Roon Improvement Proposal for the option to prioritize different streaming services to play songs from the same play lists.
The problem with playlists in Roon is that they are tied to a specific streaming service, or the songs in that playlist are tied either to Qobuz or Tidal.
Since i prefer Qobuz over Tidal, i would love to see an option in which Roon prioritizes which streaming service should playback a song from a playlist based upon sample rate or other attributes.
Roon had a similar feature for Tidal where you could select which file format to be prioritized: MQA, FLAC
I would love to see a similar feature but for streaming services, where i can prioritize Qobuz over Tidal or vice versa.
Reason is: Qobuz High Res sounds better for my taste, but Tidal has a larger music catalogue.
To get the best SQ when playing songs from a playlist, there should be an option to let Roon playback the best track with the highest sample rate from Tidal or Qobuz for you.
For example: when playing songs from a playlist, Roon should prioritize Qobuz overall (for the better SQ) but when a song is not available on Qobuz, then Roon should play that song from Tidal, because Tidal has a larger library.
Or to prioritize Qobuz High Res over Tidal High Res, even if Tidal High Res has a higher sample rate. (because some prefer Qobuz High Res over Tidal)
It exists but I am not sure if it does what you want for playlists. In your own Roon playlists, it will play what you added to the playlist, regardless of the preference - which seems to make sense as I may have a reason to add the Tidal or the Qobuz version to a playlist.
I guess in Playlists by Roon it might play what the playlist author chose, but I am not sure
This feature is only for Roon Radio and search results, it does not apply to playlists.
Imagine you have an existing playlist in Roon imported from Tidal. But Qobuz has certain songs from that playlist with a better SQ or higher sampling rate.
Because in Roon every playlist is tied to a specific streaming service, Roon plays only from that streaming service, regardles the other streaming service has particular songs in better quality available.
Would be great to let Roon play the best quality available, regardles of the streaming service.
Or to prioritise Qobuz High Res Over Tidal High Res or vice versa.
Yeah, I said I am not sure that it does what you want for playlists because a playlists contains specific recordings. But you did also say “I would love to see a similar feature but for streaming services, where i can prioritize Qobuz over Tidal or vice versa”, so I was not sure if you are aware of that one for other uses.
I can see the value, but as far as I can tell this could not be accomplished by an “option to prioritize different streaming services to play songs from the same play lists”, because for every individual song you might prefer Tidal, Qobuz, or a local file. So a general preference probably would not work.
It seems to me what you want is a feature to simplify exchanging the version of a particular track against another one?
Would be great to have such an option in Roon, to let Roon play the best file available from each streaming service. It would make life easier, because else you have to do it manually, to search every streaming service catalogue for the best SQ available and then add that song to a playlist.
But how would Roon know what you think is the best version? The highest resolution is not necessarily the best version - masterings may differ and someone might prefer e.g. the original mastering of a CD quality file over the remastered hi-res.
I could see “play the highest res available” or “make it simply to manually switch recordings in a play list”, but these are not the same thing
Yeah, you right, Roon could never know which file has the best SQ. Higher sampling rate does not always mean better SQ because good mastering is also important for SQ.
But with increasing regularity, higher sampling rate is more favorable then lover sampling rate.
Have an option to prioritize the highest sampling rate unregarded of streaming service
Also as mentioned above, not all High Res files are mastered equally. One prefers Qobuz High Res over Tidal or vice versa.
Have the option to prioritize Qobuz High Res over Tidal High Res unregarded the sampling rate
Heave an option to play only CD quality files if preferred.
A dropdown menu would be great.
First dropdown menu is where you choose the preferred streaming service you wish to prioritize:
Tidal Qobuz All
Second dropdown where you choose quality:
CD Quality High Res. High Res & CD Quality
By selecting “ALL” and “High Res” Roon plays the files with the highest sampling rate from Tidal or Qobuz
By selecting “Qobuz” and “High Res” Roon prioritize Qobuz High Res over Tidal High Res.
By selecting “Qobuz” and “High Res & CD Quality” Roon prioritize Qobuz High Res over CD Quality.
Means even if the song is available on Tidal in High Res quality, Roon plays the track from Qobus in CD Quality. If the specific track isn’t available on Qobuz, only then Roon pulls the track from Tidal.
Have an option to prioritize the highest sampling rate unregarded of streaming service
Tidal
Good work!