For her 11th album, Taylor Swift, the 34-year-old singer, arrives with her new album “The Tortured Poets Department,” and brings a surprise to her fans with a version “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” containing 15 extra tracks evening over 2 hours of music.

It’s this surprise version that we’ll be reviewing. Which will be the best edition?

For this review, you will find 3 versions tested: Vinyl record, Tidal MAX Flac, Tidal Dolby Atmos

Reviews of other Taylors Swift albums:

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 31 tracks:

1. Fortnight
2. The Tortured Poets Department
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
4. Down Bad
5. So Long, London
6. But Daddy I Love Him
7. Fresh Out The Slammer
8. Florida!!!
9. Guilty as Sin?
10. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
12. loml
13. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart
14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
15. The Alchemy
16. Clara Bow
17. The Black Dog
18. imgonnagetyouback
19. The Albatross
20. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
21. How Did It End?
22. So High School
23. I Hate It Here
24. thanK you aIMee
25. I Look in People’s Windows
26. The Prophecy
27. Cassandra
28. Peter
29. The Bolter
30. Robin
31. The Manuscript

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal Max – 2024

Presentation

This is the Tidal Max presented in FLAC 24 bits 48 kHz. This version contains 16 tracks and 15 extra tracks for this double album.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR7

The waveform of the Tidal Max shows low dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR7.

The spectrogram of the Tidal MAX is limited to 24kHz (yellow arrow) . This limitation is due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency (Maximum spectrogram frequency displayed 24 kHz).

The graphs below show the 31 tracks in two parts.

Synthesis and listening

Unsurprisingly, we find the loudness war raging again, with an average DR7 for the album, with some tracks more or less impacted by DR9, or more by DR5. The rendering is less dynamic and less clear than the Dolby Atmos version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3)

Sample : My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” 24 bits 48 kHz:

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024

Presentation

This is the Tidal Dolby Atmos presented in Dolby Digital Plus or AC-4 (link). This version includes 16 tracks and 15 extra tracks for this double album.

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR14

The waveform of the 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, (Maximum spectrogram frequency displayed 24 kHz).

The graphs below show the 31 tracks in two parts.

Synthesis and listening

An Atmos mix that exploits all channels (including highers and sides in 9.1.6) while favoring the width of the soundstage, with good use of side channels, particularly for music and choirs. Sound reproduction is perfectly consistent with the music. The Atmos version provides a highly successful immersive listening experience, immersing us more fully in the music than the stereo versions. On “So Long, London”, the voice acting adds a 3D dimension to the music.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●oooo (6.5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” 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 : My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 2.0) :

Ed 3: Vinyl Record- 2024

Presentation

The vinyl record is composed of 2 LP vinyl records in 33.33 rpm, the vinyl record containing 16 tracks and one bonus track. The bonus track depending of the vinyl edition between the folowing titles : The Black Dog, The Albatross, The Bolter et The Manuscript. This vinyl record contains “The Manuscript”. (ref:602458933314). It Includes a 24-page book. Made in Germany.

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 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 (Maximum spectrogram frequency displayed 96 kHz).

The graphics below represent the 17 tracks on the vinyl record.

Synthesis and listening

Vinyl brings more finesse and precision than stereo digital versions, especially on vocals, as can be heard in the sample.

Rating:

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

Sample : My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” 24 bits 96 kHz:

Dolby Atmos multichannel listening is characterized by a mix that extends the front soundstage to the side surround speakers. This type of Atmos mixing works very well with this style of music. If you’re not a fan of the Atmos version, vinyl offers the best rendition of the stereo mix. But if you want to hear all 31 tracks, you’ll have to listen to them in digital stereo or Dolby Atmos!

Dynamic Range measurements and spectra are shown below.

Subscribe to MagicVinylDigital

If you like this review, please subscribe. You’ll receive information on new articles directly in your inbox.

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

	Tidal Max – 2024	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024	Vinyl Record- 2024
Global	DR7	DR14	DR11
Min	DR5	DR12	DR10
Max	DR9	DR16	DR12
Fortnight	DR6	DR14	DR11
The Tortured Poets Department	DR7	DR14	DR10
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys	DR5	DR13	DR11
Down Bad	DR6	DR14	DR10
So Long, London	DR7	DR14	DR10
But Daddy I Love Him	DR6	DR16	DR11
Fresh Out The Slammer	DR6	DR14	DR11
Florida!!!	DR7	DR15	DR12
Guilty as Sin?	DR7	DR15	DR11
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?	DR7	DR15	DR12
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)	DR7	DR15	DR10
loml	DR8	DR12	DR10
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart	DR7	DR16	DR11
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived	DR6	DR12	DR11
The Alchemy	DR6	DR13	DR10
Clara Bow	DR7	DR13	DR10
The Black Dog	DR7	DR13
imgonnagetyouback	DR7	DR15
The Albatross	DR7	DR13
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus	DR7	DR14
How Did It End?	DR7	DR12
So High School	DR5	DR12
I Hate It Here	DR6	DR12
thanK you aIMee	DR6	DR13
I Look in People’s Windows	DR9	DR15
The Prophecy	DR7	DR13
Cassandra	DR7	DR13
Peter	DR6	DR14
The Bolter	DR7	DR13
Robin	DR6	DR13
The Manuscript	DR7	DR13	DR11

Good dynamics for the Dolby Atmos version, with a DR14 compared to the streaming and vinyl versions.

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 – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Vinyl – 2024 (blue curve).The curves are very similar up to 12 kHz. There is an attenuation of the vinyl level above 12 kHz (yellow zone), up to 10 dB at 18 kHz. The yellow arrow shows the limit at 24 kHz for Tidal Max, due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.

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, except for the central channel. 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.

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.

---