Mark Knopfler will release his tenth solo studio album “One Deep River” on April 12, 2024, this new album will contain 12 songs, of which the first single “Ahead Of The Game” is already available.
The new album was recorded at his British Grove studios in London, a studio designed to bring together the best analog and digital technologies.
The album will be available on a variety of formats, including CD and vinyl, in single and deluxe editions, as well as in a special limited-edition boxed set with bonus tracks.
It will be available in stereo and Dolby Atmos.
While we await the album’s release, here’s a chance to listen to and see what the new single “Ahead Of The Game” has to offer.

For this review, you will find 2 versions tested: Tidal MAX Flac and Tidal Dolby Atmos.

The album review is now available here.

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 the track “Ahead Of The Game”.

The waveform of the Tidal MAX and Dolby Atmos Atmos version downmixed in 2.0 show good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR10 (Tidal MAX) and DR14 (Tidal Dolby Atmos).

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 graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Max Flac – 2024.
The spectrum rises above the 24 kHz frequency (yellow arrow), with a signal above this frequency as shown by the white arrow, due to the 192 kHz sampling frequency. Spurious frequency peaks are also present above 20 kHz (black arrows), with no impact on listening.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024.
The spectrum of Amazon’s Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that not all channels are used. The bass and rear surround channels are not used. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding. The white arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz due to encoding at the 48 kHz sampling frequency used, confirming that it is the Dolby Digital Plus encoding algorithm that cuts frequencies at 20 kHz to reduce data size in order to maintain the bit rate of 768 kbits/s.

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 stereo version of Tidal Max shows that the signal goes up to 24 kHz (yellow arrow) and that there is signal above this frequency (white arrow), due to the 192 kHz sampling frequency.

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 Tidal Dolby Atmos .

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal Max Flac – 2024

We benefit from a high-resolution 192 kHz mix with beautiful dynamics (DR10), so far from a loudness war. Vocals and guitar are beautifully rendered on this first track. Here we find all the precision and finesse of this high-resolution stereo track compared to the Dolby Digital track encoded in Dolby Digital Plus (lossless).

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)

Sample : ”Ahead Of The Game” 16 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024

The Dolby Atmos version focuses mainly on expanding the sound space, with intensive use of the wide (in 9.1.6) and side speakers. The result is a spatialization that immerses us in the music without seeking spectacular effects, but with a rather natural rendering. Compared with the stereo version, the result is a more immersive experience, with the impression of being immersed with the musicians.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●●ooo (7.3)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : ”Ahead Of The Game” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed in 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.

Sample : ”Ahead Of The Game” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed in 2.0) :

After reviewing the first single from Norah Jones’ “Visions” album a few days ago, this first track from Mark Knopfler’s “Ahead Of The Game” album is a pleasant surprise. No loudness war for this first single, with true high resolution. It’s therefore with great pleasure that we can listen to this first single in stereo with all the finesse of high resolution, or immersed in Dolby Atmos.

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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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