Buying hi res files from HDtracks and getting them into roon

I just got roon installed and am just learning about its features. I had expected to be able to import truly hi res files say from some site such as HDtracks and somehow store it in the nucleus. I would appreciate knowing if there is a way to do that in broad terms how that could be done. I have a free trial right now with Qobuz, as my interest is classical music. So far I see only FLAC files. I would like to be able to do better than that. Thanks for your suggestions

I’m a little confused… When you say: “I just got roon installed”, and then later: “…import some files… and somehow store it in the nucleus” - do you have a Nucleus, and does it have the extra drive installed in it to hold music files?

Also, you say: “I have a free trial right now with Qobuz, as my interest is classical music. So far I see only FLAC files. I would like to be able to do better than that.”

FLAC is a container format, which can hold different resolutions of files, for example from CD quality up to 24bit 192 kHz multichannel audio.

Qobuz offers Hi-res versions of many albums, and these can also be purchased for download as well. When downloading, you can choose between FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV, and WMA Lossless. I prefer FLAC as the best choice, IMO.

No matter where you store your files, other than the default folder on your Core machine, you need to define the location in Settings==>Storage.

As far as the HDtracks downloads go, once the file is downloaded you can move it to any location that is defined in Settings==>Storage.

As long as you have your music storage location defined you can drag files into Roon and it will ask if you want to copy them to your music folder. Accept it will copy them. But you cannot purchase them or download then from in Roon, you have to buy direct and download from Qobuz.

Flac is a lossless container for PCM that takes less space and can be easily streamed over the internet it local network so not sure what you where expecting. Nobody streams WAV or AIFF over the internet. If your buying stuff you can choose the container you want when downloading.

In Settings/Storage, you can point to multiple directories where files are stored. I have an external drive where I store my iTunes files (computer->disk->Music) and one where I store HD Tracks download (computer->drive->HDtracks).

When I buy albums from HD Tracks, they immediately install to Roon…I just love that! I also use Qobuz but for whatever reason I think my rips sound better than Qobuz. I should mention that I use a MAC Mini dedicated to Roon…but I can also use it to get Music from HD Tracks.

Oh yeah, one other thing.

For downloaded music, check out Bandcamp. They have as much stuff, or at least as much new stuff, as HDtracks and more money goes to the artists, or so they advertise.

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Thanks for that Tip Fishgutz!


DSD

Not sure if resurrecting this old thread is the way to do it. Could someone help me out with getting HDtrack-files imported to my Roon library?

I “bought” and downloaded the free sample album from HDtracks. I moved it to the NAS where my other FLAC-files are stored but they new files are not showing in my library even when I forced a rescan. The HDtracks-files are not listed in the “skipped files” section in the library.

EDIT: For some reason the files showed up in the library when I added the folder directly, even though it’s a subfolder on the NFS-share.