Jean.Francois
Active Member
- Joined
- May 31, 2022
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Hello,
After albums such as "Abducting the Unicorn" and "Magnolia", The Pineapple Thief are back with their 15th album, "It Leads to This", featuring 8 songs.
For this review, 5 versions are tested: Blu-ray with Stereo , 5.1 , Dolby Atmos , Tidal Max Flac and CD.
The 4 waveforms below show the difference in dynamic range between the CD (DR10), Tidal(DR8) and blu-ray (DR14) versions.
Blu-ray offers the best dynamic range for the stereo version, which is similar to the Dolby Atmos version.
The blu-ray edition comes as a pleasant surprise, offering the most dynamic stereo version of all, unlike the other editions!
Why use blu-ray as a quality medium?
On blu-ray, to change sound tracks without having a variation in level between tracks, the tracks are aligned at the same sound level. Dolby Atmos is the reference, with its maximum integrated level of -18 LUFS.
For the stereo track, they didn't just take the dynamically compressed version and lower the level, they made a master without a dynamic limiter. That's why the blu-ray has the most dynamic stereo track! This is an approach to be followed for all albums.
After a very dynamic stereo blu-ray version, we find a Dolby Atmos version designed to immerse us in the album's sound space. In 9.1.4 listening, we can even hear the vocals on the widescreen speakers, rather than the front ones. The music and the backing vocals surround us with perfect homogeneity. A new reference in Dolby Atmos, which with Dolby TrueHD encoding (lossless format) retains all the precision of music and spatialization.
This Dolby Atmos version offers one of the highest spatializations ever encountered (average value of 9.5).
Physical media haven't said their last word: if you want to enjoy your music at maximum quality, you should choose CD or, even better, blu-ray, which is the "audiophile" medium, with no dynamic range limitations, and which contains the best stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos versions.
Find extracts from the different versions for comparison here, as well as all the measurements (DR, waveforn, spectrum).
Enjoy listening
Jean-François
After albums such as "Abducting the Unicorn" and "Magnolia", The Pineapple Thief are back with their 15th album, "It Leads to This", featuring 8 songs.
For this review, 5 versions are tested: Blu-ray with Stereo , 5.1 , Dolby Atmos , Tidal Max Flac and CD.
The 4 waveforms below show the difference in dynamic range between the CD (DR10), Tidal(DR8) and blu-ray (DR14) versions.
Blu-ray offers the best dynamic range for the stereo version, which is similar to the Dolby Atmos version.
The blu-ray edition comes as a pleasant surprise, offering the most dynamic stereo version of all, unlike the other editions!
Why use blu-ray as a quality medium?
On blu-ray, to change sound tracks without having a variation in level between tracks, the tracks are aligned at the same sound level. Dolby Atmos is the reference, with its maximum integrated level of -18 LUFS.
For the stereo track, they didn't just take the dynamically compressed version and lower the level, they made a master without a dynamic limiter. That's why the blu-ray has the most dynamic stereo track! This is an approach to be followed for all albums.
After a very dynamic stereo blu-ray version, we find a Dolby Atmos version designed to immerse us in the album's sound space. In 9.1.4 listening, we can even hear the vocals on the widescreen speakers, rather than the front ones. The music and the backing vocals surround us with perfect homogeneity. A new reference in Dolby Atmos, which with Dolby TrueHD encoding (lossless format) retains all the precision of music and spatialization.
This Dolby Atmos version offers one of the highest spatializations ever encountered (average value of 9.5).
Physical media haven't said their last word: if you want to enjoy your music at maximum quality, you should choose CD or, even better, blu-ray, which is the "audiophile" medium, with no dynamic range limitations, and which contains the best stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos versions.
Find extracts from the different versions for comparison here, as well as all the measurements (DR, waveforn, spectrum).
Enjoy listening
Jean-François