Today, streaming services are the main source of audio listening.
With high-resolution versions up to 24-bit 192 kHz, it’s possible to enjoy music of the highest quality.
Streaming also offers the Dolby Atmos format, but this time with Dolby codecs that greatly reduce bit rates, such as Dolby digital plus, which offers a bit rate of 768 KB per second.
Can pure-audio Blu-ray still find a place in this dematerialized world?
Today, audio Blu-ray is a medium with limited distribution, often for special editions. But for audiophiles, it’s a medium that offers many advantages.
The flexibility of bluray audio means it can support a multitude of formats, from simple 16-bit 48 kHz CD-like quality to Dolby Atmos encoded Dolby digital True HD, with bit rates of up to 10 megabits per second.
Then there are all the multichannel formats from 4.0 to 5.1 or 7.1, with resolution capacities up to 24-bit 192 kHz like stereo.
What’s more, the codecs used are lossless, such as PCM, DTS HD Master Audio or Dolby Digital True HD.
In the case of Dolby Atmos, this is the only medium that offers Dolby Atmos with lossless encoding. The difference in quality is obvious, since Dolby Digital TrueHD Atmos can be streamed at up to 10,000 KB per second, as opposed to the 768 KB per second of Dolby Digital Plus Atmos streaming.
To better illustrate the capabilities of Blu-ray audio, here are a few examples of recently released Blu-rays, some Blu-rays can have also video tracks.
Tears For fears – The Tipping Point : Stereo and 5.1 in 48 kHz 24bits, Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital TrueHD. Review of this Blu-ray available here.
xPropaganda – The Heart Is Strange : Stereo and 5.1 in 48 kHz 24bits, Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital TrueHD. The review will be available soon.
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells : This is the album that perfectly exploits the Blu-ray medium, with Stereo formats from 1973 and 2023, multichannel formats in 4.0 (1975 mix) and 5.1 (2023 mix) and Dolby Atmos encoded in Dolby Digital TrueHD, presented up to 24-bit 96 kHz. The review will be available soon.
Gilbert O’Sullivan – Driven: Stereo and 5.1 in 48 kHz 24bits, Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital TrueHD. The review will be available soon.
Tear For Fears – The Hurting: Another great example of how Blu-ray can be used, this time with the 1983 and 2023 stereo versions, the 5.1 version and the stereo music mix, presented in 24-bit 96 kHz. And also the Dolby Atmos track in Dolby Digital TrueHD. The review will be available soon.
Karajan – Beethoven – 9 symphonies: For this box of Beethoven’s 9 symphonies, the Blu-ray contains stereo and 5.1 tracks in 24-bit 192 kHz, as well as a Dolby Atmos track in Dolby Digital TrueHD. The review will be available soon.
Karajan – Sibelius: For this Sibelius box, the Blu-ray contains stereo tracks in 24-bit 192 kHz and 5.1 in 24-bit 96 kHz, as well as a Dolby Atmos track in Dolby Digital TrueHD. The review will be available soon.
Mozart – Piano concertos 20 – 21 – 25 – 27: For this box, the Blu-ray contains stereo and 4.0 tracks in 24-bit 192 kHz, as well as a Dolby Atmos track in Dolby Digital TrueHD. The review will be available soon.
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon: Present only in the 50th anniversary box set, the blu-rays contain stereo tracks in 24-bit 192 kHz, 5.1 in 24-bit 92 kHz and the Dolby Atmos track encoded in Dolby Digital TrueHD. Review of this Blu-ray available here.
Cantus – Yggdrasil:
It’s an extraordinary production for this album. Recorded in DXD 384kHz multichannel, it is available in a box containing the Blu-ray and SACD to meet all audiophile expectations. Available formats are :
SACD: stereo and 5.1
Blu-ray: Stereo 24-bit 192 kHz, 5.1 24-bit 192 kHz, 7.1.4 AURO3D 96 kHz, Dolby Atmos (Dolby Digital TrueHD 48 kHz)
plus BD-ROM playback: stereo 24-bit 352 kHz, 5.1 24-bit 96 kHz, MQA 352 kHz, and MP3! The review will be available soon.
Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse of Reason: This blu-ray contains video and audio with the album in stereo and 5.1 in 24-bit 96 kHz. Review of this Blu-ray available here.
Pink Floyd – The Endless River: This blu-ray contains video and audio with the album in stereo and 5.1 in 24-bit 96 kHz. The review will be available soon.
Serges Gainsbourg – L’Homme à la tête de chou: Scheduled for release on June 23, this blu-ray edition will contain the original mix, the 2023 stereo mix, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital TrueHD.
As you can see, on a single physical support you can have the original versions, the remastered versions, the 4.0 multichannel versions, the 5.1 multichannel versions and the Dolby Atmos version, and also video for some albums.
Some even offer the AURO3D encoding format.
However, bluray only supports multiples of 48 kHz, so if the source is 44.1 kHz (or a multiple) there will need to be a sample rate conversion.
Compared with SACD, which uses DSD64 encoding, Blu-ray is able to support many more different formats, with resolutions up to 192 kHz, which brings a finer restitution and, above all, no noised in the high frequencies (red arrow) as with DSD 64 encoding.
In fact, DSD 64 is losing ground in terms of quality compared with 24-bit 192 kHz or DXD in 384 kHz, and is increasingly giving way to DSD 128 and DSD 256 encodings, which offer better quality but are not available on SACD.
So if you want a format that can import maximum Dolby Atmos quality with simultaneous high-resolution stereo and multichannel versions, Blu-ray audio is the only media that supports all these formats. Unfortunately, this format is not widely used and its distribution is very limited.
About Dolby Atmos TrueHD Atmos and AURO3D, it is now available for download, but only for a limited number of albums :
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