I have a library with a mixture of resolution and for some reason Roon will not pick DSD as the highest quality (resolution) as the Primary version. Here’s what my file structure looks like:
It’s not uncommon to have the following scenario for the same artist:
/Music/Lossless/Muddy Waters/Folk Singer - 24Bit 192Khz HdTracks/01 - My Home Is In The Delta.flac
… and so on for the rest of the songs.
/Music/Lossless/Muddy Waters/Folk Singer/01 - My Home Is In The Delta.flac
… and so on for the rest of the songs.
/Music/DSD/Muddy Waters/Folk Singer - DSD/01 - My Home Is In The Delta.dsf
… and so on for the rest of the songs.
As for the tags, I have them specifically called out as the format they’re in if they’re anything greater than 16/44 Flac. So for example the Muddy Waters album would have the “Album” tag set to “Folk Singer - 24Bit 192Khz HDTracks” (for 24/192) and “Folk Singer - DSD” (for DSD).
The problem I’m having is that it’s not uncommon for Roon to only display the 24 Bit version of an album and not the DSD version unless I go into the “Versions” tab. I find that the DSD version is not viewed as the highest quality version of an album if I have more than one version in my library. Is there a way to have Roon do this where I don’t have to go into every album and select “make primary”? I feel like this wasn’t always this way and that something recently changed that has caused this, but frankly I may be wrong so don’t take that as the 100% truth
So TLDR: Can Roon be set to make DSD files in DSF format the greatest resolution and thus the Primary Version?
This was just one example. I have 24/44 that’s showing higher than DSD. And would you mind linking me to the doc that says that 24/192 is of higher resolution than DSD? That doesn’t sound right to me as DSD is what the Master came from, not 24Bit 192.
I just went looking for more examples and found that I even have regular Flac 16/44 that’s being chosen as the greater version than DSD. So it seems like DSD is just not being given priority.
Different articles on the internet will indicate a resolution for DSD comparable with PCM 24bit/88.2kHZ - 24bit/96kHz
e.g. Hi-res Audio: DSD vs PCM
It could be there is an issue in the latest(s) version(s) of Roon, as there is a ‘choice option’ missing in Settings - General - Streaming Content Preferences.
Yeah, not sure that applies to what’s in the library though as it’s not technically streaming. IDK for sure how they intended this though so just a guess.
Thanks for opening a support issue related to this.
And not to get into a format war, but my personal tastes are for DSD. I have some recordings that were mastered in DSD and the conversion to PCM (FLAC) process lost some information - what seemed to be sense of “darkness” or “space” in the recordings. I’ve also compared recordings in PCM converted to DSD and something about the DSD format just sounded better to my ears. YMMV, especially due to your DAC (can it natively process DSD like dCS’s DAC’s can? or is it converting to PCM?), your speakers, your amp/preamp and cables. If your system isn’t resolving enough you won’t be able to tell the difference. Conversely, if your DAC is primarily a PCM DAC you may have better experience with PCM, it’s all dependent on a ton of variables.
You are preaching to a converted.
I have about 500 SACD’s ripped in DSF format (although not all are really recorded in DSD).
I do upsample all my music to DSD512 with HQPlayer.
In my case, DSD was always chosen as Primary Version, but it has been a very longtime when I last added a DSD-album.
Thank you for doing that @Dirk_De_Taey - This is very interesting. From all that, I can guess one of three things:
1 - Something in the naming or tagging of the files is causing this.
2 - It’s something to do with my specific Roon setup or config is doing this.
3 - Your non-DSD files are AIFF and mine are FLAC. Perhaps it’s a FLAC issue?
I’m inclined to pursue #3 above. Is there any chance you could repeat the process but include a) 16/44 FLAC b) 24/96 FLAC and c) DSD in DSF format and see what it does then?
Do you have all your versions of the same album grouped as versions of the same album in Roon?
I’ve noticed that sometimes slightly different tagging of the album title or artist can cause Roon to see 2 versions of the same album as separate - i.e., not “versions”.
I’m pretty sure the above poster is correct, that Roon sees 1X DSD as the equivalent to 24/88.
I think you’re right. I think it’s my tags. I just went in and it looks like Roon is thinking they’re different versions for some reason. I’m guessing because I have the resolution in the Album Title - So like
“Folk Singer - 24Bit 192Khz HdTracks”,
“Folk Singer - DSD”
Not only is it in the album folder’s name, it’s in the Tag and Roon seems confused.
I guess now the obvious question. Is there a way to have Roon recognize that this is the resolution of the album and not a different version? The songs are exactly the same - same number of songs, same length, etc. Only difference is the Album tag as I indicated above (other than the resolution).
I feel like this wasn’t always this way. Did something change in Roon in the last ~1.5 years? It’s been that long since I’ve really gone in and looked at my collection.
I have over 500 DSD albums. Manually going into each of them is going to take some time. Is there a way for Roon to not group these separately - enmasse? I did do it for a couple as a test case and that appears to have solved the problem.
I find this very frustrating. Roon’s software here is the faulting problem - it cannot successfully identify albums that have the resolution in the Tag as demonstrated above. What’s even just as frustrating is that this was closed out without a real fix. This forum software said that this topic would be closed out after 30 days of inactivity, yet it now says “This topic was automatically closed 36 hours after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.” Do you not want to try and address the issues of your software? What?
