I found this critique of the NPR test (also from 2015)
http://www.realhd-audio.com/?p=4681It does not discuss the actual bitrate of the NPR stream, but in 2015 Tidal was revolutionary in offering 'cd quality' streaming. NPR claims the file is WAV uncompressed and my understanding is it would require a streaming bitrate of 1411 for full resolution, Tidal streams flac files for cd quality which I gather get through on ~1000. Very few streaming services offer this quality even today. Even then, a streamed cd-quality file is arguably not going to sound the same as if played directly from local storage.
I am pretty sure there is some downsampling of the purported WAV file somewhere along the chain (possibly just built into the non-maximized streaming protocols in all the intervening hardware and software between us and them). I could be wrong.
I just don't think the test is testing what it says it tests. How many people are discouraged from pursuing High Fidelity because they are convinced by (questionable) tests like this that they lack the necessary perceptive capabilities?