I streamed from Qobuz directly via my switch to Rossini controlled by Roon (Access point—-Ansuz switch—–Rossini). Apart from that, I have many records bought from Qobuz as well - they are stored on my Innuos Statement Next Gen. So I can stream same album either from Qobuz directly or from NAS (Roon shows different locations of same album).
So when playing the music directly from Qobuz, it sounds better. More air, more clarity vs NAS stored music.
Does one here has same impression? Is streaming now on a level of a 20k€ NAS?
For me, I tend to find the opposite; the downloaded files sound better than direct streaming, but it is very close. Where it does make a difference is for files that Qobuz provides for download that are of higher resolution than those available for streaming. This does not apply to all downloads but I have noticed a few where that is the case. If you are a Roon user it will show you the versions that are available, both those available for streaming and those on your NAS.