Comparison of "state of the art" source material

[HaveMeterWillTravel]

Back when I was intimately involved in audio, the Telarc or Ultradisk II CD releases tended to be crème de la crème source material for the digital consumer. Only those in industry with access to duplicates of master tapes had access to higher fidelity. As a general rule, I have rarely found subsequent "remastered" CDs since then to sound better.
While difficult to ascertain for any specific album; what is the general consensus on the quality of the current mainstream 'audiophile' streaming material such as TIDAL?
Would I be better off with listening to my original bit-perfect ripping from all those years ago?

 

[staticV3]

what is the general consensus on the quality of the current mainstream 'audiophile' streaming material such as TIDAL?

See here: https://magicvinyldigital.net/

If you want highly dynamic tracks via streaming, Atmos is the solution.

Would I be better off with listening to my original bit-perfect ripping from all those years ago?

Depends on the track.

 

[AnalogSteph]

I have found that early digital recordings from around 1980 can be truly first-rate, espectially classical. You better have material with pre-emphasis handled properly though, as it is not entirely uncommon and even lists compiled online tend not to be entirely complete. My one TELARC disc does not use it, but anything with a Japanese connection like DENON or CBS/Sony is probably worth checking.

If ripping has been done with CUERipper, then the cuesheet created should give some indications (FLAGS PRE). You can check a CD's TOC using EAC, but be warned that emphasis tracks do not have to be indicated as such in the TOC and the nominally correct way is only doing so in track subcode.

I have even come across one case of missing emphasis flags, which is particularly insidious - some reissues of OMD's Architecture and Morality including mine (catalog no. CDID 12, pre-remastering) are lacking those, I guess they got lost during transfer at some point since originally they apparently were very much present.

This is usually correct on streaming, although I have come across the proverbial exception to the rule (Tomoko Aran - MORE RELAX).