Haewon Moon‘s “Midnight Sun” album, in collaboration with Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, is a vocal jazz album released in 2024. The album features Haewon Moon’s soft, melodious voice, accompanied by the talented pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto.

The album, recorded at Studio Tanta by the renowned Shunroku Hitani on November 27 and 28, 2023, features a meticulously crafted sound. The final touch was provided by Shinya Matsushita, whose expertise in mastering has ensured optimum audio quality. This project has brought together some of the most talented people in the jazz world, each contributing their unique skills to create this one-of-a-kind album.

For this review, you will find 3 versions tested: SACD, vinyl record an Tidal MAX 24/96.

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. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
2. Midnight Sun
3. In the Middle of a Kiss*
4. Autumn Leaves*
5. Misty
6. Send in the Clowns
7. I Didn’t Know What Time It Was
8. Girl Talk
9. I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good
10. Look to the Moon*
11. A Cottage for Sale
12. Twisted
13. You Do Something To Me**

* not on the vinyl record, ** Bonus track, only on the vinyl record

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: SACD – 2024

Presentation

The SACD version is a non-hybrid disc (without the CD layer) with the reference SCOL-1074.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR12

The waveform of the SACD shows a good dynamic range confirmed with DR12.

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 30 kHz (white arrow).

Synthesis and listening

The SACD version is the most natural in terms of voice and musical instrument rendering. The overall sound is homogeneous and perfectly enhances the captivating voice of Haewon Moon as well as the vibrant and expressive piano play of Tsuyoshi Yamamoto. Each note seems to float in the air, creating an auditory experience that will delight the most demanding music lovers.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Surface noise: ●●●●o (4.5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)

Sample : “Misty” 24 bits 176 kHz:

Ed 2: Vinyl – 2024

Presentation

The vinyl edition of this 180g-pressed album contains 9 tracks from the SACD version plus a vinyl-specific bonus track (ref: SCLP-1072).

Waveform and Spectrum: DR12

The waveform of the vinyl record shows a good dynamic range confirmed with DR12.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises above 20 kHz (yellow arrow) with signal above this frequency (white arrow) containing musical information and distortion due to the vinyl record’s operating principle.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyl – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the SACD – 2024 (blue curve).The two spectra overlap up to 1 kHz. Beyond this frequency, the level of the vinyl record increases, reaching up to 6 dB more between 5 and 20 kHz (yellow zone).

Synthesis and listening

The vinyl record offers a quality pressing with mastering that brings the upper end of the spectrum more to the fore. This alters the tonal balance compared to the SACD version, with a more accentuated balance towards the top of the spectrum, giving more spatialization to voices and music at the expense of tonal balance. It is recommended to listen to this format on a well-balanced system to avoid too much aggressiveness in the high frequencies.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3.5)

Sample : “Misty” 24 bits 192 kHz:

Ed 3: Tidal MAX – 2024

Presentation

The Tidal MAX version is présented in 24 bits 96 kHz. This edition contains the same tracks as the SACD version.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR11

The waveform of the Tidal version shows a correct dynamic range, confirmed by the DR11, but with tracks more limited in dynamic range (min DR9) than the other editions (min DR11).

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises above 20 kHz (yellow arrow) with signal above 30 kHz (white arrow) .

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Tidal MAX – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the SACD – 2024 (blue curve).The two spectra are practically superimposed up to 25 kHz, with only a 1 dB difference in the yellow zone. Above 25 kHz, there is an increase in noise for SACD (indicated by the yellow arrow), attributable to the DSD64 encoding used for this format.

Synthesis and listening

The Tidal version is below the quality of the SACD version, offering less overall nuances and subtleties. This is due to more pronounced dynamic compression in this version. Moreover, the difference in internal processing between the DAC of PCM and DSD64 can also lead to variations in listening quality.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3.5)

Sample : “Misty” 24 bits 96 kHz:

A beautiful album featuring the Korean jazz singer Haewon Moon and the extraordinary Japanese pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto. The SACD version is the most natural, balanced and detailed reproduction of this audiophile album. The vinyl edition takes a different approach, with mastering favoring the high end of the spectrum, offering a less homogeneous but a more open sound experience. Everyone can choose according to their tastes and system by comparing the available samples.

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

	SACD – 2024	Vinyl – 2024	Tidal MAX – 2024
Global	DR12	DR12	DR11
Min	DR11	DR11	DR9
Max	DR13	DR13	DR12
I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart	DR12	DR13	DR10
Midnight Sun	DR11	DR11	DR11
In the Middle of a Kiss*	DR12		DR12
Autumn Leaves*	DR13		DR11
Misty	DR12	DR12	DR11
Send in the Clowns	DR11	DR11	DR11
I Didn’t Know What Time It Was	DR12	DR12	DR9
Girl Talk	DR12	DR12	DR10
I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good	DR13	DR12	DR12
Look to the Moon*	DR13		DR10
A Cottage for Sale	DR13	DR12	DR12
Twisted	DR12	DR12	DR10
You Do Something To Me**		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.

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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