The soundtrack of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, composed by Ludwig Goransson, blends the iconic orchestral sound of Star Wars with modern electronic textures and powerful percussion. Alternating between epic passages, action sequences, and more intimate moments, it delivers a more immersive and contemporary approach while preserving the musical identity established by John Williams.

For this review, you will find 2 versions tested:

• Ed 1: Tidal MAX – 2026
• Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 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 21 tracks:

1. This Is the Way
2. The Mandalorian and Grogu
3. Next Mission
4. The Twins
5. Shakari
6. Hugo Durant’s Snack Shack
7. Rotta
8. The Pit Fight
9. Rotta Chase
10. Tracking Lord Janu
11. Strap In
12. Flying Home to Nevarro
13. Embo
14. We Got to Find Him
15. The Helmet
16. Go Kid
17. Grogu’s World
18. Do We Run Or Do We Fight
19. All Weapons Hot
20. Red Jammer
21. Your Turn, Grogu

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal MAX – 2026

Presentation

Waveform and Spectrum: DR8

The waveform of the Tidal MAX – 2026 version shows a low dynamic range confirmed with DR8.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises to 24 kHz with no signal above this frequency due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal MAX – 2026.
The spectrum shows that the signal rises to 24 kHz with no signal above this frequency due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.

Synthesis and listening

The stereo version reveals reduced dynamics during listening compared to the Dolby Atmos version (even when downmixed to 2.0), due to the use of dynamic range limiting. This is confirmed by the DR8 measurement and the waveform analysis, which clearly shows the limiter s impact. It is always unfortunate to apply this kind of processing to film music.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3)

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026

Presentation

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026 shows a high range confirmed with DR13.

The spectrogram of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track in 9.1.6 is limited to 20kHz with no signal above. 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 bass channel (LFE) is filtered at 120 Hz.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026.
The spectrum of Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels are used. 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 high-frequency limit is 24 kHz due to encoding at the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

As is often the case, the Dolby Atmos version offers the widest dynamic range derived from the original music recording. Credit for this goes to Dolby Laboratories, which set a maximum average level of -18 LUFS. This difference is clearly noticeable compared to the stereo version.

The Dolby Atmos mix also offers an immersive listening experience with a very pleasant soundstage, featuring sound movement and panning effects on certain tracks( like : This Is the Way, The Mandalorian and Grogu), while on others maintaining a primarily forward-focused balance and making full use of the side channels. It is unfortunate that no Dolby TrueHD-encoded version is available, as a lossless format would have brought even more finesse and precision to the reproduction.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●oooo (6.5) , SK: ●●●●●ooooo (4.9)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

While cinema is usually associated with dynamic and energetic sound reproduction, the soundtrack of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu offers here a stereo version with heavily reduced dynamics, similar to what was observed with the soundtrack of Michael.
Fortunately, the Dolby Atmos version provides a more dynamic rendering along with convincing immersion. To fully appreciate the superb Dolby Atmos mix, you should listen to it on a 7.1.4 system or higher to fully immerse yourself in the music.
However, one may wonder when streaming services will finally introduce Dolby TrueHD for Dolby Atmos streaming in order to deliver a truly lossless format.

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 – 2026	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026
Global	DR8	DR13
Min	DR6	DR11
Max	DR14	DR16
This Is the Way	DR07	DR14
The Mandalorian and Grogu	DR07	DR12
Next Mission	DR08	DR14
The Twins	DR11	DR12
Shakari	DR06	DR11
Hugo Durant’s Snack Shack	DR11	DR15
Rotta	DR08	DR13
The Pit Fight	DR09	DR13
Rotta Chase	DR08	DR13
Tracking Lord Janu	DR07	DR12
Strap In	DR08	DR13
Flying Home to Nevarro	DR08	DR11
Embo	DR09	DR13
We Got to Find Him	DR11	DR13
The Helmet	DR07	DR12
Go Kid	DR09	DR11
Grogu’s World	DR14	DR16
Do We Run Or Do We Fight	DR07	DR14
All Weapons Hot	DR06	DR12
Red Jammer	DR09	DR11
Your Turn, Grogu	DR07	DR13

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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