Do I need an expensive digital cable?

@richardbrand 

I find it hard to imagine that a reviewer can be 100% sure that a 16/44 on any of the streaming services is the same master that is on a cd that was used for comparison.

I have a large library of ripped CDs. FLAC, WAV, AIFF. 

I do not have a $4k Ethernet cable but I do use a high quality cable, Audience Hidden Treasure.
CD rips and streaming in most cases are not the same masters. Plus streaming services sound different. And that too invalidates the comparison. 

What I can tell you though that in my system it highly depends on an album I’m listening to. In most cases streaming sound just as good as CD rips, and at times it’s better. It took time, effort and funds to get my digital front end to this level. It’s far from ultra high end, but it’s definitely good enough for me and enables me to enjoy listening to CD rips and streaming. 

@audphile1 

Do you find streaming CD rips sounds better than streaming it from Qobuz or Tidal? I don't think I own a CD that isn't on one of those services, and I own a lot of obscure CDs. Streaming some albums at 44.1 sometimes seems flat to me. I will go to my CD and play it on my transport and it often sounds better.

@audphile1 

I find it hard to imagine that a reviewer can be 100% sure that a 16/44 on any of the streaming services is the same master that is on a cd that was used for comparison

In the post where I quoted from a review, I also put a link to the original so anybody interested can see the full context, which I took to be a generalisation across the industry.

You have identified one way in which digital sound quality may genuinely differ depending on the source.

There must be a surefire way of finding out - stream to a file and use a computer program to do a word-by-word comparison, maybe?

I very recently bought my partner a set of Barbirolli conducting Elgar on CDs, some of which are famous recordings which have been full price in the catalog for decades.  The new set did not sound right and it turns out they have been remastered in 24/192, which possibly means remixed as well?

Another way for digital to differ is if what arrives at the dac, differs from the source. If any digital link in the chain does not implement full error detection and recovery, that’s a potential variance.  Any digital that travels over an I2S cable connection is suspect.  Same for Ethernet unless it is within an end-to-end error correction protocol.

If you can be sure your digital is arriving perfectly (which requires a memory buffer and an on-board clock), the next potential source of variation is analogue variability and interference.

After that, differences can only be psycho-acoustic in my book.

@audio-b-dog wrote

I agree with you about tweakers, and I think you can add your 2 cents. But it could be in a nicely put question. Like where did you hear that. Or, do you really hear a difference in the quality of your music. Or I have tried that and it didn’t work for me.

You are right, of course; and in an ideal world, that approach would work every time.

In reality, when folks start asking diplomatic but pointed questions, more often than not they get the brush-off or are roundly ignored. That’s understandable, in a way; when people are heavily invested in a certain paradigm, the last thing they want to hear is that that paradigm might be flawed.

@devinplombier 

No doubt, critical listening is subjective. If I just spent thosands of dollars on cables, I'm sure I'd hear a difference too.