The Pineapple Thief – It Leads To This – Comparison Blu-ray stereo , 5.1, Dolby Atmos, Tidal MAX, CD. Is the blu-ray the new “audiophile” media?

[Jean.Francois]

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

 

[Tell]

A CD (and even Spotifys lossy OGG Vorbis) can deliver the exact same dynamics a Dolby Atmos bluray. So in that sense I wouldn't say that bluray is any kind of reference when it comes to sound quality no.
But yeah if we do take those extra channels into account it could be interesting for some type of music, electronic psychedelic music could probably be quite fun! But I'm quite happy with my stereo setup as it is, I just need some more dynamics, so lets hope that Atmos can inspire artists to release their music with the same dynamics in regular stereo as well

 

[Verig]

I really don't want physical media anymore. The question is why wouldn't they just release 1) not crushed stereo stream 2) Atmos stream / download.
I'd love some proper Atmos music.

 

[nerdstrike]

Well isn't that interesting. Lousy way to grab a track though. Like finding something in her middle of a tape.

 

[Jean.Francois]

Hello,
I've just added the Qobuz and Amazon versions.
The result is the same as the Tidal version.

Enjoy listening
Jeff

 

[keenly]

I really don't want physical media anymore. The question is why wouldn't they just release 1) not crushed stereo stream 2) Atmos stream / download.
I'd love some proper Atmos music.

Blu rays are great!

 

[Godataloss]

I must say that after installing an Atmos theater, I am only occasionally impressed beyond my previous 5.2 system. The dearth of content may be most to blame I suppose. I find myself most often run things in DTS and set levels manually by ear for each program because material is so wildly different. My feeling is the industry is pulling back from releasing 4k Blu-rays which is a shame because I think the availability of superior media is what has always driven advances as well as adoption in home theater. Streaming availability of higher quality video and especially audio material has also seemed to have taken a step back recently. I suspect the major streaming services are conserving bandwidth costs now that there increased competition.

 

[EJ3]

I really don't want physical media anymore. The question is why wouldn't they just release 1) not crushed stereo stream 2) Atmos stream / download.
I'd love some proper Atmos music.

Exactly the opposite of me. Physical media is very strongly my preference.

 

[Anton D]

Thank you for taking the time to do this.

Really appreciate it.

I still like to play physical media.

 

[digitalfrost]

This should be a crime. How are people who buy the 24bit download not getting the same quality as someone who buys the Bluray...

 

[AdrianusG]

This should be a crime. How are people who buy the 24bit download not getting the same quality as someone who buys the Bluray...

Because apparently they can get away with it, so they get away with it, why would they even bother to be honest and change their behaviour?

 

[ZolaIII]

DR doesn't have much in common with used media or digital format. There are very old vinyl recordings with DR of 13 or even more and lot's of over compressed CD's with DR of 5 or even less. Neither excessive DR or heavy compressed material with very low DR is good. From 9 to let's say 13~14 is fine. Examples; piles of ruined materials from loudness wars period (90's till now), not properly adopted large cinema THX materials with DR of 24 DB or about when you can't hear vocal part and effects are annoying loud to much.

 

[Newman]

I really don't want physical media anymore. The question is why wouldn't they just release 1) not crushed stereo stream 2) Atmos stream / download.
I'd love some proper Atmos music.

This album is available in Atmos on Apple Music.

 

[kemmler3D]

they made a master without a dynamic limiter.

This is very doubtful in general (if you don't use a limiter at all, you risk digital clipping, which is as bad as a baker mistaking salt and sugar). Also, you can see toward the end of the track, the louder section has a section where it looks like there was some gain reduction on peaks (it's squarish).

I am sure it sounds great though. I wish more tracks were mixed like this.

 

[Newman]

…they made a master without a dynamic limiter. …

This is very doubtful in general (if you don't use a limiter at all, you risk digital clipping, which is as bad as a baker mistaking salt and sugar).

Wouldn’t you put the limiter on the individual instrument feeds? You want to stop digital clipping as soon as possible in the chain.

So the individual multitrack master files will be clipping-free, and there is no need to do it again while mixing or mastering. I think this is what Jean was meaning.

cheers

 

[kemmler3D]

So the individual multitrack master files will be clipping-free, and there is no need to do it again while mixing or mastering.

I was talking about the stereo track.

 

[Newman]

But Jean was clearly talking about the non-stereo master being made without compression, to which you said it is most doubtful in general.

 

[kemmler3D]

But Jean was clearly talking about the non-stereo master being made without compression, to which you said it is most doubtful in general.

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

I think the way it was written was maybe a little confusing but this is what I responded to.

 

[Jean.Francois]

I think the way it was written was maybe a little confusing but this is what I responded to.

Hello,

This is indeed a mistake , they made a master with a dynamic limiter.

Thanks for the comment,

Enjoy listening

 

[kemmler3D]

Hello,

This is indeed a mistake , they made a master with a dynamic limiter.

Thanks for the comment,

Enjoy listening

It does still look a lot more dynamic than the CD master.