Sound Quality of red book CDs vs.streaming

@georgehifi You misunderstood me I was simply saying a CD player of the exalted quality of your Linn CD12 would sound better than any download not to mention many other CD players.

I have found ripping with DB Poweramp on wav or 
# 8 uncompressed  flac files after cleaning with art De son,, the discs sound more alive then streaming and I put a Beldons best Ethernet cable 
then from model a AQCinnamon and atcomputer end . It sounds good but still better direct through computersSolid state drive via USB .the New Nordost Heimdall -2 usb I like betterThen my AQ Diamond, and Wireworld 7 flagship platinum my brother owns.  
Thats in my system.

jond You misunderstood me

Sorry yes I did, teach me to measure twice and cut once.

Cheers George 

Steve, please explain why a coax needs to be at least 1.25-1.50m long. Thx 

I have the same experience even though my mind doesn't want to accept it - if I rip a CD to AIFF (1411 kbps), transfer it to my iPod Classic, and play it through a Cambridge iD100 dock to my Rega DAC-R it doesn't sound as enjoyable as the same CD played from my old Rotel RCD-02  transport to the Rega DAC-R (both using Chord Clearline Digital Coax inter-connects). They should sound identical but consistently they don't and I can flip back and forth at the press of a button to compare them (rest of the pipeline is Rega Elex-R and Spendor A4). I have been wondering about replacing the iPod/Cambridge with one of the Astell & Kern's that offer digital out. (Anyone have any thoughts?)