Ry Cooder’s “Paradise and Lunch” might have been the first digitally recorded album, and isn’t bad. But it was recorded at a high sample rate and mastered to vinyl.
CD’s have had the same sample rate (44.1k) and bit depth (16 bit) since they were introduced.
My multi track recorder is 96k at 24 bit, but if I create a CD from a recording, it gets down sampled to 44.1/16.
In my opinion trying to get “audiophile guality” from a CD, or worse yet, a streamed mp3 is a fool’s errand.
You can get good, even great sound, depending on the source material, but with the typical source, the differences in conversion hardware is pretty much moot.
Having said that I have a large library of vinyl that rarely gets played, because streaming to the Bluetooth receiver in my tractor is hands down more convenient.
But Drew, you are welcome to stop by and hear Cream on vinyl that totally bypasses and eliminates the errors introduced by digital conversion.