Mylène Farmer – EGREGORE (Streaming Dolby Atmos)

Spatialization SP: ●●●ooooooo (2.8) , SK: ●●●●oooooo (4), Dynamique: ●●●●o (4) – Global: ●●●oo (3.5)

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.

When listening to this Dolby Atmos version, one immediately thinks to compare it to the IMAX theater experience.
The difference mainly comes down to two points, the IMAX theater experience had tighter bass, which is due to two factors:

• The sound quality and volume level of the IMAX theater, as well as the master used in the IMAX theater, which is a lossless format, rather than the highly compressed format used for Dolby Digital Plus Atmos a difference that s particularly noticeable in the lower end of the spectrum, where the bass sounds less tight and deep.
• The dialogue sounds more refined and natural on the Atmos version compared to the IMAX theater, which is due to the high volume level in the IMAX theater.

Compared to the other versions, this one offers the most dynamic sound reproduction. There isn’t a Blu-ray release available to take advantage of a lossless format like Dolby Atmos TrueHD, which would bring the sound closer to the master used in theaters. As for the spatialization of the music on this album, this Dolby Atmos version replicates the experience heard in an IMAX theater.
It’s a very front-heavy mix perhaps even too front-heavy resulting in little difference from the stereo version in certain passages! Occasionally, the side surround speakers are used for vocals or an instrument, but the sound is predominantly a 3D reverb effect.
While recent Atmos album tests have shown an effort to leverage the format’s potential to add spatial nuances to the music, here, the spatialization is a real disappointment.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●ooooooo (2.8)
• Spatialization SK: ●●●●oooooo (4)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3.5)

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

You can download the 3D spatialization representation file below and open it with the application available on this page.

Waveform ,Spectrum and Dynamique: DR13 (Min: DR8, Max: DR16)

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026 shows a high range confirmed with DR13 (in 9.1.6). DR12 in 2.0 downmix.

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 (bass channel) channel is filtered at 120Hz.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026.
The spectrum of Dolby Atmos version decoded in 9.1.6 shows that all channels are used, However, the frontal channels dominate in terms of sound levels.
The LFE channel is used with a cutoff frequency of 80 Hz (green arrow). The white arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz due to encoding at the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

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.