I’ve just reactivated my Roon app and having a great time reading all the great stuff that they have while browsing the album info. Ann then noticed to the right some basic information:
Length: 39 minutes
Rating: 4 1/2 stars
Format FLAC 44/16
Why not DR score? That would be extremely helpful for those that care about overall SQ, no??
p.s. the album in question is Bob Seger’s Stranger In Town Highly recommended.
I trust my ears and have been surprised at the low DR rating of some superb sounding albums.
I only looked at DR ratings once and that was to specifically look at the best sounding albums I know of.
Limited in its use at best IMHO.
I use the DR Database online site. As said above, there’s not always a direct correlation between a high DR and a fantastic sounding album.
Certainly a factor, though, and a worthwhile criterion to bear in mind.
Which ones?
Audirvana has an audio analyser in the player, which sometimes yields surprising results 
It was a while ago but I specifically remember looking at “Diva” by Annie Lennox, as well as “The Colour of Spring” by Talk Talk, “Up” by Peter Gabriel, “Robbie Robertson” by Robbie Robertson and “If You Wait” by London Grammar.
All of the above are some of the best recorded and most dynamic albums I have.
Yet, they all seemed to “score” quite lowly on the DR website, so I dismissed it as basically worthless.
I think the DR score only has any practical use/value when comparing two or more versions to decide which to buy when unable to hear them all first.
If it’s your own ripped files Roon displays Dynamic range based on EBU R128 specs it’s not the common spec used by other databases. It can’t analyse streaming files as they can’t be kept in entirely to analyse and are protected. You just need to turn it on in the display options.
This is from ARC but Roon app shows same info. DR is after the bit depth and sample rate.
I fully agree. I’m sitting here listening to Madonna’s first album. Tidal has 4 different copies of it - Holiday, playing from the ‘Madonna Essentials’ playlist, sounds significantly better than when I went directly to one of the albums and played the same. Like twice as good. This is where a DR score, mastering/ remastering info would be really useful…
Somebody needs to start a petition 
The thing is, in that situation you can somply listen and decide. Now the big question: does the one you think sounds best have the highest DR score?
Seem to recall Roon saying they might be able to get the data from Tidal/Qobuz but nothing ever materialised…guess Tidal/Qobuz didn’t want to play?
Sort of. The one song was part of a compilation, so I don’t know which of the 4 albums it comes from - any identifier would be useful, but the DR score would do. And I’d be able to validate that my ears are picking up the better sounding version.
I don’t understand how the DR score is helpful to you under these circumstances, as you have already found which one sounds the best? If you’re trying to find an album that is not a compilation with that same version of that track on it, I don’t see how the DR score would help you do that, rather you need to research the details of that compilation album to find what versions of songs were put on it, and whether/where else the original with same mastering was released.
so as I said before - any identifier would be helpful; DR score is one option. And for further clarification - the song was part of a compilation on Tidal; not a ‘compilation album.’
When there are four of the same albums in a situation like this, it’s difficult to find out which one they pulled the track from in their self-made ‘compilation’
And lastly, I still do want the DR score when streaming. I’d like to know how it rates versus what I’m hearing. That way, I can attribute a bad sounding-high DR track to one too many glasses of wine.
I suspect you’re wanting far more from the DR database than it was intended to achieve, and far more from the online streaming services than their business models allow fir - after all they just licence the right to stream from the record companies, and the record companies won’t be the slightest bit interested in the DR database - especially not the ones who are guilty of participating in the so-called “loudness war”. I think you’re stuck with doing it manually, finding out the details of the album/song, and looking up for yourself in the Dealer database. Good luck!
In my experience, admittedly only done very few times, it didn’t take a lot of research to find out from what release a piece of music was taken for a compilation album. But then again, it could have bee remastered for the compilation… I well remember some compilation LPs long before digital, where to squeeze more tracks on the record they cut the bass response and made them sound awful if played on a decent system…
It didn’t when I looked at it.
I’m not. I just want a number against a track.
Then you have to go to the DR database yourself as I don’t think any streaming service is likely to have the inclination to do the extra work necessary, and record companies mostly certainly not.
