Full Rez Streaming: Deezer Elite, Murfie and TIDAL on Sonos

We were looking over the end of year reports from the RIAA and others, and one thing is clear - the traditional CD album - is in decline, and streaming services are on the rise.  We have been on the tip of that wave - being longtime subscribers to Pandora, Spotify, and others - and are happy with them.  The one thing that has stopped them for being anything other than a casual/background listen is the compressed nature always fell short of spinning a CD, or even playing a FLAC file for musical enjoyment.  The holy grail, in our book, would be a high resolution streaming service (preferably something on the order of 24/96) that could give us a reliable, high quality sound that wouldn't sound like a compromise for convenience's sake.
But streaming services c2013 weren't there.  Even at the highest offered rate of 320kbps, there was a small amount of lost ambience and detail compared to a silver disc spun in our CD player (not to even broach the subject of an LP which would wipe the floor with both of them).  It was enough that would make you miss the lost information only when you weren't in the middle of a chore cycle.  But, towards the back end of 2014, we became aware of emerging streaming services that might provide a genuine high end experience - at least to CD levels (16/44.1)!  Murfie, Deezer Elite and TIDAL all appeared as options on our SONOS player, much to our delight.  Given their promise to stream uncompressed CD resolution music, we got excited that this might be a what we were looking for:  Convenience and Quality.

For is, it boils down to a simple question:  could any of these emerging streaming services replace the CD in our (audiophile) stereo rig?  Could any of them offer a genuine high end experience?

We signed up for all of them, and started trying them out to see from Thanksgiving through the end of the year into the early weeks of 2015.

Common strengths:  All sound terrific - comparable to what you may already have on your home network or computer.  In fact all of them with our reference rig as well as through the speakers throughout the house, had a sound quality comparable to the files we had ripped and stored on our network.  They advertised 16/44.1 resolution, and from the sound quality we believe them.

Common Weaknesses:  While they all advertised 16/44.1 for their ultimate resolution, they do not stream or support higher resolution formats (such as 24 bit files at sample rates higher than 44.1kHz).  This means that they represent the main portions of a typical music collection, but not the very highest quality as represented by high bitrate files.  On the convenience front, none of them really measured up to the curated lists of Songza (really the ones to beat for scads and scads of well curated lists tailored to moods, times of day and activities with an incredible level of appropriateness), none of them had reliably good "radio station" style service like Pandora. And of course, all of them cost more than lower resolution services (either through high up-front costs like Murfie, or just high monthly fees in the cases of Deezer and TIDAL).

Special Note:  One of the things that made itself very apparent, was that a couple of times I had difficulty connecting to one or more services.  I first thought it was the services themselves, but as I worked through the issues, I found I had to reboot my Sonos components.  It happened only over a period of 2 days in over the 2 months of use we were putting into this review, so not awful, but not flawless either.  So this mention isn't anything against the services but more a note about our modern world.  We'd only sum this up by saying that before you go completely streamed, you would be best to have some sort of local or physical backup so you won't get caught short in case of an internet outage, network or software issue of some kind.

Specific Services:

Murfie (https://www.murfie.com/) - our one-liner: "We'll rip your songs, and stream them to you, full rez."

Our sarcastic comment:  "Guess whose fault it is if you don't like your playlist?  Your music is only as good as you are!"

We liked Murfie since this is a solution to the drudgery of ripping individual CD's to a hard drive for playback later.  It solves the storage issue (they store it free for 3 years, provided you pay them 80 cents per CD for ripping), and will stream in 320kbps or FLAC lossless.  This felt like a no-brainer, so we quickly signed up for some ripping and sent in several hundred of our CD's to be ripped, but also used their user-to-user marketplace to purchase a dozen or so albums to try them out.

As the first service we tried, we realized a CD-only player may no longer be strictly required in a high end rig.  While the streaming quality of their service, once you upgraded to "HiFi" was equal to everyone else, they hold the music that you own, let you buy and sell, and add in music, and you have control over your collection like you do your cash kept in a bank.  So if you have some odd CD's you bought at a festival by some hipster artist nobody but a dozen people have heard of?  Murfie has you covered provided you turn the disc over to them to rip. 

Strengths:  You own all the music.  They store it for you unless you want it back.  They are happy to send you a NAS or HDD of your music.  Once your CD collection is ripped, it's not expensive to maintain or stream, you can buy and sell on their marketplace very easily (with generous return policies for regretful or accidental purchases).  Fantastic customer service and support through email.  Of all 3 services, I could convince myself this had the best sound quality by just a hair over the others.

Weakness:  It will be no better or worse than your music collection.  While you can buy and sell on the marketplace, it is WAY TOO EASY to buy stuff, and it will add up!  Up front costs for ripping discs can add up.

Why you want it: Your CD collection streamed to you where and when you want it - not taking up room, and not having to worry about computer backups, and want to free up that old closet that's full of Jewel cases.

Deezer Elite (http://www.deezer.com/) - our one liner: "16/44.1 streaming, decent selection, fun music discovery tools.  Only 'okay' curated offerings."

Our sarcastic comment:   Deezer will throw in a cover in your playlist.  Deezer doesn't care.

I have to say we're not that thrilled with the name of this service (What is a Deezer, anyway?) - but that's neither here nor there - it's about the offering, less the name (but c'mon guys ...) of course.

Deezer always gave the impression of the kid in school that put 100% of everything into whatever he or she did.  And while it rarely translated into being a sports star, or Honor Roll Student, you couldn't help liking the person.  We would say that Deezer is like a reliable, if a little odd, friend who you know you can rely upon to try their hardest, even if they don't always win.

Where we really played into their strengths, wasn't so much the pure music catalog (seemed to have a smaller collection than TIDAL or Spotify), but their method of music discovery was both fun and more importantly, FAST.  You could create a custom playlist of you-selected similar music faster that you could say PANDORA by utilizing the menu structure under one artist to find similar artists.  In some cases we had so much fun with it, we whiled an evening away by trying to find a similar artist way from Disco to Classic Rock.  It was fun and hard and very VERY entertaining.  Yeah, we might need to get out more, but if you don't ... this was a very fun game.

So honestly, for pure FUN we liked Deezer Elite a lot.  In fact, it sort of wins the "Mr. or Ms. Congeniality" for the whole lineup.

Strengths:  First mover on Sonos.  Unique way of searching "similar artists" for some really good music discovery and for us is the strength of this service. Allows user submitted playlists.  Radio is interesting, but very uneven in curating. 

Weaknesses: Catalog is improving, but not as good as Spotify or Tidal.  Allows user submitted playlists.  Universally weak playlists.

Why you want this:  Music discovery through similar artists with uncompressed CD-level music.

TIDAL (http://www.tidalhifi.com/) - our one liner: "Spotify sized collection streaming to you at 16/44.1!"

Our sarcastic comment:  TIDAL is cooler than you are.  And knows it.
The thing about TIDAL is you have at your fingertips a Spotify sized collection of albums, all ready to be streamed at 16/44.1 to your house.  That really is enough to have it be a highly recommended streaming service, and in a pure streaming environment, you may not want for much more.  In sound quality, we have to say it is first rate, and it may make you think twice about the need for a physical CD collection.  Where TIDAL gets odd, is in the curated section.  They have a ton of playlists, but for someone whose center of gravity is 1960-1990 Classic Rock, 1970-now Top 100 Pop, R&B, Blues and Jazz - TIDAL seems like the friend trying to impress you with deep and profoundly cultivated musical tastes by showing off all the less well known artists, even though they don't have to.

It isn't off-putting, but when trying to do casual listening, it can get a little frustrating checking out a dozen lists of "under-appreciated artists Q4 2014" in search of "Pop Music to Clean My House By" ... c'mon TIDAL, I already subscribe, you don't need to show off, just be my one and only by being what we need when we need it! (LOL)

But seriously, this service rocks.  It really isn't any worse than the early days of Spotify when you had to make your own playlists, and who knows, where we didn't find consistent greatness, you might find it!

Strengths:  A first rate collection of music seemingly as good as Spotify - even "Best Of" albums, obscure artists and covers well represented.

Weaknesses:  Harder for music discovery than Deezer or Spotify.  Curated playlists need some work since it trends towards the obscure.

Why you want this:  If Spotify revv's your engine, TIDAL is the uncompressed answer.

Conclusions

When it came to time to choose a winner, we couldn't.  I know it sounds like a cop out, but like one's own kids, each brings an uniqueness to the party.  While we don't think this year (2015) is the year to ditch a silver disc player, this is the first time where a case has been made where physical media may someday not be needed for a genuine high end experience.  It is an interesting thought to chew on.

Happy 2015, happy listening!