Roon 1.5 with Alac as default?

Roon Software Discussion
1

I have many CDs ripped in alac format (earlier Itunes user) and then converted into flac.

In Roon I used my flac format as default but kept my alac as alternative.
Now it looks as since upgrading to Roon 1.5 my music shows up with alac as the primary version.

Is that a standard setting for Roon and if so how can it be changed without going through all one by one?

2

Not sure of this is what you are looking for, but you can do:

Album view–>Focus–>Format–>select alac
Then select all the albums and Edit–>Hide albums

3

In 1.5 album versions are sorted according to quality. Since your ALAC and FLAC are identical I assume ALAC is displayed first because A comes before F. :smile:

Since both are lossless formats and one was derived from the other I don’t understand why you’d want to keep both in your library. However, you could hide all of the ALAC albums as suggested by @Dick_Vliek. Otherwise, you’d need to go through each version and select Make Primary Version for FLAC.

4

I think this gave the explaination to my observance: “In 1.5 album versions are sorted according to quality“

Unfortunately, I can’t just hide all recordings in alac format, since some recordings, I still only have in alac😔

In other words, going through all recordings one by one is the only solution, I assume!

8

Have you tried to focus on only those that are duplicates as well? Does that get you there?

9

That’d be my suggestion too. Use Focus to identify FLAC, then Inspector > Duplicates, and finally click on +FLAC to identify the ALAC files that have alternative versions. Now follow previous instructions to hide these.

10

ALACs can be used on iOS devices, which I imagine is why they exist in the first place.

BTW can ALAC’s be converted to FLACs? Without losing something?

11

Both are lossless formats, so yes this is possible. I’m struggling to understand why the OP wants to retain both copies in the library since they are identical from a listening perspective.

Indeed if I decide to go down the iPod Touch/ Mojo route I may convert all my FLAC to ALAC.

12

I did think so as well - but no!

I can’t explain why but playing the same track in alac and flac through Roon sounds not the same. The Alac version is slightly more dull but easier to listen to compared with flac, more open - sounds like it comes with a hint of what I would call “digitalize”.

Both played through SB Touch and strait to my amp. Maybe something to do with the D/A conversion in the SB maybe?

Therefore, I keep both versions also in case I should end up with Itunes one day again.

13

I don’t buy that unless there are errors somewhere. ALAC = FLAC when taken from the same recording; they send the same bits to your DAC. They should be indistinguishable during playback.

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14

I know the answer, but why oh why did Apple invent ALAC then?

15

… and why can’t they support FLAC nowadays.

16

Well, they do support FLAC, if you don’t mind doing without a track player. :slight_smile:

17

To support what @Martin_Webster says, in the Roon architecture both FLAC and ALAC are decoded in the Core server, and if they are exact copies they send the exact same datastream in the same format to the endpoint. No difference to the DAC.

If you keep hearing such differences you might want t9 find out if the files are not exact copies.

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