My use case for Arc is to download my entire library to my iPhone. Currently I am using “Balanced” (Opus 48kHz/256kbps) in order to manage storage. I would love to have an option for downloads with lossless compression–FLAC, ALAC, or the like–to preserve sound quality while still letting me manage storage.
An alternative that would work for me (although probably not widely useful) is an option to restrict downloads to library albums that are already formatted as FLAC, ALAC, etc.
Nelson
It is already possible. See Settings in the ARC application:
Note: There is a separate setting for Smart Downloads.
Edit: If you want to download the files but store them in a compressed container, then there is probably not much point. FLAC files are already losslessly compressed. There is probably only a marginal gain available.
I don’t understand. What format are your source files and what target resolution do you want in ARC? If you choose CD Quality, then it will use FLAC at 44.1/16 and this is already possible.
I could see a reason if your source files are hi-res WAV and you would want to download them as hi-res FLAC, as I don’t know if this is possible with the current options, as the only step above CD Quality is “original format”. But I’d argue that ARC downloads may be the wrong place to do this.
In any case, it would help to clarify what exactly you mean
My source files are all lossless–a mixture of AIFF, WAV, FLAC, and ALAC, weighted towards hi-res. My assumption has been that “CD Quality” meant Red Book format (44/16 AIFF), so the news that it’s 44/16 FLAC is unexpected, and has me wondering what “Original Format” means (i.e, uncompressed or compressed). In any case, thanks for the information.
Why not try what it does with your files? It tells you the file format and resolution of the downloaded files in ARC. If I download an album that is FLAC 88.2/24 on my server, with the “CD Quality” setting it ends up as FLAC 44.1/16 in ARC downloads. (Note: 48/16 and I believe 44.1/24 are not transcoded to 44.1/16)
[Moderator Comment: To avoid mitigate against cross posting, this post and subsequent replies have been merged.]
I’m a lifetime subscriber, and music lover, and Roon has made my life better. I’d like ARC to do it too, but it isn’t quite there–hence this contribution to your suggestion box. The ability to download losslessly compressed tracks to my phone, and manage the necessary storage, would make ARC much more useable for me.
My library is about 1500 albums, weighted toward 44/16 AIFF, but my favorites are all higher definition AIFF or FLAC. My use case is to download my entire library to my phone (iPhone 15 Pro), so I have it anywhere, i.e., without internet access. I’ve been doing this for years with Apple Music, using their cloud service to keep my desktop and phone in sync. My downloads are all compressed and lossy, of course. And I’ve had to keep my Apple Music library in sync with my Roon library manually, so my curation chores consume more time than I’d like.
The listening comparisons I’ve done using an external DAC (Audioquest Dragonfly Cobalt) have convinced me that lossless playback is superior, even on the phone. Currently the only lossless option in ARC for downloading high definition tracks is “original format,” but storage requirements get a bit out of hand. I’d like to have the option of “losslessly compressed original format,” using FLAC or ALAC. This would reduce storage requirements by about a factor of two (to about 750GB in my case, if applied to my entire library).
Nelson
Hi @Nelson_Wright,
Given that AIFF is no longer supported by Apple, and more modern formats are available have you considered transcoding your files to ALAC (or FLAC) to gain these file compression benefits at source.
dBPowerAmp has a batch transcode function that can do this, which I recommend from personal use, but other software is also available.
Hi Carl,
Excellent suggestion, and it suits my needs, almost–I already have my entire library transcoded to ALAC (to support my Apple Music habit), which exists in parallel with all the original formats. So my library contains at least two versions of every album.
What gives me pause is all the labeled “primary versions” in my library are in their original formats; the ALAC versions are subsidiary. If I download an ALAC album to ARC, without the primary version, then try to play the album in ARC in offline mode, ARC complains that the album is unavailable. To my way of thinking, ARC should just default to the ALAC version in that case. And my problem would be solved. (And I hope this wish finds its way into the ARC suggestion box.)
Of course the other solution would be for me to relabel all the ALAC versions as primary in my Roon library. I am loathe to do this (perhaps for no good reason), as I’d like to keep the originals as primary.
Nelson
Hello Nelson,
i fail to see what you need, further than the options available?
Balanced should be a good lossy alternative, and CD-quality will allow 16bit 48/44.1Khz material to be stored.
See excerpt from KB:
I guess the same as in the other feedback just a few days ago 
Thank you, Michael_Ollars. To clarify, I would prefer to have my library stored losslessly on my phone and, to manage storage, have it stored losslessly compressed. When I enable “CD Quality” downloads on my phone, and download a ripped CD album, it is stored as 44/16 AIFF (just as in my master library) not as 44/16 FLAC, contrary to the guidance in the KB. So for a ripped CD, there is no difference between “CD Quality” and “Original format.” I am curious to know if your experience is different.
Nelson
Thank you, Suedkiez. In my response to Michael_Ollars, above, I describe why “CD Quality” downloads aren’t helpful to me, as that option doesn’t download ripped CDs as FLAC files, but rather as AIFF files (which is how I have them stored in my master library). If your experience is different, that would be interesting.
I know, and we discussed the same thing in the other thread 10 days ago
And in the other thread I gave examples of what I see and suggested some things you could try.
There’s too much overlap (a consequence of cross posting) so I’ve merged the two topics.
There’s no tangible benefit in retaining both the non-compressed and lossless-compressed formats of the same audio. However, I understand that you wish to retain the non-compressed versions and that’s fine (I have an original format archive for downloaded files myself, but it’s an offline and outside of Roon vision).
May I suggest this pragmatic approach:
If this Feature Suggestions is implemented, you can add this non-compressed folder as an additional watched-folder and Roon will see them once more.
