Australian singer-songwriter Sia has enriched her discography with her tenth studio album, “Reasonable Woman”. Released on May 3, 2024, this album was preceded by singles such as “Gimme Love”, “Dance Alone” in collaboration with Kylie Minogue, and “Incredible” with Labrinth. The new album contains 15 songs.

Does this album hold any pleasant surprises?

For this review, you will find 2 versions tested: Tidal MAX, 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 album is composed of 15 tracks:

1. Little Wing
2. Immortal Queen (feat. Chaka Khan)
3. Dance Alone
4. I Had A Heart
5. Gimme Love
6. Nowhere To Be
7. Towards The Sun
8. Incredible (feat. Labrinth)
9. Champion (feat. Tierra Whack, Kaliii & Jimmy Jolliff)
10. I Forgive You
11. Wanna Be Known
12. One Night
13. Fame Won’t Love You (feat. Paris Hilton)
14. Go On
15. Rock and Balloon

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal MAX – 2024

Presentation

This is the Tidal presented in FLAC 24 bits 44.1 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR4

The Tidal Max waveform shows a very very low dynamic range due to the dynamic limiter used, as confirmed by the graphs below, with a dynamic range from to DR4. Dynamic Range is between DR3 and DR5 depending on the song!

The spectrogram of the stereo version of Tidal shows that the signal goes down to 22 kHz (yellow arrow) and that there is no signal above this frequency (white arrow), due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

With a Dynamic Range DR4, we’re totally in the loudness war. The result is a sound that is severely limited in terms of dynamic range, accentuating saturation effects, providing power but no dynamic range. Some songs have a DR3!

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●oooo (1)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●oooo (1.5)

Sample : Incredible (feat. Labrinth)” 24 bits 44.1 kHz:

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024

Presentation

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

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR12

The waveform of the Tidal Atmos version downmixed in 2.0 shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR12.

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 offers the best sound reproduction compared to the stereo version, thanks to the dynamic range (DR12) but also to a superb Dolby Atmos mix that offers a lively and different spatialization for each track.
“Immortal Queen”: the track begins in stereo, extends to the laterals and eventually fills the entire soundstage.
“Dance Alone”: Begins on all surround channels, then the music appears with the vocals on the front. Music and chorus are also present on all surrounds.
“Gimme Love”: uses all channels, with choir and music distributed.
“Incredible”: begins with music moving across all channels, then the vocals arrive at the front and the music fills all channels, with choirs also present on the high channels.
“Wanna Be Known”: plays with all channels for the music.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●oooo (6.5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : Incredible (feat. Labrinth)” 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 : Incredible (feat. Labrinth)” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 2.0) :

Sia returns with a new album characterized by a DR4 for the stereo version, which is a shame. Fortunately, the pleasant surprise comes from the Atmos version with its DR12 and its superb Dolby Atmos mix, very inventive in terms of spatialization. This is the most pleasant version to listen to, especially if you have a multichannel system.

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).

A comparison of waveforms adjusted to -14.4 LUFS integrated clearly shows the impact of limiting dynamics on the stereo version (DR4).

For our 2 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	Tidal MAX – 2024	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024
Global	DR4	DR12
Min	DR3	DR11
Max	DR5	DR14
Little Wing	DR4	DR13
Immortal Queen (feat. Chaka Khan)	DR4	DR11
Dance Alone	DR3	DR14
I Had A Heart	DR4	DR13
Gimme Love	DR3	DR11
Nowhere To Be	DR4	DR13
Towards The Sun	DR4	DR12
Incredible (feat. Labrinth)	DR4	DR12
Champion (feat. Tierra Whack, Kaliii & Jimmy Jolliff)	DR4	DR13
I Forgive You	DR4	DR11
Wanna Be Known	DR4	DR11
One Night	DR4	DR13
Fame Won’t Love You (feat. Paris Hilton)	DR4	DR11
Go On	DR5	DR13
Rock and Balloon	DR4	DR12

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 represents the spectrum of the Tidal MAX – 2024.
The yellow arrow shows that the maximum frequency is 22 kHz (yellow arrow), consistent with the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency used. No signal above 22 kHz (white arrow).

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024.
The spectrum of Tidal 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 bass channel have a low level and is filtered at 120 Hz(green arrow).

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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