Streaming Is To Audio What Red Plastic Cups Are To Wine

@nubiann 

Excellent post.

My experiences are along much the same lines.

Any differences are more than likely down to the mastering, but the OP was not concerned about sound quality per se.

newton_john

"OP was not concerned about sound quality per se".

Thanks I realise I  have a tendancy to write from the hip, so I can wander off topic in my ethusiasm I hope we can allow for just a little of that but always respecting opinions and views however much we may feel they are wrong.

Not all TTs are the same. Some are excellent but some are terrible.  The same goes with streamers and DACs. Streaming also opens the door to millions of tracks and artists - the possibilities are endless. I'd rather have a good streamer than a lousy TR. I'm very fortunate to have an incredible Innuos Pulsar and standalone Accuphase Processor/DAC. 

Impossible to resolve rationally because it's in your head. The OP more or less said so.

@nubiann 

I have had similar experiences when comparing different mastering. I have a top end LP 12 and similarly chosen digital end that is voiced similarly and have done extensive comparisons between the same performance and mastering in vinyl, stored files, cd and streaming and found them to sound the same... with the caveat that vinyl has a fairly large variation based on the pressing number. 

So a similar but not the same conclusion is that high variation in sound quality comes from the performance, mastering, and components you choose... but there is no unique or significant advantage in the medium... well, other than no pops and surface noise in digital.