What source do you use to demo equipment?

My local dealer.

Streaming now sounds as good as physical media, all things equal. So your audio store is gonna be set up with streaming. So I would just bring a list along of what you wanna listen to because you’re probably gonna be listening to streaming don’t think about CD players or physical media anymore,  they on the way out. They almost guaranteed will be listening to Qubuz. It is the best sounding high fidelity streaming service. It has over half 1 million high resolution, albums, and millions of regular red book CD resolution albums.

For me, it has been repetitive listening, reading, professional reviews in Stereophle, the absolute sound, and hi-fi plus. Go back to the dealer process of isolating what component is doing? What then take them home.

Streaming is mainly it these days for good reason. It holds all the cards. 
 

If you don’t like what you hear it could be anything.  That’s why auditioning is important.  You should always be able to recognize good sound when you hear it, regardless of source format. 

Take some of your favorite CDs with you - any worthwhile audio store is sure to have a few decent spinners on demo. Much of the music on streaming services such as Qobuz has been remastered and compressed, so it won’t have the punchy dynamic range that might have characterized the original CD.

The streaming version of the song that you mentioned must be of poor quality.  I stream with Qobuz and I haven't run into much that sounds inferior to cd. It's usually better. 

Since you have a streamer, I would suggest identifying songs that sound good on your system.  If you get really familiar with those songs, it will help you decide if the system that you are auditioning sounds better. 

I’ve compiled some favorite songs from multiple cds that I take with me from a wide range of musical styles.