BdoUK

It looks like the DR on the CD release is pretty mediocre, so I'd be curious to see if the HDTracks versions improves in this area. Recent history has suggested it won't, but I guess you never know. Their first album actually sounded pretty good on CD and had decent dynamic range, so it's sad to see the follow up regress in this area.

Not too long ago movie soundtracks seemed to be immune to the loudness wars. However most of Hans Zimmer's latest releases has had a good deal of compression applied to them. I was very disappointed in the sound quality of TDKR release. If I had known it was compressed I would have picked it up on iTunes or in CD form as opposed to getting the HDTracks release.

How's the DR on this compared to the CD release? I was surprised that the CD version had a slight amount of compression applied.

I haven't listened to the FLAC version, but seeing as it comes from the same compressed master as the CD edition I wouldn't expect it to sound a lot better. In my experience the master is typically the biggest factor in how good a release sounds, regardless of the bit rate or frequency.

Apparently the CD release is brickwalled, but here's hoping the 24-bit is not. Please let us know how it sounds. I should be receiving the vinyl today, which I've read sounds much less compressed than the digital release.

It's sad to see orchestral soundtracks becoming a late entrant to the loudness wars. Batman Begins had a nice DR while TDK and TDKR each got progressively worse.

Unfortunately the dynamic range compression on this release is pretty bad. Additionally an individual on HDTracks FB page is claiming that it appears the soundtrack doesn't have any musical information above the 20khz mark. I can't verify this, but I'd caution buyers in relation to the HDTracks version. You might be better off just buying the standard CD release (which is likely equally as compressed).