Hello,
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is Taylor Swift’s fourth re-recorded album, following re-recordings in 2021: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) and in 2023: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). These new recordings follow a controversy over ownership of the rights to her first six studio albums. This album contains the famous tracks “Shake It Off”, “Bad Blood” and “Style”, 1989 is the fifth studio album released on October 27, 2014.
For this album, you’ll find 3 versions tested: vinyl record (Crystal Skies Blue), Tidal MAX flac in 24-bit 48 kHz and Tidal Dolby Atmos.
No surprises when it comes to dynamics, we find a DR6 for the digital stereo version and a DR13 for the Dolby Atmos version, as shown in the waveforms below:
waveform : Tidal Max Flac (24/96)
waveform : Dolby Atmos downmixed in 2.0
As for the vinyl record, it’s a quality pressing, but there’s an anomaly in the 18 kHz zone, with a significant variation in sound level, certainly due to the cutting of the lacquer:
Spectrum : vinyl record (white) vs Tidal max Flac (blue)
The spatialization of the Dolby Atmos version varies from track to track, with values ranging from 5.9 to 8.5. On this album, spatialization is greater than on previous albums. The soundstage is enlarged and all channels are exploited, putting us right at the heart of the music. Instruments and vocals use all channels, especially the side channels.
Average album spatialization (6.7)
In the end, vinyl record is the most pleasant version as a stereo source, otherwise, in digital, it’s Dolby Atmos that brings more openness, and more dynamics even in downmix 2.0.
You can listen to extracts to compare the versions and all the measurements (waveform, DR, spectrum, spectrogram…) here.
Enjoy listening
Jean-François
I’ve listened to (streamed) quite a few various artists in Atmos – it’s def the future of where music is going, you can really create a unique separation stereo aimed to achieve over mono.
Old heads will probably never agree / much like how many think Pet Sounds and Sgt. Peppers will never be better than in mono.
Lennon said that you haven’t heard Pepper until you’ve heard it in mono.
I prefer the stereo mix.