Ripping Guide

[Manicatel]

If I'm understanding your question correctly, You could always just rip some CD's to your laptop on FLAC, connect that to your DAC & then compare the sound quality from your CDP vs a ripped version stored on your laptop going through the same DAC. So the differences you hear would be down to the storage.
If you decided that you liked the ripped version, you could then buy a NAS drive, which is a digital storage device left permanently switched on & wired to your router. With a laptop, you will only be able to access your music if it is powered up & sometimes that may be inconvenient?
If you decide to go that far, then you could always compare the same album from a quality streaming source eg Tidal HiFi, vs ripped vs CD (& even vs LP if you really want to) to get a grip on your preferences. The only thing is that you must ensure you are listening to the same version of a song on all the methods, ie not selecting a remastered or remixed version on Tidal, vs the original release on CD etc.

[JohnG]

Thank you for the reply.
Yes you have read it correct, and the idea of a NAS, is of consideration, as I have a lot of FLAC Music Files,
as well as 100's of 30MP photograph files on my Laptop that I need back up for a safe storage as well.
Hence my holding off on streaming, while I get to grips with this method being discussed.
When this is in order, I will then venture into Streaming, and will hopefully have had a little hands on experience by then.
The question in my mind following your reply, is from the NAS a router is suggested, does a router have a effect on the SQ when being used with music files.