“This is their most ‘alive’ sounding album since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence . The drum triggering is minimal. The guitar re-amping is analog. If you only hear this on Apple Music, you haven’t heard it.”
The graph bloomed upward, a dense forest of color extending all the way to 48kHz. Elias exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding. It was real. The ultrasonic frequencies were present. While the human ear can't technically "hear" past 20kHz, the presence of that data affected the phase relationships and the transient response of the audible frequencies. It was the difference between looking through a clean window and looking through a slightly fogged one.
For optimal playback:
, the sound is punchy and direct, designed to let listeners be "enveloped in the music" according to Dream Theater’s official announcement Key Tracks for Audiophiles