Why Purchase A CD Player or Transport ?

A proper high resolution server will have no spinning parts, hence less vibration, with lower noise through a quality internal LPS, SSD storage and file caching, and improved isolation from non-digital signals. You will get a bit further with your money this route, as chances are you would invest in a file server down the road anyways once buying, storing, and playing discs becomes too cumbersome.

The NUC you have is a great start but there are much better server solutions that include the features I list above, and the sound quality will be a huge step forward with them as a result. Happy to chat options with you over PM.

 

My NUC is a fanless SSD Roon Rock, which manages file caching. I believe that clean power is important. I use an Everest and Shunyata NR power cords. I also pay attention to component power supplies and try to cleanup ethernet noise prior to entering my streamer. I have an upgraded LPS for my phono preamplifier and streamer, but I was under the impression that the music server did not benefit by replacing the switching supply. Of course, the truth of the matter is best served by A/B.

Hmmm.  Millions of available albums?  My lifetime isn't long enough to enjoy even a fraction, so I think I'll stick with my vinyl, CDs, SACDs and a few cassettes to keep myself entertained.

A few notes from my experience.

I have ripped my collection of 4000+ CDs to uncompressed FLAC (I still have all my CDs). I can't hear much if any difference between the original CD played through my PSA PerfectWave transport and PW MKII DAC vs. the FLAC. When I compare the same version on Qobuz I get the same result. They sound virtually identical to me. I'm playing Qobuz and my FLACs through my Asus ROG laptop hooked up to my DAC with USB. Couldn't be simpler.

If you have a significant number of HDCDs then you will need a player or DAC that can decode them. If you rip them with dB Poweramp it has the ability to decode them and make a 20 bit file that recovers the additional dynamic range. On a few titles I have compared my ripped FLAC with the disc itself using my Krell CD250 and I think the disc may sound a little bit better than the FLAC. One thing I can say for sure is that an HDCD sounds better played through an HDCD capable player vs. a Red Book player. I go out of my way to collect titles that have this format. Part of the reason I think HDCDs generally sound good is because the studio had to use Pacific Microsonics converters which were the best available at the time.

I haven't compared my SACDs to their hi res counterparts on Qobuz. One of these days I'll try a few to see how they stack up.

My 2cents:  Streaming is great and only getting better as you go up the food chain. Having said that, actually owning music on CD or vinyl means no lawyer, record label, or even the artist themselves can take it away from you. 

I also note that on some streaming platforms albums are incomplete for whatever legal reason. I subscribe to Tidal and the latest Daniel Lanois album Player, Piano only has TWO tracks available out of TEN that are on the album. There are several like that. 

And as others note, I enjoy having a physical medium, the cover art, inserts, booklets, etc. they come with. I feel a deeper connection to the band and music playing them than I do just streaming bits from the ether, no matter how "good" it can sound. 

even a modest cd player can sound fantastic…. and cds are available for cheap at thrift stores-  i’ve scored a lot of cool stuff for $1 or $2 at Goodwill and Salvation Army and garage sales, stuff i might not have thought of, so it’s fun to explore.  

myself i have s carefully curated collection on cds organized  in folders w original booklets and whatnot- collected over several decades, and like physical books it’s cool to flip through and browse etc.  

streaming supplements my cd collection… and for background like a shuffled Pandora or whatever stream … 

also note : buying the occasional cd new, whether it’s a classic or a new release, does help support the artist, young or old