Many CDs, no CD player (a question about ripping CDs)

Thanks. I've often heard people say that CDs sound better than streaming--so my question is really about whether a digital file (ripped from a CD) will also sound better. I've ripped CDs with dBpoweramp and I can get off my butt and do some comparisons with those files. But, for the ease of it, I'm noodling around with getting a ripper. I just don't know if it's worth it. (I will get another CD player down the road but I'm holding off on that purchase for now.) And ... I'm sure you know more crap than I do!

I think that my CDs ripped to FLAC files on a NAS drive sound better than streaming Tidal or Qobuz, and also better than through my CD player.  But the differences are very, very subtle.  I spend most of my time streaming for the convenience and for exploring new artists and music. 

I ripped all my CDs just as Tidal was coming out.  Would I rip them all today, knowing that I do most of my listening via streaming?  Probably not for the sound quality difference, but perhaps just to have access to music for those times when the internet is down.

Thanks, dinosore. That's exactly what I was wondering about. I appreciate that you took the time to respond.

Ripped CDs in WAV sound better than streaming and FLAC. If you have a highly resolving system you will hear it in the texture and timbre. Also streaming brings in a whole other mess of issues such as internet noise etc.

Ripped CDs onto an internal SSD or USB plugged into a streamer/renderer will give the best results except for actual CD spinning but that difference IMHO is just a fraction of difference, the difference between ripped CDs and streaming is much bigger. Most people won’t have a problem with ripped CDs because the convenience is immense.

Of course if you don’t have an extensive CD collection there’s downloads which are expensive or you have to use streaming.

Bit perfect rip of CD to NAIM Unitiserve beat any one of ten CD olayers….of course, that was 8 years ago……maybe somebody ( besides memory player ) has invented something better…..

I am a CD ripping robot