Carnaval de Luz is the 16th studio album by the Irish rock band U2. Scheduled for release on November 13, it will be available on vinyl, CD, and Blu-ray, with an audio track in Dolby Atmos TrueHD format.
Featuring 12 tracks, two of which are already available, this album is now the subject of an early review to get a sense of the sound characteristics and quality of this new release.

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 2 tracks:

1. Street Of Dreams
2. Silencio

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal MAX – 2026

Presentation

This is the Tidal MAX presented in lossless 24 bits 96 kHz format. This is also available on Amazon Music an Apple Music.

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 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 stereo version is based on a sampling frequency of 48 kHz, limiting the bandwidth to 24 kHz (yellow arrow).

Synthesis and listening

No surprises here with this stereo release, it s a version designed to sound loud, meaning it features heavy dynamic compression, as confirmed by its DR7 rating.
To experience greater dynamic range and more detail in the sound, you ll need to check out the Dolby Atmos version.

Rating:

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

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026

Presentation

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

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 filtrered at 120Hz.

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 (white arrow) 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..

Synthesis and listening

Immersive sound in music production: U2 provides an example of how immersive sound is applied to their songs. The mix for Street of Dreams is particularly interesting because, depending on the section of the track, there are two completely different immersive renditions, one in 7.1 and another that fully utilizes all channels, including the overhead ones. The chorus features a completely different spatial arrangement. It’s no longer just about the placement of instruments; the soundscape is directly linked to the composition of the song’s various sections. On Silencio the spatialization also changes throughout the track, starting with the lower channels and gradually incorporating the overhead channels toward the end of the song.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●oooo (6.5)
• Spatialization SK: ●●●●●ooooo (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

These first two tracks on the album set the tone, and the Dolby Atmos version offers the most dynamic experience with an immersive mix that s perfectly integrated into the song s composition. In fact, the immersive experience changes depending on the section of the song, such as the chorus. It s a mix worth listening to. The announced Blu-ray release will include a lossless-quality version of the Dolby Atmos TrueHD track, which should allow listeners to enjoy this new album under the best possible conditions, stay tuned.

Dynamic Range measurements and spectra 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	DR6	DR13
Min	DR6	DR12
Max	DR7	DR14
Street Of Dreams	DR06	DR12
Silencio	DR07	DR14

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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