but I past on it back in the day. 

Regards