Céline Dion – S’il suffisait d’aimer (Streaming Sony 360RA Reality Audio)

Spatialization SP: ●●●●●ooooo (5.1), SK: ●●●●●ooooo (5.3) – Dynamique: ●●●●o (4.5) – Global: ●●●●o (4)

This is the Amazon Music presented in Sony 360 RA (Reality Audio).

A competitor to Dolby Atmos, Sony s 360 Reality Audio format is now mainly available on Amazon Music. Its spatial rendering remains somewhat different from Dolby Atmos, offering a very pleasant experience with a slightly different spatialization. However, the overall dynamics remain similar. While one might expect only a purely front-focused mix, the side and rear channels are actually used to widen the soundstage and distribute the instruments, giving the music greater depth and scale. The height channels, however, are used sparingly. However, they do not match the standard of reference immersive mixes, such as those awarded at the Grammy Awards.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●ooooo (5.1), SK: ●●●●●ooooo (5.3)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

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

Waveform ,Spectrum and Dynamique: DR14 (Min: DR11, Max: DR16)

The waveform of the 360RA – 2025 shows a high range confirmed with DR14.

The spectrogram of the Amazon 360RA track in 7.1.4 is limited to 20kHz with no signal above . This limitation is due to MPEG-H encoding, which is a lossy encoder that limits bandwidth to optimize data size for a bit rate from 680 to 1600 kbits/s. The bass channel (LFE) is not used.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the 360RA – 2025.
The spectrum of Amazon 360RA version decoded in 7.1.4 shows that all channels are used without the LFE channel. The white arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to MPEG-H encoding. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz due to encoding at the 48 kHz sampling frequency used. In this sample, the center channel is less prominent than in the Dolby Atmos version.

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.