Prince – Timeless (Streaming Dolby Atmos)

Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●oooo (6.2) , SK: ●●●●●ooooo (5.1), 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.

This album features songs spanning a wide range of musical styles, and this is also reflected in the Dolby Atmos mix, which varies from one track to another (the spatialization graphs clearly illustrate the differences in mixing between the various versions.).
On With This Tear , the presentation is more front-focused, with the vocals prominently positioned in the front and an extension into the surround channels that increases with the intensity of the instruments.
On Stone , the sound is immediately immersive, with the various elements spread throughout the listening space, creating a beautiful and highly immersive presentation.
On How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore (Live) , from the very first seconds, you find yourself right in the middle of the audience. The mix completely immerses you in the concert atmosphere.
Overall, this is a very beautiful Dolby Atmos mix for this compilation album. It is only a shame that there is no Pure Audio Blu-ray edition featuring Dolby Atmos TrueHD, the lossless format.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●oooo (6.2)
• Spatialization SK: ●●●●●ooooo (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

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

Waveform ,Spectrum and Dynamique: DR14 (Min: DR11, Max: DR17)

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026 shows a high range confirmed with DR14. The Tolby Atmos downmixed in 2.0 have global Dynmanic Range DR13 (Between DR11 to DR15).

The spectrogram of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track in 9.1.4 is limited to 20kHz 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 bass channel (LFE) is filtering at 120 Hz..

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.