A “Roon Radio” only with the local library would be something like an intelligent shuffle play option and not it’s main feature now: to find similar new stuff.
It would be nice to have such an option. But Roon Radio as it is, would be still way more valueable for me.
Sometimes roon radio is amazing but I have no idea how often I listened to the same tracks in the nearly the same order when using roon radio.
And when that happens room doesn’t choose the best version of a track but often enough a version in Redbook quality from some best-of CD
That exists already. The request here is to use radio with streaming services AND prefer the local file over the streaming version if one exists
There’s a dedicated thread for this issue
Roon has so many features, one can learn everyday something new! 
It’s in general settings, IIRC. “Limit Roon Radio to local library”, I think. But you are right, it’s essentially a library shuffle
Looking at my local library today through the Storage Settings, I came across a storage location that has been disabled for about 5 years now.
It is my MP3 Singles folder. This is a collection going back 20 years. Enabled it and started giving it a listen and to my amazement there are songs that I have not heard in a very long time with quite a few unavailable for streaming.
My current Roon audio system up-samples to DSD 256 and I think I have very good setup considering and these MP3s although sonic-ly not on par as my High Res sounded pretty good.
Will never give up my local library.
–MD
And not a very good one.
Roon Radio is great but I also prefer the highest quality version in my library than the streaming version.
I guess this feature is not available on Roon yet?
Any indication that this function is coming?
Yeah, don’t hold your breath. There are a lot of use model issues with the streaming service integration
I don’t understand, if Roon has issues with service integration, why does it have to affect users with large library of DSD and rips which are higher quality than online versions?
For example, I have some really old albums on CD Rips that are better than the AAC and MP3 available on Tidal. I don’t want Roon to play those MP3’s!
I feel your pain. That’s exactly the problem I have. Lots of higher quality music that I’ve bought over the years.
It will play content based on the equivalence match. Radio by choice is designed to work with streaming services and it makes its track choices based on these not local files. It will then do an equivalence match to see if you have the exact same album/track/release version locally and if it’s higher res or the same it will play your local version. If it’s not an exact version match it plays the version it found from streaming. It cannot match a release that isn’t the same so if you have a remaster on DSD it’s likely to be not the same release as the one it picks and thus it will play the version from streaming.
All this has been discussed many many times. It’s not easy to match like for like. For me it plays my local rips quite often but mileage will vary depending on what you own vs what’s in streaming.
I don’t know what parameters it uses to do the match, but it’s pretty awful in my case. Even if there’s only one release of an album, no reissues, only one format, etc etc it invariably picks up the streaming one. I don’t know if this is because they’ve mainly tuned their algorithm for rock/pop/etc and not classical or jazz.
So what I’ve done is shut off Radio, shut off auto-play after an album ends and don’t add any streaming albums in my library. Then I can play my library without worrying about it.
Pathetic.
It’s a full equivalence match of the release it chooses. Just having the same album won’t make it play yours if the release isn’t the same. Also sometimes the version it’s chosen is from a compilation album unless you have that album it won’t play your version. It picks what track to play in general based on its algorithm which is based on what you play what else you might play after it, acts in similar genre , band members and other links also what other users have similar and play after it. It then will then look it up on Tidal or Qobuz if it happens to be the exact same release you have and you have your version as primary it will play your version unless the one it’s chosen beats it res wise. It will also take into account your streaming prefs for MQA to decide. If it’s not the same release it won’t play it.
As an example Etta James album - At Last has 22 versions of the same album in Qobuz. You may have one version that matches to one of these versions. If Roon doesn’t pick that exact that’s in your library it won’t play yours. That’s how it works for the most part anyway.
I cancelled my paid streaming services months ago, I use a free Qobuz login to get metadata, I’ve never looked back, (years ago) I was finding new music with Radio on streaming but it was diminishing returns after a 6 month honeymoon period. I have all the music I could ever need locally, if an album pops up in the music news that takes my fancy I just listen to it on free streaming and if I like it I buy it for local use.
I only use Radio in ARC now as its more at home there only use it via Roon now if I am feeling really lazy.
You’re not understanding me.
Take this album as an example. Believe me, there is no other version, release, reissue, etc of this album. There is exactly one in the entire world. My library version is in DSD64, yet it insists on playing the 44/16 on Qobuz. I don’t see how the algorithm is even remotely sane.
Theirs is no MQA and even if there were I have it set to “prefer anything over MQA”.
To be honest, I find the classical catalogue on Qobuz and Tidal pretty mediocre. Apple has a better catalogue.
I play almost exclusively my own library. The only reason I have Qobuz is to buy newer albums that I like at a decent price through the Sublime thing. But even that I don’t do that much because I buy mostly music recorded and mastered in DSD and whose provenance is clear.
(I prefer to buy albums rather than streaming because as a musician myself I like to have the musicians rewarded for their effort. But I don’t mean to start a debate on this here.)
I am explaining how radio was designed and what it’s supposed to do. I didn’t say it was foolproof and likely classical really isnt an area it’s strong in due to poor metadata across the services. My experience is very different to yours and if it’s a match it plays my local version all the time, it’s only not done this when it’s a different version or release. But I don’t own any DSD material or really use it for classical.
Radio was never designed for exclusive local library usage again this has been said by Roon a number of time it’s about discovery as much as anything and not playing stuff you already have, although it will always pick up to stuff you do as part of that journey and thus its reliance on having a streaming sub is essential for a better experience. It’s not about playing your own music and this is what seems to confuse the issue around radio.
