Hyperlove is MIKA s latest studio album, marking a return to international pop performed in English. The album fits within a contemporary pop and electropop aesthetic, with a polished and well-structured production. Its themes focus on relationships, emotions, and love in a modern context. This project represents a new stage in MIKA s artistic evolution, following in the footsteps of a career launched with Life in Cartoon Motion, his debut album and a major international success.

For this review, you will find 2 versions tested:

• Ed 1: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026
• Ed 2: Tidal MAX – 2026

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

The synthesis of the review are available here.

The album is composed of 14 tracks:

1. Hyperlove
2. Modern Times
3. Spinning Out
4. Excuses For Love
5. All The Same
6. Dreams
7. Science Fiction Lover
8. Take Your Problems With You
9. Interlude Please Take Your Problems With You
10. Nicotine
11. Eleven
12. Bells
13. Interlude Immortal Dream
14. Immortal Love

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026

Presentation

This is the Tidal Dolby Atmos presented in Dolby Digital Plus (768 kbits/s) or AC-4 (link).

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR12

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026 version shows a very good dynamic range confirmed with DR12.

The spectrogram of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track in 7.1.4 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. The green arrow shows the 120Hz filtering of the bass channel (LFE).

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026.
The spectrum of the Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 confirms that all channels are active. The LFE channel is employed with a cutoff frequency set at 120 Hz (green arrow). The white arrow highlights the high-frequency limitation at 20 kHz imposed by Dolby Digital Plus encoding, while the yellow arrow marks the upper frequency limit at 24 kHz, resulting from the 48 kHz sampling rate used for encoding.

Synthesis and listening

The Dolby Atmos mix of MIKA s latest album makes full use of the soundstage to deliver an immersive and dynamic experience, with an effective spatial distribution of vocals and instruments. The mix feels lively and engaging, clearly showcasing the full potential of Dolby Atmos.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●●ooo (7.3)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : Spinning Out 7.4 Dolby Atmos :

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 : Spinning Out Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 2.0) :

Ed 2: Tidal MAX – 2026

Presentation

This is the Tidal Max version presentetd in 24 bits 48 kHz (link).

Waveform and Spectrum: DR6

The waveform of the Tidal MAX – 2026 version shows a very low dynamic range confirmed with DR6.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises to 24 kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above this frequency (white arrow) due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal MAX – 2026.
The maximum frequency of the spectrum reaches 24 kHz, as a result of the 48 kHz sampling rate used. It can be observed that the musical content effectively rolls off at around 22 kHz (yellow arrow), which suggests that the track was originally mixed at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate.

Synthesis and listening

This dynamically compressed stereo version lacks the dynamic range of the Dolby Atmos version. On listening, it may give the impression that this stereo version is a compressed downmix derived from the Dolby Atmos mix.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●oooo (1)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2.5)

Sample : Spinning Out 24 bits 48 kHz:

Hyperlove stays within the standard of modern productions, featuring a stereo version that is heavily dynamically compressed (DR6) and a Dolby Atmos version that delivers both dynamic range and immersive sound. The Dolby Atmos mix is particularly successful in its use of spatial audio, creating a well-balanced and engaging listening experience. Listen on a 7.1.4 system to appreciate the Atmos mixing work on this album.

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 Dolby Atmos – 2026	Tidal MAX – 2026
Global	DR12	DR6
Min	DR11	DR4
Max	DR14	DR9
Hyperlove	DR14	DR09
Modern Times	DR12	DR04
Spinning Out	DR12	DR05
Excuses For Love	DR11	DR05
All The Same	DR12	DR05
Dreams	DR13	DR05
Science Fiction Lover	DR13	DR05
Take Your Problems With You	DR11	DR05
Interlude Please Take Your Problems With You	DR13	DR07
Nicotine	DR11	DR07
Eleven	DR12	DR05
Bells	DR11	DR05
Interlude Immortal Dream	DR11	DR05
Immortal Love	DR11	DR07

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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