The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World – Streaming vs Vinyl Half Speed vs CD vs Blu-ray stereo and Dolby Atmos TrueHD, is the blu-ray the best version?

[Jean.Francois]

Hello,
Emblematic band The Cure presents us with their new album entitled “Songs of A Lost World”, after a 16-year hiatus without new music. This album contains 8 songs available on all media including streming (Stereo and Dolby Atmos), vinyl disc including a high-quality vinyl edition (Abbey Road half-speed master on double-layer 180 g black organic vinyl), CD, blu-ray (stereo and Dolby Atmos TrueHD).

For this review, you will find 6 versions tested: Streaming stereo and Dolby Atmos, Vinyl Half Speed, CD, Blu-ray stereo and Dolby Atmos TrueHD.

The waveform of TIDAL max 24 bits 96 kHz shows a low dynamic range confirmed with DR5 ,like CD and blu-ray stereo. vVs DR13 for the DOlby Atmos trueHD track of the blu-ray.

The spatialization of Blu-ray Dolby Atmos – 2024 version varies from track to track, with values between 7.1 and 8.3.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyl Record Abbey Road – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Blu-ray stereo – 2024 (blue curve).The two spectra overlap perfectly from 200 Hz to 4 kHz. There are small variations between the two spectra below 200 Hz (green zone). Above 4 kHz, there is an attenuation of the spectrum for the vnyle disk (yellow zone) up to 5 dB at 10 kHz.

After 16 years, The Cure is back with a new album that is particularly enjoyable to listen to thanks to the Dolby Atmos TrueHD version of the blu-ray (as you can see by listening to the samples).
You can listen to the different versions and find all the measurements (DR, spectrum, spectrogram, spatialization) Here.

Enjoy listening,
Jean-François

 

[Soniclife]

I've been listening to this album this week via tidal and struggling with the sound, which is annoying as the songs seem good. Do you know what happens when you play the tidal Atmos version on a stereo only device? You get a message that it's playing a stereo version, but is that the same as your 2.0 mixed down version, or something else. I've been largely ignoring Atmos but if the mastering is much better that will need to change.

 

[kekus]

Jesus what a difference between stereo and Atmos...I think it's album of the year for me regardless of DR, but seeing that gap is kinda depressing.

I've been listening to this album this week via tidal and struggling with the sound, which is annoying as the songs seem good. Do you know what happens when you play the tidal Atmos version on a stereo only device? You get a message that it's playing a stereo version, but is that the same as your 2.0 mixed down version, or something else. I've been largely ignoring Atmos but if the mastering is much better that will need to change.

I would also like to know the answer to this...

 

[goat76]

I've been listening to this album this week via tidal and struggling with the sound, which is annoying as the songs seem good. Do you know what happens when you play the tidal Atmos version on a stereo only device? You get a message that it's playing a stereo version, but is that the same as your 2.0 mixed down version, or something else. I've been largely ignoring Atmos but if the mastering is much better that will need to change.

It will unfortunately re-route the stream to the regular 2-channel version when there’s no Atmos-compatible hardware in the chain.

 

[rank]

The title is well-chosen, it is a lost world where there are no more "songs" (if this term can be applied to R. Smith's compositions).

 

[kekus]

It will unfortunately re-route the stream to the regular 2-channel version when there’s no Atmos-compatible hardware in the chain.

Thank you!

 

[Soniclife]

It will unfortunately re-route the stream to the regular 2-channel version when there’s no Atmos-compatible hardware in the chain.

What regular 2 channel mix? I'd think the 2 channel mix must be created from the full surround mix, so should have the DR of that mix? I found the following quote that suggests that.

Atmos soundtracks have a nested structure. Inside the Atmos mix is the entire soundtrack as a 7.1 mix. At the core of the 7.1 mix is the entire soundtrack as a 5.1 mix. Inside the 5.1 mix is the entire soundtrack as a 2.0 mix.

So, when you're playing an Atmos movie on a 2-speaker set-up, only the 2.0 core (2-channel downmix) is unpacked. The rest of the Atmos track doesn't need to be decoded.

From https://www.avsforum.com/posts/51645033/

 

[jcarys]

First off, thanks to Jean-François, this is incredibly helpful. I wish that I could have read a review like this during the pre-order period. Now I'll have to see if I can find the Bluray at a reasonable price anywhere. I have listened to the Tidal Atmos version and really wasn't that impressed with it, but I guess I need to do some critical listening this weekend of it vs. the Tidal stereo. It's particularly interesting that Tidal has no center channel when the Bluray does. And it's also a bit bizarre that the Bluray stereo mix does use the additional potential. It looks like the CD mix is just ported over to Bluray.

To the questions about Tidal operation, usually the record company will supply at least 2 versions, stereo and Atmos. (In reality, there are more than this at different stereo quality levels.) They could be similar or not. Very often the Atmos version has been done after the fact by a different mixer than the original stereo. My best information is that if you select the Atmos version and then try to play it back on a stereo device, Tidal is switching to the stereo master, not a downmix from Atmos. But perhaps one of our current pro mixers or in the know software operators can give us an update.

 

[whereisbrian]

i listen to the flac stereo file of the Cure album, DR 6, really awful.

 

[goat76]

What regular 2 channel mix? I'd think the 2 channel mix must be created from the full surround mix, so should have the DR of that mix? I found the following quote that suggests that.

I had to investigate this further...

Tidal offers three different versions of this album: a high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz stereo mix, a regular 16-bit/44.1kHz stereo mix, and the Atmos mix. The 24-bit and 16-bit versions are made from the same stereo master, and none of them are "created" or downmixed from the Atmos mix. So there are two separate mixes, one stereo mix, and one Atmos mix.

When using my streamer (a Linn Akurate DSM without Atmos capability) in a "pull" configuration (when the streamer's built-in software is used to choose the tracks from Tidal), when playing the Atmos file, the stream is rerouted to the regular 16-bit/44.1kHz version.
That's at least how it works with my streamer, but I don't know what will happen with other hardware solutions.


The Atmos stream gets rerouted to the regular stereo mix when the stream is "pulled" from Tidal to my streamer.

But there are ways to get around it...
With my sound system that contains an Apple TV, the Linn Streamer, and Marantz Cinema 50, there are two ways to get the Atmos mix downmixed to 2-channel stereo audio:

1. If I use the Tidal app on my iPhone and AirPlay the stream as a "push" configuration to my Linn streamer, I get a 2-channel downmixed version of the Atmos track.

2. If I play the Atmos track on Apple TV and listen through the Atmos-compatible Marantz receiver, I can choose to play the Atmos track in multi-channel or let the receiver downmix the stream to a 2-channel stereo.


When the stream is "pushed" through AirPlay to my streamer, I get the downmixed stereo version from the Atmos mix. Nice!

 

[Soniclife]

I had to investigate this further...

Tidal offers three different versions of this album: a high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz stereo mix, a regular 16-bit/44.1kHz stereo mix, and the Atmos mix. The 24-bit and 16-bit versions are made from the same stereo master, and none of them are "created" or downmixed from the Atmos mix. So there are two separate mixes, one stereo mix, and one Atmos mix.

When using my streamer (a Linn Akurate DSM without Atmos capability) in a "pull" configuration (when the streamer's built-in software is used to choose the tracks from Tidal), when playing the Atmos file, the stream is rerouted to the regular 16-bit/44.1kHz version.
That's at least how it works with my streamer, but I don't know what will happen with other hardware solutions.


The Atmos stream gets rerouted to the regular stereo mix when the stream is "pulled" from Tidal to my streamer.

View attachment 410395



But there are ways to get around it...
With my sound system that contains an Apple TV, the Linn Streamer, and Marantz Cinema 50, there are two ways to get the Atmos mix downmixed to 2-channel stereo audio:

1. If I use the Tidal app on my iPhone and AirPlay the stream as a "push" configuration to my Linn streamer, I get a 2-channel downmixed version of the Atmos track.

2. If I play the Atmos track on Apple TV and listen through the Atmos-compatible Marantz receiver, I can choose to play the Atmos track in multi-channel or let the receiver downmix the stream to a 2-channel stereo.


When the stream is "pushed" through AirPlay to my streamer, I get the downmixed stereo version from the Atmos mix. Nice!

View attachment 410391

Things for me to play with when I'm feeling better.

One thing I noticed using roon to play the atmos version is some tracks are 16/44 and some are 24/96, why that is I've no idea.

I hope my old iPad can push the atmos version to my Apple TV.

 

[Fidji]

Things for me to play with when I'm feeling better.

One thing I noticed using roon to play the atmos version is some tracks are 16/44 and some are 24/96, why that is I've no idea.

I hope my old iPad can push the atmos version to my Apple TV.

Apple Music and no hassle necessary

Blu Ray disc still the best version.