John Williams Legacy (Streaming Dolby Atmos)

Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●●●oo (8.3) , SK: ●●●●oooooo (4), Dynamique: ●●●●o (4.5) – Global: ●●●●o (4)

This is the Tidal Dolby Atmos (link) presented in Dolby Digital Plus at 768 kbits/s. This is also available on Amazon Music an Apple Music.

The Dolby Atmos version captures all the dynamics of the original recording while also distinguishing between the various sound sources used.
In the recordings from the “John Williams in Vienna” (2020) concerts, the LW and RW channels are utilized, along with the subwoofer. The immersive experience is therefore more front-focused, with a very wide front soundstage (extended by the LW and RW channels).
For recordings from “The Berlin Concert” (2022), the immersive experience is very different; it is in 7.0.4 format and offers greater immersion with excellent use of the side surround channels.
Depending on the recording source, the listening experience shifts from one to the other.
But in both cases, the Dolby Atmos presentation recreates a concert hall experience with sound that fills the room.
It s a shame there isn t a pure-audio Blu-ray edition of this album to take advantage of the lossless encoding quality of Dolby TrueHD and capture all the subtlety of the stereo versions.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●●●oo (8.3)
• Spatialization SK: ●●●●oooooo (4)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

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

Waveform ,Spectrum and Dynamique: DR14 (Min: DR12, Max: DR15)

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026 shows a high range confirmed with DR14.
The Dynamic range of the Dolby Atmos downmixed in 2.0 is DR14 (Between DR12 and DR15).

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 LFE (low-frequency) channel, as well as the LW and RW channels, are used only for the Vienna recordings included in this compilation.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026.
The spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track in 7.1 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).

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.