Mark Knopfler has released his tenth solo studio album “One Deep River” on April 12, 2024, this new album will contain 12 songs.
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 is also available as a deluxe edition with 5 bonus tracks on CD, vinyl record and Blu-ray.

After testing the first single “Ahead Of The Game“, does the album confirm the same qualities?

For this review, you will find 7 versions tested: Box included Vinyl record and CD, Tidal MAX Flac, Tidal Dolby Atmos, Blu-ray Stereo (92 kHz and 192 kHz) and Dolby Atmos TrueHD

Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.

The album is composed of 12 tracks:

1. Two Pairs Of Hands
2. Ahead Of The Game
3. Smart Money
4. Scavengers Yard
5. Black Tie Jobs
6. Tunnel 13
7. Janine
8. Watch Me Gone
9. Sweeter Than The Rain
10. Before My Train Comes
11. This One’s Not Going To End Well
12. One Deep River

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: BOX Vinyl record – 2024

Presentation

The vinyl record is part of a box set that includes 2 LP vinyl records in 45 rpm, a vinyl record containing 5 bonus tracks (The Living End, Chance Dupree, Along A Foreign Coast, What I’M Gonna Need,Nothing But Rain), and the equivalent on 2 CDs. In addition to the records, the box also includes 3 guitar picks in an iron box, and a 12″ lithograph.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR11

The waveform of the vinyl record shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR11.

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

A very fine pressing for this vinyl edition in 45 rpm on 2 vinyl discs, we find here all the finesse and warmth of the vinyl rendering, which is softer than the digital version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Surface noise: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : Ahead Of The Game” 24 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 2: BOX CD – 2024

Presentation

The vinyl record is part of a box set that includes 2 LP vinyl records in 45 rpm, a vinyl record containing 5 bonus tracks (The Living End, Chance Dupree, Along A Foreign Coast, What I’M Gonna Need,Nothing But Rain), and the equivalent on 2 CDs. In addition to the records, the box also includes 3 guitar picks in an iron box, and a 12″ lithograph.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR10

The waveform of the CD shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR10.

The spectrogram of the CD is limited to 22kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above (white arrow). This limitation is due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency.

Synthesis and listening

Listening to the CD is very close to the high-resolution Tidal version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : Ahead Of The Game” 16 bits 44.1 kHz:

Ed 3: Tidal Max – 2024

Presentation

This is the Tidal Max presented in FLAC 24 bits 192 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR10

The waveform of the Tidal Max shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR10.

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.

Synthesis and listening

We benefit from a high-resolution 192 kHz mix with beautiful dynamics (DR10), so far from a loudness war.
Vocals and guitar are beautifully. 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” 24 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 4: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024

Presentation

This is the Tidal Dolby Atmos (link) presented in Dolby Digital Plus or AC-4.

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the blu-ray Atmos version downmixed in 2.0 shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR13.

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 concentrates mainly on enlarging the sound space, with intensive use of the wide (9.1.6) and side speakers.
The result is a spatialization that immerses us in the music, with some spatialization effects for instruments, voices and backing vocals, as on the track “Scavengers Yard”, 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, but without the precision and finesse of the stereo versions.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●oooo (6.2)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

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

Ed 5: Blu-ray Stereo 96 kHz – 2024

Presentation

This is the Blu-ray Stereo presented in 24 bits 96 kHz (ref: EMIBLU 2113). The SDE Surround Serie offers this album as a limited edition blu-ray with the stereo (24 bits 96 kHz and 192 kHz) and Dolby Atmos mixes. The Blu-ray containing 5 bonus tracks (The Living End, Chance Dupree, Along A Foreign Coast, What I’M Gonna Need,Nothing But Rain).

Waveform and Spectrum: DR10

The waveform of the Tidal Max shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR10.

The spectrogram of the blu-ray stereo 96 kHz version shows that the signal goes up to 24 kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above 48 kHz (white arrow). This limitation is due to the 96 kHz sampling frequency.

Synthesis and listening

We find the same rendering as the Blu-ray 192 kHz version. Differences may appear when listening to the 96 kHz and 192 kHz versions, but these are mainly due to DAC processing.

Rating:

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

Sample : Ahead Of The Game” 24 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 6: Blu-ray Stereo 192 kHz – 2024

Presentation

This is the Blu-ray Stereo presented in 24 bits 192 kHz (ref: EMIBLU 2113). The SDE Surround Serie offers this album as a limited edition blu-ray with the stereo (24 bits 96 kHz and 192 kHz) and Dolby Atmos mixes. The Blu-ray containing 5 bonus tracks (The Living End, Chance Dupree, Along A Foreign Coast, What I’M Gonna Need,Nothing But Rain).

Waveform and Spectrum: DR10

The waveform of the Tidal Max shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR10.

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 black arrow shows spurious frequencies.

Synthesis and listening

We benefit from a high-resolution 192 kHz mix with excellent dynamics (DR10), so far from a loudness war. We find a similar rendering with the Tidal Max version, provided we use the same DAC.

Rating:

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

Sample : Ahead Of The Game” 24 bits 192kHz:

Ed 7: Blu-ray Dolby Atmos – 2024

Presentation

This is the Blu-ray Dolby Atmos presented in Dolby Digital TrueHD (lossless format). The SDE Surround Serie offers this album as a limited edition blu-ray with the stereo (24 bits 96 kHz and 192 kHz) and Dolby Atmos mixes.(ref:EMIBLU 2113). The Blu-ray containing 5 bonus tracks (The Living End, Chance Dupree, Along A Foreign Coast, What I’M Gonna Need,Nothing But Rain).

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the blu-ray Atmos version downmixed in 2.0 shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR13.

The spectrogram of the Dolby Atmos track downmixed in stereo is limited to 24kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above (white arrow). This limitation is due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.

Synthesis and listening

The blu-ray version retains the same properties as the Tidal Dolby Atmos version in terms of musical spatialization, but brings greater precision in spatial placement and channel accuracy. There’s also more finesse in restitution than in the Tidal Dolby Atmos version, which is encoded in Dolby Digital Plus, compared with the blu-ray, which uses Dolby TrueHD, a lossless format.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●oooo (6.2)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)

Sample : Ahead Of The Game” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 7.1):

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

This is an album that doesn’t suffer from the loudness war. All versions are perfect, and everyone can choose according to their preference (vinyl, digital or spatial sound). You can listen to the extracts to compare the sound of the different editions.

Updated with the special Bu-ray edition: This blu-ray version combines the high-resolution stereo versions and the Dolby Atmos TrueHD version only available on this medium, so it’s the best physical medium to have these 2 versions.

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).

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

	BOX Vinyl record – 2024	BOX CD – 2024	Tidal Max – 2024	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024	Blu-ray Stereo 96 kHz – 2024	Blu-ray Stereo 192 kHz – 2024	Blu-ray Dolby Atmos – 2024
Global	DR11	DR10	DR10	DR13	DR10	DR10	DR13
Min	DR10	DR9	DR9	DR12	DR9	DR9	DR12
Max	DR13	DR12	DR12	DR15	DR12	DR12	DR15
Two Pairs Of Hands	DR11	DR10	DR10	DR14	DR10	DR10	DR13
Ahead Of The Game	DR11	DR10	DR10	DR14	DR10	DR10	DR13
Smart Money	DR11	DR11	DR11	DR13	DR11	DR11	DR13
Scavengers Yard	DR12	DR11	DR11	DR15	DR11	DR11	DR14
Black Tie Jobs	DR11	DR10	DR10	DR12	DR10	DR10	DR11
Tunnel 13	DR10	DR9	DR9	DR12	DR9	DR9	DR12
Janine	DR11	DR9	DR9	DR12	DR9	DR9	DR12
Watch Me Gone	DR13	DR11	DR11	DR14	DR11	DR11	DR13
Sweeter Than The Rain	DR12	DR12	DR12	DR14	DR12	DR12	DR14
Before My Train Comes	DR11	DR9	DR9	DR13	DR9	DR9	DR13
This One’s Not Going To End Well	DR11	DR10	DR10	DR13	DR10	DR10	DR12
One Deep River	DR10	DR9	DR9	DR12	DR9	DR9	DR11

Good dynamics for all the versions tested, with Dynamic range between DR10 and DR13.

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 Vinyl record – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Tidal Max – 2024 (blue curve).the curves are very similar between 30 Hz and 30 kHz. There is a slight attenuation of the vinyl level between 5 kHz and 15 kHz (yellow zone), with a maximum of 2 dB. The red arrows indicate spurious frequency peaks present only on the digital version.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the CD – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Tidal Max – 2024 (blue curve).The 2 curves are perfectly superimposed up to 22 kHz (yellow arrow), which is the frequency limit for CDs due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency.

The spectrum of Amazon’s Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels are 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.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Tidal Max – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Blu-ray Stereo 192 kHz – 2024 (blue curve).The 2 curves are perfectly superimposed. The red arrow shows spurious frequencies.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Blu-ray Stereo 96 kHz – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Blu-ray Stereo 192 kHz – 2024 (blue curve).The 2 curves are perfectly superimposed up to 48 kHz (yellow arrow), which is the frequency limit for CDs due to the 96 kHz sampling frequency.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Blu-ray Dolby Atmos – 2024.
The spectrum of the Dolby Atmos version of the Blu-ray decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels are used. Bass is filtered at 120 Hz (green arrow). The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz, due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

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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