Thank you so much for implementing Qobuz streaming. Brilliant.
In real-world use the one feature I am most missing is automatic selection of the highest resolution source – eg when I search for an album or when it is doing a Roon Radio selection.
Doing it manually requires a lot of clicking: open “Versions”, scroll past Tidal (which appears first) then past the various Qobuz options (sometimes 2-4 of them) and select the 24 bit version.
If there are different user preferences this might require a settings screen, but I think for most of us Qobuz higher bit rate / sampling > Tidal MQA > lower bit rate even if in local library.
I don’t want such a thing.
If a song is in my library, I want that version. There is a reason I picked this version to be in my library.
Higher numbers are not necessarly better. Loudness war remasters f.e.
Well you probably want a switch in the settings then, so you choose your preference to go to the library first; others may want a different setting. My library has 1000 ripped CDs and I would generally prefer a 24/96 version if one is now online.
I assume if you didn’t have the track in your library you will still have a view about whether it gets the track at high or low resolution (and possibly which streaming service to use) and want Roon to make the right choice rather than the current undocumented and usually suboptimal choice?
I agree with AE67, I would always want my local version to be prioritized over any streaming service. All you have to do is click the “Versions” tab and you can choose whatever you want to listen to.
As AE67 also said, high-res really isn’t of much value. I’m fairly willing to bet that you’re not going to be able to pick out the difference between the same master at 16/44.1 and 24/96 or 24/192.
That being said, I do have high-res music in my library, but the quality of the mix & master is far more important. I know what I have in my library, but I have no clue what version is on streaming services, which is why I want my own library prioritized over streaming services.
People use Roon in different ways, have different ears, and different equipment.
Some people use Roon as a carefully-curated personal library, selecting music and adding it. Others use the library as a baseline (often migrated from a huge CD collection) but go on explorational journeys to find new music. I do both of these things. My library is mostly CDs, and I don’t tend to add new things I find to the library.
I often search for a classical work and listen to it; I don’t want to be fiddling around looking through 5 versions of the same recording (across two streaming services) to see which is higher resolution – that’s a judgment Roon should be able to make correctly for me in most cases.
Thus for me, Qobuz hi-res is usually better than local CD-res. For other users, they will have added their favourite version (hi-res or not) to their library manually, and want that one.
This is why there should be an option, not a forced design. Setting options: (a) always prefer library version; (b) prefer highest resolution version. There could be an additional “prefer Tidal or Qobuz” for things not in the library but I personally can’t see the need for a setting there: just get the higher resolution one.
You suggest that I am “not going to be able to pick out the difference” between 24/196 and 16/44. Again I beg to differ. While this would be true in our bathroom, with a Raspberry Pi player and lots of noise, in my study with a Linn Klimax DS and Exakt speakers the different is usually very noticeable indeed. Especially for classical music where hearing inner lines amidst complex texture is important. Again, a preference to pick high resolution over lower by default should logically be an option. I would turn that setting on; you would turn it off.
But what I don’t think is right is that Roon (including Roon Radio) should grab the first version it sees, when we have both Tidal and Qobuz offering the same music but at different resolution.
I’m at work right now, so I can’t double check this, but I’m pretty sure you can refine your search results using the “focus” panel in order to pull up only high-res results from whatever streaming service.
Yes, sometimes, but not on Roon Radio, nor (more importantly) when you search for something and pick an album from the titles presented. I think once you have opened an artist or an album there is no Focus button. You then click on Versions, and start scrolling reading the little text next to the album. The sort of thing which is best automated (assuming your preference can be set in Settings as previously discussed).
Yes, a switch for preference between “library” and “highest resolution” would be a good addition.
If I add an album to the queue and I have to figure out first if the library, Tidal or Qobuz has the highest resolution, that isn’t ideal.
Sure, the mastering is most important, but this information is currently not available in Roon for an album. If even possible, what information would displayed to users to make an informed decision. I have no clue.
So, to serve the users with the choice, the switch is in my view the best option.
As a new user to Roon, I too would like this addition. It seems sensible to be able to specify a preference for which version the software chooses for you without having to actively choose it.
Count me in. I joined the Roon trial. The interface and information is light years ahead of Audirvana, which is what you pay for. BUT the very simple feature of seeing which albums are high-rez and which ones are not when searching on Qobuz is absent. Via Audirvana, you see the albums you requested with a little high-rez label on them. On Roon, nothing. Big problem for me.
Roon Settings > General > Show album format on browser will show a little badge with bit rate and depth on the covers in the album browser, streaming included.
I’m guessing that it’s because the design philosophy behind Roon may be to keep things clean and simple as much as possible, and only add additional layers of information under user control.
Automatic selection of highest resolution would be a killer feature. The choice to include streaming services or only local files could be a great customization option. I would love this feature specifically for streamed internet radio stations. I hope Roon will come with this when they finally release the new internet radio option. Imagine you can choose your favorite radio station but instead of the crappy compressed sound quality you play from your subscribed or local files what the station sends whenever a higher resolution version exists. This would revolutionize internet radio listening. I would not mind a delay of a few seconds compared to ‘live’ that it takes to determine what is played and start of buffering the HQ version from a streaming service like Qobuz or Tidal.
I would not use this feature if implemented as I would always want my local album to play versus any online version. Why? I went out of my way to get the best digital version I could find. That version is almost always better than masterings available on Qobuz or Tidal, regardless of resolution.
The problems I see with implementing it are many. How would you setup exceptions? Most people that have Roon have at least some local albums they would want to take precedence over online versions. The user interface and associated support “calls” would create more problems than it solves.
I couldn’t convince the Roon folks to add a “radio ban” option to the UI. Good luck getting something like this added.
I’m sure the Roon age group is broad, however I fall into the old guy category. After collecting music over 50 years and also converting all of my Cds to FLAC files, that’s what I want to hear more than anything else. The coolest thing in the world is rediscovering my own music which I haven’t heard in years and quite frankly don’t even remember I own it. A long winded way to say, ONE button to turn off Tidal and Qobuz so I can just hear my stuff.