There are lot of unknown factors in what affects sound quality in what way.
As a puzzling example, In the Netherlands Tidal playback sounds superior over NAS file storage. It's even challenging to beat Tidal playback quality with highly optimized internal music server storage. In the US most of our clients report Tidal to be inferior sounding to both NAS and internal music sever storage. There are many infrastructural differences between here and the US, however why any of those would have an effect on the final sound quality is very hard to explain.
Another is why a very slim, purposely built, Linux OS never manages to approach the more 3 dimensional, textural superior, fuller sound which a stripped Windows install is ultimately capable of, while still being significantly more lightweight. There are many differences between these 2 but what's really causing this, I don't think anybody knows.
As a puzzling example, In the Netherlands Tidal playback sounds superior over NAS file storage. It's even challenging to beat Tidal playback quality with highly optimized internal music server storage. In the US most of our clients report Tidal to be inferior sounding to both NAS and internal music sever storage. There are many infrastructural differences between here and the US, however why any of those would have an effect on the final sound quality is very hard to explain.
Another is why a very slim, purposely built, Linux OS never manages to approach the more 3 dimensional, textural superior, fuller sound which a stripped Windows install is ultimately capable of, while still being significantly more lightweight. There are many differences between these 2 but what's really causing this, I don't think anybody knows.