John - (maybe more than you were asking…apologies in advance ; )
I sorta waited on this one, as a lot of seemingly simple questions can be harder to answer definitively than one would think.
You used the term “cd’s” when asking a highres-comparison question. You may have intended to include SACD in that, or generically meant “Redbook, or…disc of any sort”. Lots of Redbook CDs sound as good or near-as-dammit to “the SACD version” on the DMP, so that many of us don’t have to worry about it anymore. One of the awesome bits about the unit is that it got us off the codec/format merry-go-round to some extent.
Admittedly, it does involve finding and putting physical discs in a Player, but I found that I was able to rediscover my CD collection as a result, and that the search for, and playing of them is more like playing albums, which I enjoy. I had digitized all of the CDs that I owned at the time around 17 years ago, and primarily listened to them via servers ever since, so I’m not a Luddite in that regard. However, I didn’t forsake vinyl. I fully enjoy both analog and digital formats and gear. I don’t exactly understand those who seem to feel you have to Choose a Side. It’s All Good : )
The bonus with the DMP was that it plays all my SACDs as well, which previously required a separate Sony or Oppo player with cheap internal DAC. Kind of ironic calling it a “bonus”, as originally, the aim of the DMP was to make an SACD-capable player that connects digitally via I2S to an external DAC. The actual Bonus was that well-recorded and Mastered CDs turned out to be better-sounding than I (and many other hirez fans) had given them credit for.
My experience/philosophy is that it is important to compare known things - e.g. a 24/96 file download ripped to a drive, which was then also ripped to DVD-ROM. In that instance, the disc seems to shine over the thumb drive, despite them being the “same” file, and going through the same processing. Importantly - there is no question that they are the same version/mastering/resolution, etc. USB, as it turns out, is fraught with issues as a digital-delivery method.
If you were asking, "will my hirez download of the album I have on Redbook CD sound better on the thumb drive via the USB input vs. the CD played on the disc drive”…there are so many potential variables in there that it can’t be a meaningful comparison.
The experience a lot of us have had is that with the SAME file, the disc has the edge over the USB input. We have pondered and philosophized over this in the past. And to a certain extent, this is one of those, “Which is the ABSOLUTE BEST way to listen to my music?” questions. Which can be fraught, as was/is MQA, in much the same way.
