What's a CD player? Oh wait, I remember it's that mechanical device in which one inserts those little silver discs to enjoy up to around 74 minutes of audio. After that or if you would like to hear something else you would have to stand up, remove the disc and insert an other one. 
And on a more serious note: I feel that streaming audio/music servers MAY have reached the SQ level of CD players/transport or even surpassed it several years ago. Of course I haven't heard all top notch CD players/transports. The best I have owned myself was a North Star T192 CD transport (AES/EBU into D-Premier) and I know that at least that was inferior to AIR. I now use a heavily optimized DIY music server (USB into D250) and that again surpasses AIR (with a large margin).
Of course the North Star ($3000) was probably nowhere near the Esoteric UX-1 level.
Like Yippedidou I could never go back to spinning discs because of the convenience.
And on a more serious note: I feel that streaming audio/music servers MAY have reached the SQ level of CD players/transport or even surpassed it several years ago. Of course I haven't heard all top notch CD players/transports. The best I have owned myself was a North Star T192 CD transport (AES/EBU into D-Premier) and I know that at least that was inferior to AIR. I now use a heavily optimized DIY music server (USB into D250) and that again surpasses AIR (with a large margin).
Of course the North Star ($3000) was probably nowhere near the Esoteric UX-1 level.
Like Yippedidou I could never go back to spinning discs because of the convenience.
PS Audio P3, Shunyata ΞTRON Alpha Digital and HC/Furutech power cables, Paul Hynes SR7EHD-MR4, DIY Roon Server & Roon Endpoint running AudioLinux Headless, Phasure Lush^2 USB cable, Audioquest Diamond RJ/E ethernet, Uptone Audio etherREGEN, Mutec MC-3+ USB, Shunyata ΞTRON Anaconda Digital XLR AES/EBU, Devialet Expert 250 Pro CI, Nordost Tyr Reference LS cables, Von Schweikert VR-5 SE Anniversary Edition, Anti-Mode Dual Core 2.0, JL Audio Fathom F112. More detail here.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
