When my child asked me why you didn’t try out a K-pop group, I told him why not!

K-pop, or “Korean pop”, is a musical genre born in South Korea in the 90s, combining pop, hip-hop, rap, rock and R&B. K-pop is distinguished by its polished production, synchronized choreography and artistically elaborate video clips. The artists, known as “idols”, are intensively trained by specialized agencies such as SM Entertainment, who implement a highly-developed marketing approach. Initially popular in Asia, K-pop quickly conquered the world, with groups such as BTS, STRAY KIDS, FITY FIFTY, IVE, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM, XDINARY HEROES and BLACKPINK. The genre plays a key role in the Korean Wave (“Hallyu”), also influencing fashion and youth culture. The passion of fans, organized in “fandoms”, supports and propels these artists on a global scale.
K-pop marketing is reflected in the CD editions for fans, which come complete with a book, posters, stickers and photos…. There are even up to 4 different editions for the release of one album, as is the case with the STRAY KIDS “5 Star” album (See album photos of the CD description below.), which is the subject of this review.

It’s interesting to see whether the characteristics of a K-pop album are similar to those of current POP productions

For this review, you will find 3 versions tested: CD Box, Amazon Music and Tidal Dolby Atmos.

Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.
The synthesis of the review and the samples are available here

The album is composed of 12 tracks:

1. Hall of Fame
2. S-Class
3. ITEM
4. Super Bowl
5. TOPLINE (Feat, Tiger JK)
6. DLC
7. GET LIT
8. Collision
9. FNF
10. Youtiful
11. THE SOUND (Korean Ver,)
12. Mixtape : Time Out

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.

Review of the editions:

Part 1: Presentation of the editions

Part 2 : Waveform and dynamique comparaison

Parts 3 : Spectrum comparisons

Part 4 : Spectrogram comparaisons>

Part 5 : Spatialization

Part 6 : Summary, scoring and Sample

Part 1: presentation of the editions

Ed 1: CD – 2023

Presentation

For the CD version, 4 very successful deluxe versions are available in the form of a book with numerous photos and band accessories. Enough to satisfy all fans.

Ed 2: Amazon – 2023

Presentation

The Amazon Music streaming version is presented in HD 16 bit and 44.1 kHz.

Ed 3: Tidal Atmos – 2023

Presentation

The Tidal Dolby Atmos version is presented in Dolby Digital Plus 768 bits/s) or Dolby AC-4.

Part 2 : Waveform and dynamic comparaisons

Waveform

The waveform represents tracks of this album.

The waveforms of the CD and Streaming stereo versions are identical, with extensive use of the brickwall dynamic limiter, as shown by the yellow zone with a flattened maximum level, as confirmed by the DR4 measurement.

The waveform of the Dolby Atmos version, downmixed to stereo, shows beautiful dynamics, without the extreme use of limiters, unlike the digital stereo version (Ed21 and Ed2).

For this album, here’s a new measurement, the histogram, which complements the waveform measurements. The histogram below shows the distribution of levels. This produces an interesting curve. The histogram on the right corresponds to the level distribution for the Dolby Atmos version, with a bell-shaped distribution.

The histogram on the left shows the level distribution for the CD version (identical for streaming). There’s a sharp peak at around 0dB, due to the use of brickwall limiters (yellow arrow). This measurement highlights the use of limiters on CD and stereo streaming.

Dynamic

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).

For our 3 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	CD – 2023	Amazon – 2023	Tidal Atmos – 2023
Global	DR4	DR4	DR15
Min	DR3	DR3	DR12
Max	DR5	DR5	DR16
Hall of Fame	DR3	DR3	DR14
S-Class	DR3	DR3	DR16
ITEM	DR3	DR3	DR14
Super Bowl	DR4	DR4	DR15
TOPLINE (Feat, Tiger JK)	DR3	DR3	DR14
DLC	DR5	DR5	DR16
GET LIT	DR4	DR4	DR14
Collision	DR4	DR4	DR14
FNF	DR4	DR4	DR12
Youtiful	DR4	DR4	DR15
THE SOUND (Korean Ver,)	DR4	DR4	DR16
Mixtape : Time Out	DR4	DR4	DR15

The streaming stereo version (Amazon Music) has a reduced DR4 dynamic range. You’ll need to turn to the Dolby Atmos version for a higher DR15 (Dolby Atmos 7.1.4).

As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.

Part 3 : spectrum comparisons

Spectrum

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 graph below compares the spectrum of the CD (white curve) with the spectrum of the stereo streaming version (blue curve). The curves overlap perfectly. The yellow arrow indicates the maximum frequency of the stereo version at 22 kHz, due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency.

The spectrum of the Dolby Atmos Tidal version decoded in 7.1 shows that the front and side channels are used the most, with a higher level than the other surround channels throughout the spectrum. The bass channel is filtered at 120 Hz, as indicated by the green arrow. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding.

Part 4 : Spectrogram comparaisons

Spectrogram

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 spectrograms of the CD and stereo streaming versions have a maximum frequency that is limited to 22kHz (yellow arrow) due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency. There is no signal above this frequency (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.

Part 5 : 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 Tidal Dolby Atmos .

Below the spatialization for the 12 tracks of Tidal Dolby Atmos version. Click on the images to zoom in.

Part 6 : Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: CD – 2023

The CD version is highly compressed like the Streaming Stereo version, resulting in less dynamic and less precise listening than the Dolby Atmos version downmixed in stereo.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●oooo (1)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2.5)

Sample : ”Better Than Revenge” 16 bits 44.1 kHz:

Ed 2: Amazon – 2023

The Amazon stereo version sounds identical to the CD version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●oooo (1)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2.5)

Sample : ”Better Than Revenge” 16 bits 44.1 kHz:

Ed 3: Tidal Atmos – 2023

The Dolby Atmos version is a great success, with a spatialization of the music that makes for an immersive sound experience and a precise, dynamic rendering of the music. A very fine job has been done on this mix, which is very demonstrative.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●● (5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●●●oo (7.7)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : ”Better Than Revenge” 7.1 :

The sample is in 7.1 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.

The stereo and Dolby Atmos editions are in line with modern mixing standards, with the stereo version severely limited in dynamics, and the Dolby Atmos version offering a better rendering than the stereo version, with more dynamics and detail, and perfectly exploited spatialization that demonstrates the capabilities of Dolby Atmos in music.

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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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