bits is bits

I would love to know how audio streaming is done by different services. What is being done to the files by Qobuz and Tidal. I don’t know. Does a streamer process Qobuz and Tidal streams differently? How are the files stored…compression methods, delivery, decoding by streamers. It clearly can’t be the same as Tidal sounds different from Qobuz. What sounds better is debatable. I know some hate Tidal MQA but my DAC sounds amazing playing MQA from Tidal. I believe it’s more dependent on how the streamer and DAC process this data. But there’s not enough information to draw any conclusions. 
As to laptop streaming, yeah it works. But it’s not an ideal set up. Noise, USB implementation not optimized for high performance music streaming will result in sub optimal sound. Get a dedicated streamer or a dac with a good built in streaming card. 

@parkergetdean 

I am also a retired IT guy with 35 years of experience.  Without getting deep into the never ending arguement as to the "bits is bits", the big differences in the high to low end streamers are usually include:

• general quality of components, including power supplies and shielding
• how they handle the inherent jitter in the digital side, and the quality of the digital clocking circuit
• how noise (electrical circuit and EMI/RF) is minimized or filtered out
• amount and speed of buffering of the streaming data is available 
• and probably the most important piece, is how well the digital "file" data is converted into the 'next' stage signal... such as analog if using the internal DAC, into an optical signal, SPIDIF, or HDMI.

And as @gkelly mentioned... typical computers are among the among the worst at just about all the above issues.

As for Qobuz sounding better than Tidal, I agree.  Not bringing hi-rez files into the discussion, I think a lot of it has to do with possibly different masters (or remasters) supplied from the original source(s), as well as differences in encoding software used to create the streaming file.  While I've never seen any info from either Qobuz or Tidal on what the format(s) they get or use for the "masters", I don't think those masters are what is actually streamed. Most likely they are ripped or converted (or down sampled from hi-rez, DSD, etc.) into a FLAC, AIFF, etc. file.  So different software, configurations, equalization settings, etc. would create differences...

... Just my 10 cents  (adjusted for tariffs and inflation... lol)

Jeff

Has the OP listened to different streaming services, or compared different equipment?  If so does he perceive any differences?

I will not claim to know the technical side of this issue. All I know is there is a difference between Qobuz and Apple Music. Ive only had one streamer, LUMIN U2 mini and I hope I can improve it in the future with an external power supply. I am a believer in improved sound with better designs and electrical parts. 

jeffbij

... I've never seen any info from either Qobuz or Tidal on what the format(s) they get or use for the "masters", I don't think those masters are what is actually streamed. Most likely they are ripped or converted (or down sampled from hi-rez, DSD, etc.) into a FLAC, AIFF, etc. file ...

I've been told by Qobuz execs that the service streams files exactly as received from the record company or distributor. There's no processing or other alteration to the files and the stream is never throttled even if there's heavy network traffic. Since it uses TCP/IP, it should be delivering a bit perfect file to your streamer.

I don't know much about what processes Tidal and other services use.