Digitally recorded vinyl vs streaming

@mojo771 New issue of Sterophile (Aug) has a well written, detailed, and very favourable write up on the new ifi Audio NEO stream. It’s only $1299 and “punches way above it’s weight.”  Get your Mojo working. 

@mojo771  Blusound is great but when I hooked it to my Holo Spring Dac it sounded much bigger and better. I like the Blusound by itself as well. I'm not completely convinced on spending huge money to upgrade a streamer.

I read the review of the iFi Audio NEO Stream that @wsrrsw mentioned and one thing intrigued me.  The support for direct optical connection, I currently run optical from my router to my Bluesound box with transceivers at each end to replace the 50 foot ethernet run I had.  It made a big difference. Are there any other streamers out there that support direct optical?

@upshift Yup Lumin's do. I'm sure other bands must too. Obviously check photo's of the back and specs.

Have not reviewed all responses but my two cents is, which one “sounds” better - streamed or digitally recorded and cut to vinyl - has to do with your preferences and quality of playback front end. Certainly, a digitally sourced record can sound great and I have had plenty of those in my collection. But why spend the money on an LP form a digital source, if you can stream it?

I have changed my thinking about this over the years. I used to be heavy pro record, thinking that the analog source was superior. Records did sound nicer in my system, but the quality of my vinyl rig and cartridge (Hana SL with Rega, vpi and well tempered turntables, various well regarded phono stages from Lehman and Tom evans) was far greater than digital. I was using a Bluesound node at that time. But then, I switched DACs, first to Schiit then to chord. Suddenly the LP versus the streamed version (either analog original source or digital) mattered much much less, and I couldn’t honestly say that one was consistently better, or that the sound was different, depending on the recording. This, I strongly suggest the other user suggestion that you get a better DAC than the Bluesound. It will change your perspective and priorities. 
 

In my view, a well done digital system and well done vinyl rig are (usually) striving towards neutrality, ie not imparting distinct sound on the recording.* Therefore the better your gear, the more parity. I do appreciate that analog provides some additional spice/distortion, apparently second order harmonic, that is typically subtle but alters the sound. See Dave McNair’s writings on this topic. I like it and am not putting it down. 
 

I have also found that ripping my records using a high quality A/D in high res, played on a high quality DAC, sounds identical to live LP playback. This makes sense to me as digital is transparent to source. The digitized LP sounds like a record (since it is recording the sound of your vinyl rig, table cartridge phono and the LP). Whether or not that is “better” than the DDD streamed is in the eye of the beholder. Similarly, try listening to an A>D tape. THese can sound great and retain an “analog” sound quality. 
 

for me today, I sold my fancy turntable and phono stage and downgraded to a vintage well regarded table, solid entry level cartridge and phono, and just enjoy records for the experience. That is not to say that digital is “better” than analog. It is just different. And MUCH cheaper to achieve the same level of sound quality.  

*nothing against products that affirmatively “sound like…,” ie introduce distinct distortions on the source. But I do wish people would accept that those sounds are indeed distortions and not “what the artist intended” or “connecting to the emotion of the music” or whatever other phrases are out there…