After her Christmas album “I Dream of Christmas”, released in 2021, Norah Jones returns with a new album, “Visions”, released on March 8.
It features 12 tracks (with a bonus track for the Japanese SACD), including “Running”, which was already available for streaming.
We can’t forget her debut album “Come Away With Me“, but will this new album follow in the footsteps of its achievement?

For this review, you will find 5 versions tested: Vinyl and color vinyl records, Tidal Max Flac 24 bits 96 kHz, Tidal Dolby Atmos and japanese SACD

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 13 tracks:

1. All This Time
2. Staring at the Wall
3. Paradise
4. Queen of the Sea
5. Visions
6. Running
7. I Just Wanna Dance
8. I’m Awake
9. Swept Up in the Night
10. On My Way
11. Alone With My Thoughts
12. That’s Life
13. Can You Believe*

*Bonus track, on on Japanese SACD.

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal Max Flac – 2024

Presentation

This is the Tidal Max presented in FLAC 24 bits 96 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR7

The waveform of Tidal Max Flac clearly shows the use of a dynamic limiter, as confirmed by the Dynamic Range measurement with a DR7.

The spectrogram of the stereo version of Tidal Max shows that the signal goes beyond 24 kHz (yellow arrow) and that there is signal above this frequency (white arrow), due to the 96 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

It’s a pity that Norah Jones also has to submit to the Loudness War. Analysis of the album confirms the test of the first single with a DR7. This is not a first for Blue Note, as this problem was also noted on Joshua Redman’s “Where Are We” album. Despite the use of the limiter, the soundstage is wide, with a nice central rendering of Norah Jones’ voice, but without the dynamics of the Dolby Atmos version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3)

Sample : Running” 16 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 2: Amazon Dolby Atmos – 2024

Presentation

This is the Amazon Dolby Atmos presented in Dolby Digital Plus.

Below the spatialization for all tracks. Click on the images to zoom in.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR14

The waveform of the Amazon Atmos version downmixed in 2.0 shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR14.

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.

Synthesis and listening

The Dolby Atmos version focuses mainly on expanding the soundstage, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the track, but with good use of the wide (in 9.1.6) and side speakers. The result is a semi-spherical spatialization that immerses us in the music from the front speakers to the side speakers, with music and backing vocals evenly distributed.
Compared with the stereo version, the result is a more immersive experience, with the impression of being close to the singer, the music and the backing vocals.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●ooooo (5.6)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : Running” 7.1 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 : Running” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 2.0) :

Ed 3: Vinyl – 2024

Presentation

Here’s the vinyl record in a single LP 33.33 rpm version (Ref: 602458671490)

Waveform and Spectrum: DR9

The waveform of the vinyl version is less limited in dynamics (DR9) than the Tidal stereo version (DR7), but remains less dynamic than the Dolby Atmos version (DR14).

The graph of the spectrogram of the vinyl record show that the frequencies of the audio signal rise above 20 kHz (yellow arrow). The signal above 20 kHz (white arrow) is due to the signal present above 20 kHz and to the distortion caused by the vinyl playback principle.

Synthesis and listening

The analysis shows that the DR of the vinyl is a little higher than that of the stereo version, but the waveform doesn’t deceive and shows that the master used was well compressed (more information “Do analog media impose dynamics on music?“). The sound is therefore strong, a little more listenable than the digital stereo version, but still less dynamic than the Dolby Atmos version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Surface noise: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3)

Sample : Running” 24 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 4: Color Vinyl – 2024

Presentation

Here’s the teal-colored vinyl record in a single LP 33.33 rpm version (Ref: 00602458953817)

Waveform and Spectrum: DR9

The waveform of the vinyl version is less limited in dynamics (DR9) than the Tidal stereo version (DR7), but remains less dynamic than the Dolby Atmos version (DR14).

The graph of the spectrogram of the vinyl recod show that the frequencies of the audio signal rise above 20 kHz (yellow arrow). The signal above 20 kHz (white arrow) is due to the signal present above 20 kHz and to the distortion caused by the vinyl playback principle.

Synthesis and listening

Color vinyl records are similar in rendering to black vinyl records

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Surface noise: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3)

Sample : Running” 24 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 5: SACD – 2024

Presentation

The SACD (ref 4988031627839) is a pure SACD with only the SACD layer. This Japanese version includes a bonus track.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR7

The waveform of SACD clearly shows the use of a dynamic limiter as the Tidal Max, as confirmed by the Dynamic Range measurement with a DR7.

The spectrogram below represents the SACD. The yellow arrow shows that the signal rises well above 20 kHz. We also find the characteristic noise of DSD64 beyond 25 kHz (white arrow).

Synthesis and listening

This is a real disappointment, even though SACD is intended to be an audiophile format. The Japanese edition, with no CD layer, might have suggested the use of an uncompressed dynamic master, but no, we find the same dynamics as the Tidal Max streaming version!

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3)

Sample : Running” 24 bits 88.2 kHz:

After the disappointment of the first single, analysis of the album confirms the use of dynamic compression, even on SACD media impacted by loudness war. This is a far cry from the quality of “Come away With Me”. The Dolby Atmos version brings back dynamics and a mix favoring frontal space (see spatialization analysis).

Dynamic Range measurements and spectra are shown below.

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Measurements

Dynamic Range comparaisons

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 5 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	Tidal Max Flac – 2024	Amazon Dolby Atmos – 2024	Vinyl – 2024	Color Vinyl – 2024	SACD – 2024
Global	DR7	DR14	DR9	DR9	DR7
Min	DR6	DR10	DR8	DR8	DR6
Max	DR10	DR18	DR11	DR11	DR11
All This Time	DR8	DR10	DR9	DR9	DR8
Staring at the Wall	DR8	DR12	DR8	DR8	DR7
Paradise	DR6	DR13	DR9	DR9	DR6
Queen of the Sea	DR6	DR12	DR9	DR9	DR6
Visions	DR10	DR11	DR11	DR11	DR11
Running	DR6	DR13	DR9	DR9	DR6
I Just Wanna Dance	DR8	DR18	DR10	DR10	DR8
I’m Awake	DR7	DR13	DR10	DR10	DR6
Swept Up in the Night	DR6	DR13	DR8	DR8	DR6
On My Way	DR6	DR14	DR9	DR9	DR6
Alone With My Thoughts	DR8	DR15	DR8	DR8	DR7
That’s Life	DR6	DR10	DR8	DR8	DR6
Can You Believe					DR8

The 3 versions tested were all very dynamic.

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.

Spectrum comparisons

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Tidal Max Flac – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Vinyl – 2024 (blue curve). The spectra of the two media are very similar, with an accentuation in the low frequencies for vinyl (green zone, maximum 1 dB) and above 12 kHz (yellow zone). The yellow arrow shows the background noise of the vinyl record.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Amazon 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.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Color Vinyl – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Vinyl – 2024 (blue curve). The spectra of the two vinyl versions overlap perfectly.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the SACD – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Tidal Max Flac – 2024 (blue curve). The spectra of the two vinyl versions overlap perfectly, but above 25 kHz, the noise increases for the SACD (yellow arrow), due to the encoding.

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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