Take that MP3s! Deezer and Sonos bring hi-fi back

Music quality has gone backwards from vinyl to CDs to MP3s. MP3s made music transfer and sharing easier than ever, but the files needed to be compressed due to storage and bandwidth limitations, leading to a noticeable loss in sound quality.

Hence, streaming music service provider Deezer (France's answer to Spotify) wants to reverse that trend with Deezer Elite, by giving consumers five times the top bitrate of other streaming services. But you need a wireless hi-fi networked music player from Sonos.

Deezer Elite subscribers can choose from Deezer’s 35 million track library and stream FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files at a standard of 1,411 kbps or higher in any room, or multiple rooms together through Sonos speakers and components.

Deezer Elite will first be available in the U.S, on Sept15 through Sonos and Home Integrators, followed by a global rollout.

The promotional price for Deezer Elite on Sonos is US$9.99 (RM32) a month for users that sign up for a full year of service.

Deezer has 16 million monthly active users and 5 million paid subscribers worldwide.