What is the best digital source

[PhilP]

I still prefer playing CDs not only sound quality wise but I find it more satisfying to find a physical object than scrolling on a screen.
My second best sounding option is presently what most favor: computer AIR/ethernet. But I recently struggle with the idea that digital downloads (or streaming) will be the future of high res music: Linn is shrinking its catalog, Qobuz is lacking investments, Pono music did not happen yet. There are a few audiophile sites with a very small catalog and not much music I am interested in. I very much hope that situation improves but the the mainstream music distribution apparently moves to streaming at low resolution.

I am very happy not to have any CD players left in the house though I think our Blu-Ray players can play the horrid little things

A lot of my listening currently involves streaming from Qobuz as I'm exploring new genres (for me) some resulting from some great recommendations on here and having access to CD quality music makes this very enjoyable. Although the quality of Qobuz is good I often find that playing rips I've made from CDs is better than the streamed equivalent - typically a lot more 'body' to the sound. I'm not sure why this should be but am not too concerns. What I have discovered to my £ cost is that 24-bit versions ( of recent recordings at least) often do sound a lot better than the 16 bit equivalents. A great example of this is the ubiquitous Daft Punk 'Random Access Memories' which I find so much more interesting and enjoyable in 24 bit.

Whether higher quality steaming services will survive is a moot point. I read somewhere that even Spotify are not yet making a profit so perhaps the streaming business model in its current form is not viable.