The Chromecast Audio Rocks - And Now With Whole Home Audio

[poofyhairguy]

So I had the first Chromecast and honestly I used it a grand total of once because the WiFi sucked and I prefer remote controls and tv GUI's over casting content. I loved the concept and it was good hardware but it was too limited for me. I wasn't planning on getting the sequel, but I picked up two Chromecast Audios on Black Friday and WOW I love these things.

And that was before this announcement:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/10/9886076/googles-chromecast-audio-multi-room-hi-res-audio

With these devices I VERY easily added Spotify support and podcasts on my old school garage stereo system and my kitchen setup. I just bought another to put in my livingroom that connects the two, even though I paid extra to get Spotify support on a receiver in there not too long ago. It's that good and I want synced audio.

I will report back on how well it does synced audio when I get the third device installed as right now the two sound areas are kinda far away to test fully. But from initial testing it sounds in sync and was crazy easy to setup.

I have craved that synced audio without the Sonos price for years, but just for what it is so far it is my favorite Google branded device ever. I have gone through an army of Bluetooth receivers and wires and DLNA or Squeezebox or whatever I could get on my HTPCs over the years and nothing worked this good. Casting is perfect for audio, and this device is brain dead easy and reliable. It does get a little warm but it sounds good.

Anyone else have one? If not you can get $20 of bonus Google Play credit right now and Best Buy and others have it on sale for $30.

 

[tsupersonic]

I got one for $20 a while back. I bought mine as a total first world problem solution. I have the original Chromecast, but I hated having my TV on to listen to music while I was cooking. So, enters Chromecast Audio. It is awesome, I can play back music with just my receiver on. HOWEVER, it is not all fun and games. It constantly disconnects no matter what device I cast from (Nexus 5, iPad Air, OnePlus X, iPhone 6, Moto G 2015). It is super infuriating to the point where I'm just using my Chromecast to stream audio.

 

[Kaido]

I'm curious as to how well the multi-room sync works. Sonos had to do a custom wireless network to get the latency down to the point where there wasn't any lag, and afaik are the only ones to have produced a solution that truly works properly for that purpose.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm curious as to how well the multi-room sync works. Sonos had to do a custom wireless network to get the latency down to the point where there wasn't any lag, and afaik are the only ones to have produced a solution that truly works properly for that purpose.

I think the answer to your question from what they have given us is "we will try to get it done good enough, and we will let you tweak the rest." From an Android Central article:

If you detect some latency in the different Chromecast Audio connections in your home or office, you can adjust the latency manually from the individual speaker connections. To do this, head to the Devices tab in the Chromecast app and select Device settings from the menu on the Chromecast Audio you want to address. Scroll down to Advanced and tap Group Delay Correction, where you'll see instructions and a slider for making the adjustments necessary to address latency between speakers.

http://www.androidcentral.com/what-you-need-know-about-chromecast-audio-groups

That certainly isn't a Sonos "just works" kind of solution, but we are talking about a fraction of the cost so I can tolerate some good enough. As I said I will report back when the third one is installed and I can really test it. I will say the Spotify support so far is excellent.

 

[openwheel]

How's the sound quality? Does anyone know the actual DAC inside the unit?

Or are you simply going digital bypassing the DAC?

 

[poofyhairguy]

How's the sound quality? Does anyone know the actual DAC inside the unit?

Or are you simply going digital bypassing the DAC?

The DAC is an AKM AK4430 192kHz 24-Bit Stereo DAC:

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Chromecast+2015+Teardown/50189

My research tells me that is a decent DAC, does everything but DSD.

I can't really judge sound quality yet as my kitchen and garage setups are lacking, but the third one will be hooked up to my AVR with Polk RTis so I will report back on that too.

 

[openwheel]

I'll give it a try too. I am using an integrated amp made by TEAC that is a gem, paired with Seas drivers inside DIY cabinets.

 

[dainthomas]

I got one for $20 a while back. I bought mine as a total first world problem solution. I have the original Chromecast, but I hated having my TV on to listen to music while I was cooking. So, enters Chromecast Audio. It is awesome, I can play back music with just my receiver on. HOWEVER, it is not all fun and games. It constantly disconnects no matter what device I cast from (Nexus 5, iPad Air, OnePlus X, iPhone 6, Moto G 2015). It is super infuriating to the point where I'm just using my Chromecast to stream audio.

I also have the chromecast, but I decided to pick up a Boom 2 for music. It even has multi room functionality if I ever decide to pick up another one.

 

[linkgoron]

I recently bought a CC (v2) and CCA, and both are working very well for me (using Plex).

The CC has made it very easy to start following some shows that we wanted to watch, and the CCA basically brought my living room music equipment back to life.

I use both every day, as I can just fire both the CCA and CC using any pc/phone/ipad and the plex app/site. Also, I've basically had zero problems with both concerning networking or buffering problems or anything like that.

 

[Kaido]

I think the answer to your question from what they have given us is "we will try to get it done good enough, and we will let you tweak the rest." From an Android Central article:



http://www.androidcentral.com/what-you-need-know-about-chromecast-audio-groups

That certainly isn't a Sonos "just works" kind of solution, but we are talking about a fraction of the cost so I can tolerate some good enough. As I said I will report back when the third one is installed and I can really test it. I will say the Spotify support so far is excellent.

It would be cool if they bundled a latency analyzer feature that utilized your droid's mic to sync the music for you!

 

[luv2liv]

i've always thought sonos was way overpriced! even when you bring your own speakers, the little sonos box was still expensive.
my cheap solution to multi room audio, with sync capability, has been the raspberry pi. works pretty good too but not for non-tech people.

glad google made this chromecast for the mass

 

[Graze]

It would be cool if they bundled a latency analyzer feature that utilized your droid's mic to sync the music for you!

ehhh. Audio tools on Android phones suffer latency issues that vary from manufacturer to manufacturer...I dont think this is going to work too well

Read all about it
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/1...g-better-especially-with-the-nexus-5x-and-6p/

 

[poofyhairguy]

It would be cool if they bundled a latency analyzer feature that utilized your droid's mic to sync the music for you!

I wish they did. I finally got the third CCA installed and it turns out the audio isn't QUITE synced perfect. I will have to mess with the delay, which is not an easy thing for me because I don't have the best ear. Will report back.

 

[cronos]

I started to think about getting this. I haven't really read about the features (and will look up some articles when I get a chance to today), but will it work, say, with a set of loudspeakers in my kitchen, controlled by Spotify running on my computer in the bedroom?

If that $30 BestBuy price is in store as well, with the $5 birthday certificate BB sent me and $20 Play Store credit, this thing is essentially only ~$5 for me.

 

[gorcorps]

Didn't really know this existed, or was coming. Seems like a good solution for something I've thought of for a while. Are there any good apps that could stream over this thing that lets people request their own tracks? I'd like a jukebox type system that just queues requests and people send them. I subscribe to google music if that helps.

 

[beginner99]

Can you also "push" a stream to the chromecast audio and all speakers in the system? Eg. does it have an audio-in?

With Sonos I could have an audio in and for example hear the tv sound in the kitchen. Interesting for sports. Secondly with Radio station from the set top box, especially local one not available online. Can that be pushed to the chromecast?

 

[Kneedragger]

Hey guys can these play music off my Windows pc while being controlled from a mobile device ?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Didn't really know this existed, or was coming. Seems like a good solution for something I've thought of for a while. Are there any good apps that could stream over this thing that lets people request their own tracks? I'd like a jukebox type system that just queues requests and people send them. I subscribe to google music if that helps.

I know for a fact the device itself doesn't have any queuing or playlist functionality. Not yet at least. It does have a guest mode though, and if everyone has the qcast app or something like Spotify it would work through the app.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Can you also "push" a stream to the chromecast audio and all speakers in the system? Eg. does it have an audio-in?

There is no audio in, just audio out either analog or optical. You can however mirror any audio from an Android phone or from a laptop's Chrome browser, and Android phones support USB DACs.

The Sonos competition is really only with connecting the speaker to a single audio source. You make a group (of whatever devices are on your network) and then when you go to cast from a compatible app you can either select a single device or the created group.

So far the apps I have that are compatible are Spotify, Pocketcasts, Tune-in Radio, and of course Google Music.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Hey guys can these play music off my Windows pc while being controlled from a mobile device ?

Like play music stored on a PC but have all the controls be on the phone? It sure can do that, with an app like Plex in the middle. The casting from the PC is limited to the Chrome browser like the original Chromecast.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I started to think about getting this. I haven't really read about the features (and will look up some articles when I get a chance to today), but will it work, say, with a set of loudspeakers in my kitchen, controlled by Spotify running on my computer in the bedroom?

Yes it will work with any speakers that take an audio in. In my kitchen I have a logitech set and it works great.

It is also Spotify compatible, but the Spotify desktop app cannot start streams yet. You can either start streams from your phone and control them from the desktop, or you can use the web interface for Spotify in Chrome and start it that way.

 

[cronos]

Yes it will work with any speakers that take an audio in. In my kitchen I have a logitech set and it works great.

It is also Spotify compatible, but the Spotify desktop app cannot start streams yet. You can either start streams from your phone and control them from the desktop, or you can use the web interface for Spotify in Chrome and start it that way.

Thanks. I ended up just driving the 7 minutes to BestBuy last night and grabbed one (there are shelves upon shelves of Chromecasts on several different locations in the store, but I found only 3 of the Audio!). It worked fantastically.

Now, the problem is that I didn't see the $20 Play Store credit when I checked, only the Play Music and Spotify standard rewards. I looked up the articles from the past couple of days and found out that the Audio version isn't eligible for the $20 credit. Oh well... :/

Did you actually receive your $20 credit or were you just assuming that it would work for both?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Thanks. I ended up just driving the 7 minutes to BestBuy last night and grabbed one (there are shelves upon shelves of Chromecasts on several different locations in the store, but I found only 3 of the Audio!). It worked fantastically.

Now, the problem is that I didn't see the $20 Play Store credit when I checked, only the Play Music and Spotify standard rewards. I looked up the articles from the past couple of days and found out that the Audio version isn't eligible for the $20 credit. Oh well... :/

Did you actually receive your $20 credit or were you just assuming that it would work for both?

I didn't get it yet, so good digging. I guess I will call them when I can to double check.

 

[beginner99]

There is no audio in, just audio out either analog or optical. You can however mirror any audio from an Android phone or from a laptop's Chrome browser, and Android phones support USB DACs.

The Sonos competition is really only with connecting the speaker to a single audio source. You make a group (of whatever devices are on your network) and then when you go to cast from a compatible app you can either select a single device or the created group.

So far the apps I have that are compatible are Spotify, Pocketcasts, Tune-in Radio, and of course Google Music.

The thing with Sonos is it has an audio-in so i could stream radio from my settop-box to the multiroom system. Yes, you can't control (pause for example) that input via sonos but I don't care it's radio. However if course the google solution is a lot cheaper.

Note: Those it also stream to a PC connected the the LAN? Or do I need another device to connect the PC?

 

[poofyhairguy]

The thing with Sonos is it has an audio-in so i could stream radio from my settop-box to the multiroom system. Yes, you can't control (pause for example) that input via sonos but I don't care it's radio. However if course the google solution is a lot cheaper.

Seems like every radio station has some sort of online stream nowadays. You could easily stream it that way.

Note: Those it also stream to a PC connected the the LAN? Or do I need another device to connect the PC?

It will stream from the Chrome browser on the PC.