As The Dark Side of the Moon celebrates its 50th anniversary, Roger Waters has decided to re-record the album solo, adding his own personal touch and revisiting this legendary album. The first track available is Money, and the album is due for release on 6 October 2023.

For this review, you will find 3 versions tested: Amazon Music UltraHD , Dolby Atmos and Qobuz Hi-Res.

First we will analyze each edition in detail (technical and qualitative analysis), then we will compare the successive editions with their dynamics and assign a final score, and you will be able to listen some samples.

The streaming versions may evolve over time, those presented here correspond to the version tested at the date of publication, or update of the review.

Waveform and dynamic

The waveform represents tracks of this album.

The waveform of Amazon Music’s digital stereo and Qobuz Hi-Res version are dynamic, but with areas showing the use of a dynamic limiter (yellow line), which remains moderate as shown by the average DR8.

The waveform of the Dolby Atmos version, downmixed to stereo, shows a very good dynamics, without the extreme use of limiters, unlike the digital stereo version.

The graph below compares the waveforms of the Qobuz Hi-Res version and Amazon Dolby Atmos downmixed in stereo. Both waveforms are adjusted to the same LUFS sound level (-17.5) to better see the impact of the limiter on the stereo version.

Spectrum comparisons

The Spectrum allows to check the tonal balance of the music (balance between treble, medium and bass sounds) and to detect process that may have been carried out during the recording, the mixing, mastering or manufacturing phases. It is also possible to detect frequency interference issues.

The spectrum of the Amazon stereo version goes up to 48 kHz, due to the 96 kHz sampling frequency, with a slight rise in level above 20 kHz of 5 dB and a pronounced attenuation above 30 kHz (yellow arrow). As with the Dolby Atmos version, bass is very present between 30 and 150 Hz, as shown by the green arrow.

The spectrum of Amazon UltraHD and Qobuz Hi-Res are identical and overlap perfectly, as shown in the curves below.

The spectrum of the Dolby Atmos version decoded in 5.1 shows that the surround channels are attenuated compared to the left and right channels. Bass levels are very high in the front channels, particularly here around 30-150 Hz (white arrow). The bass channel is filtered at 120 Hz (green arrow). The white arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz (Yellow arrow), due to the Dolby Digital Plus encoding.

Spectrogram comparaisons

Spectrogram is another representation of frequency versus time of a track. For each channel (right and left), horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents frequency. The amplitude is represented by the intensity (brightness) of the color of each point in the image.

The spectrogram of the Amazon stereo track and Qobuz Hi-Res show an extension above the 20 kHz frequency (yellow arrow). Level attenuation is greatest above 30 kHz (white arrow).

The spectrogram of the Dolby Atmos track downmixed in stereo is limited to 20kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above (white arrow). This limitation is due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding, which is a lossy encoder that limits bandwidth to optimize data size for a bit rate of 768 kbits/s.

Spatialization

Spatialization allows you to define the sound distribution of the music on all the channels. The spatialization indicator and the description of the graph are described here.

Spatialization is available for Dolby Atmos .

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Amazon UltraHD – 2023

With this first Money track, the sound balance and rhythm are very different from the original version. The low frequencies are very rich, as confirmed by the spectral analysis, and the moderate use of a limiter during mastering reduces the dynamic range (DR8) compared to the Dolby Atmos mix, but still retains the nuance and detail of the music.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : 24 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 2: Amazon Dolby Atmos – 2023

The Dolby Atmos version is much more dynamic than the stereo version, both in multichannel and in stereo downmix. However, it’s impossible not to compare this REDUX version with the original multichannel version, which is very rich in spatialization. There is none of the spatial exploitation that was present in the quadraphonic versions of the original album. The Redux version’s Atmos mix is much wiser, with mainly a front and side soundstage that greatly expands the soundstage, with some effects on the music occasionally exploiting the rear channels.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●● (5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●ooooooo (2.9)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : Dolby Atmos decoded in 5.1 :

The sample is in 5.1 wav format, if you can not play the sample in your navigator, you can save it, right button menu and “Save Audio As…” and play it with an external player.

Ed 3: Qobuz Hi-Res – 2023

The rendering of the Qobuz Hi-Res version is identical to the Amazon UltraHD version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : 24 bits 96 kHz:

The new Redux version of Rogers is really a new approach to The Dark Side of The Moon album, so everyone will appreciate it according to their own tastes. To listen to the first track Money, two versions are available, in high-resolution 24-bit 96 kHz stereo and in Dolby Atmos. The stereo version brings all the nuance and finesse of the Hi-Res recording, but is less dynamic than the Dolby Atmos version. The Dolby Atmos mix is a very quiet compared with the Dolby Atmos mix of the 50th anniversary or the original quadraphonic version, with the main effect of enlarging the front stage on the side speakers.

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Detail of the ratings :

• Dynamic :
  1. Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
  2. Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
  3. Correct piece DR >=10
  4. No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
  5. No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
• Spectrum :
  1. Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
  2. Spectrum cut at 15 khz
  3. Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
  4. Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
  5. Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
• Surface noise (only for vinyl):
  1. Continuous audible noise
  2. Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
  3. Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
  4. Low surface noise, very good quality
  5. Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
• Spatialization :
  • Between 0 and 5 for 5.1 or 7.1 channels configuration
  • Between 0 and 10 for Atmos configuration (7.1.4)
  • For more information on spatialization, you can read the article describing this parameter here.
• Restitution :
  1. Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  2. Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  3. Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
  4. High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
  5. Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.

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