For me i have found that all this has changed as i have upgraded certain bits in the chain.
I have a rossini player and clock.
I also have a melco N10 that has all my ripped CD’s stored on it, all ripped using the melco D100.
My streamer side, comes from the router, then 7m of catsnake 6 floating cable, into a Cisco switch, then it goes into the melco N10 using 0.75m catsnake 6 floating, and then from the N10 to the rossini using AQ diamond, 1 meter long.
Right now how my system is, the ripped CD’s from the N10, sound slightly better, more open and dynamic than the same CD playing in the rossini.
The same album streamed in CD quality, sounds to me just like the ripped CD.
So for me the player is the worst sounding, but this hasn’t been like this all the time.
I have run different melco’s, cables, switches into the rossini, and at the beginning i preferred the CD player slightly over the others, at the time i was using a melco N100, no switch and very cheap network cables, the power supply on the melco, put loads of noise into the mains, and imhad to remove it from my dedicated mains as it was so bad, i have also had the melco N1ZS/20, this was a massive improvement and with the ethernet cables i mentioned above, then i found that the ripped CD’s sounded as good, but my streamer side had taken the lead just, at this point i was thinking about selling my melco, as i was not using it to play any ripped tracks, and just streaming them from qobuz.
After having a long chat with my deal about my melco, he suggested that i tried the new N10, as its basically the same as what i had, but in 2 boxes, bit more importantly a different sound, more forward and alive, rather than the smooth delivery from the N1ZS/2.
So i did, and yes it made a difference that i was very happy with, so thats been my journey, but what i have found is that with it all, it all needs attention to get the best from it, this streaming is not as easy as say a CD player that you just make sure its level, on a good stand and plug it in, to get the best from streaming takes more time i found, little things can make a nice improvement, but it all depends on your own network, how much time and effort you want to put into it all.
I still stream most of the time, as i listen to stuff i haven’t got ripped, but if i want that extra bit of quality, and i have it stored on my melco, then this is my go to.
Hopefully this might have been of interest, if not then sorry for wasting your time.
Cheers dunc