Personality

+1 @parkergetdean I also find rvpiano’s posts similar, laced with insecurity, seeking others support of his opinion.   I have offered a recommendation that the subjective opinion of others regarding SQ is not of concern.  Rather, his own opinion of the SQ of his system, his problem statement, and goals for improvement are, but not articulated to permit others to assist.  
 

+1 @ghdprentice I agree with your analysis that the homogenization of musicality and expression of emotion (uniqueness or personality) is system, not format related.  I find the cool, detailed, analytical Benchmark to rob recorded performances of musicality and expression of emotion, possibly leading to the homogenization effect experienced by rvpiano.  The Aurender N20 with its OCXO clock and rugged power supply will lower the noise floor and express nuances such as ambient information and harmonic decay that significantly contribute to differences in the personality of recordings, even though I own an N200 due to budgetary constraints.  

@rvpiano The homogenization of musicality and expression of emotion between recordings is system not format related.  I discern vast differences in the personality of different streamed recordings … differences in the emotion expressed, timbre, dynamics, PRaT, staging, imaging, harmonic decay, and ambient information.  The analog camp may disagree, and that’s OK.   I recommend you follow ghdprentice’s lead.  Some DACs that I have found that express the musicality and expression of emotion of recordings include, without limitation, the Mola Mola Tambaqui, Audio Research DAC9, Bricasti M1, and DCS Bartok.  Each has its own sound palate.  Therefore, auditioning is necessary.   It is my subjective opinion that any listed DACs will not homogenize the personality of streamed recordings, and will express a high degree of the quality of musicality.  The only way is to determine whether they will meet your criteria for better expression of differences in the personality between recordings it to audition in your system.  
 

I’m not by any means saying that records and CDs sound better than streaming.  Just that, as Kennyc suggests, there’s an association with something “somewhat similar to a song linked to a person or event.”

 As far as “sonic signature,” not all media sound alike.  Not necessarily better, but different.

Nope rvpiano love 2 stream

Loss of personality and

uniqueness implies a loss of ability to decent differences in attributes of musicality between recordings and recording engineering techniques.   I responded in my previous post. Loss of something familiar (something we grew up with) is different, understandable, and stems from cognitive bias.  There are again two general camps.  Those preferring the distortions associated with analogue playback and those preferring the distortions from digital playback.  In the early days of digital, I was of the vinyl camp due to the unlistenable high end distortion I perceived from digital playback.  Now, with DACs and recording engineering improvements, I prefer digital.   Yes, the audible distortions are different.  But add the convenience of streaming, I prefer digital playback.  

Interesting! it seems there is a minimal amount of albums...

26  albums of Banerjee is a good score...

5 albums of Haydn quatuors on 13 not so good...

And we must pay for many sources no ?

At least, Tidal, Quobuz, Spotify which else ?

People here seems in general above average for budget and money...

It is not my case....It is why i dont stream at all ...Anyway i am not limited by this fact...

 Thanks for your time and research ....I am surprised by the 26 albums of this sitar player ...

@mahgister just fyi, a quick search shows Qobuz has 5 volumes of the Tacet Auryn Haydn recordings (Op. 17, 50, 54, 55 & 76) and in better than CD quality (96kHz/ 24 bit depth).

And as for Nikhil Banerjee, Roon shows that between TIDAL and Qobuz  (my only sources — and I didn’t check to see if there is complete overlap or not) there are 26 albums, 2 singles/EPs of his and 1 compilation in which he is included.