At the start of 2025, Lady Gaga is back in full force with Mayhem, her seventh studio album, awaited for five years after Chromatica. Highlights include “Die With A Smile”, a duet with Bruno Mars, and “Disease”, a dark electro-pop track co-produced by Andrew Watt and Cirkut. The latter revives the sounds of his early albums while infusing them with a striking modernity, offering a balance between nostalgia and musical renewal.

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 14 tracks:

1. Die With A Smile
2. Killah
3. Disease
4. Abracadabra
5. Garden Of Eden
6. Perfect Celebrity
7. Vanish Into You
8. Zombieboy
9. LoveDrug
10. How Bad Do U Want Me
11. Don’t Call Tonight
12. Shadow Of A Man
13. The Beast
14. Blade Of Grass

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal MAX – 2025

Presentation

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR5

Tidal Max’s Flac waveform has a small dynamic range, with the use of a dynamic limiter, as confirmed by the DR5.

The spectrogram of the Tidal Max shows that the signal goes up to 22 kHz, due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency used.

Below, Dynamic comparison between the waveform of the Tidal Max version and the Tidal Dolby Atmos version downmixed in 2.0.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal MAX – 2025.
The spectrum shows that the signal rises to 22 kHz with no signal above this frequency due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency.

Synthesis and listening

The stereo version produced in 2025 holds no surprises. It features significant dynamic compression, with an average DR5 and a minimum DR3. This high compression significantly alters sound reproduction: dynamics are reduced, resulting in a loss of precision. Subtleties and instrument details are attenuated, limiting the listening experience and failing to take full advantage of the capabilities of today’s digital formats, especially when compared with the Dolby Atmos version downmixed to 2.0.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●oooo (1)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2)

Sample : “Zombieboy” 24 bits 44.1 kHz:

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025

Presentation

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

Below the spatialization for all tracks in 7.1.4. Click on the images to zoom in.

Below the spatialization for all tracks in 9.1.6. Click on the images to zoom in.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the Tidal Atmos version downmixed in 7.1 shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR13.

The spectrogram of the Dolby Atmos track downmixed in 7.1 is limited to 20kHz. 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.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025.
The spectrum of Tidal’s Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels are used except the center channel (purple arrow). The LFE channel is used with a cutoff frequency of 120 Hz (green arrow). The white arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz due to encoding at the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

Thanks to its wide dynamic range (DR13) and optimized mixing, the Dolby Atmos version offers sound quality far superior to stereo. Successful spatialization brings depth and clarity, highlighting every nuance and detail. Instruments and accompaniments unfold with remarkable immersion, offering a captivating, enveloping listening experience.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●●ooo (7.6)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : “Zombieboy” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 7.1) :

Sample : “Zombieboy” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 2.0) :

Lady Gaga makes her comeback with her new album MAYHEM, which is aligned with current standards with a highly dynamically compressed stereo version (DR3 minimum). Fortunately, the Dolby Atmos version offers total immersion in the music, with successful spatialization. Even in downmix 2.0, it delivers a more natural, balanced rendering than the stereo version.

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

	Tidal MAX – 2025	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025
Global	DR5	DR13
Min	DR3	DR11
Max	DR8	DR14
Die With A Smile	DR8	DR13
Killah	DR6	DR13
Disease	DR3	DR13
Abracadabra	DR4	DR11
Garden Of Eden	DR4	DR12
Perfect Celebrity	DR4	DR14
Vanish Into You	DR5	DR14
Zombieboy	DR5	DR11
LoveDrug	DR4	DR12
How Bad Do U Want Me	DR4	DR13
Don’t Call Tonight	DR5	DR13
Shadow Of A Man	DR4	DR12
The Beast	DR4	DR13
Blade Of Grass	DR6

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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