AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => The Discless Circle => Topic started by: gary on 3 Mar 2016, 02:35 am
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Is anyone using one of these things? I bought one the other day and I'm happy with the convenience but happier with the sound quality. Foobar2000 can stream to it and so can JRiver, both were pretty easy to set up although I'll probably buy JRiver for the better interface and phone remote software. Hard to imagine better value in any audio purchase than this one. And I'm new to high res audio, but it does seem to be streaming the sample tracks from hdtracks.com without down converting them.
gary
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Hi Gary,
Gary here. :)
I've got two and will likely buy another. I purchased them so I could play background music in two different rooms. It works well once you set up casting. It appears that J river only supports multicast through the app, I could only use one at a time from my laptop running the server.
I agree that they sound pretty good. I've got one of mine connected via mini-toslink and the other one is the 3.5 at the moment. I think there is a sonic benefit with the optical, but perhaps not hugely so.
For $35 bucks, pretty neat.
G
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An audio buddy has one. He's a frugal guy and has built an very decent system out of streaming only via Tidal, his phone, Chromecast, my old Emotiva DC-1 DAC/preamp/headphone amp, Crown 1500, and reconditioned vintage speakers for under $1000. He's waiting for Chromecast to release more/better software (due anytime) but it's impressive to get access to 8 million CD quality songs (when it works).
So when the kinks have been worked out, I'll probably go Tidal and give up collecting CD's.
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MEASUREMENTS: Google Chromecast Audio - Part I: Analogue Output
-> http://archimago.blogspot.com.es/2016/02/measurements-google-chromecast-audio.html
MEASUREMENTS: Google Chromecast Audio - Part II: Digital Output
-> http://archimago.blogspot.com.es/2016/02/measurements-google-chromecast-audio_27.html
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I bought one and ported it into the line-in of my Sonos Play5 because Google Play Music absorbed Songza. You cannot stream the free Google Play Music service directly through Sonos, but you can "cast" to a Chromecast Audio (from an iPad or computer)
My current work-around to avoid the paid Google Play Music service :?
If you have an Android device, you can "cast" directly to your Sonos system
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(https://i.imgur.com/BN50rRW.png)
Chromecast Audio was my 1st venture into non-physical media playback. I really couldn't be more pleased with the results. $35 investment was the biggest bang for the buck audio purchase in my life. While the weak link in my 10k system I wouldn't say it's embarrassing itself either. Eventually looking to replace it with the MicroRendu but in the meantime upgrading coupling capacitors and ps caps in my amp that will improve the system regardless of the front end.
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What are people using to play music stored locally on their PC or Mac through their Chromecast Audio? My understanding is that you can't just fire up your favorite media player such as Foobar and have your locally stored tunes come out through Chromecast.
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I'm also wondering if anyone has any suggestions for playing wav files from a hard drive to my main system using chromecast audio.
I picked up a chromecast on Black Friday for $25, but it's been a frustration. I wanted to do two things with it...cast music from youtube to the system via my phone for background listening, and cast wav files from my chromebook and an external hard drive. So far I can't do either. The chromecast doesn't show up when I hit the cast button on youtube (although both my Roku devices and the kitchen Vizio smart tv show up...go figure), and the wav files won't cast even though my chromebook is synced to the chromecast.
I downloaded an app called Tubecast that serves as a workaround for casting youtube, but it's rather cumbersome.
Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated. Thx.
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Acresm22,
This may be a stupid question, but you do have the Chromecast set up through Google Home, correct? If you don't see it on the network, you likely need to disconnect the power and set it up again.
I have three, and they are a bit wonky to get working sometimes. I do like them for the investment. It's a pretty cheap whole house music system. I'm with JLM on the software, it really needs some improvement, especially on the wifi connection side . I do really like the fact that I can cast to all of them simultaneously, although one is too far away from the wifi and has difficulty connecting at times. All in all, a very nice little gadget. I agree that optical is slightly better sounding.
I am casting with Pandora, Google Music, and JRiver from my own NAS files. Pretty neat. I will note that I have a Vizio soundbar with built-in Chromcast support that will not connect via group multicast with the Chromecast Audio units. I'm not sure if this is my issue, or if they don't play well together. I will say if Bluetooth ever figures out multicasting through Android/windows platforms, it may be more robust from the wifi connection standpoint.
Cheers!
gary
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I'm pretty sure something special needs to be done to cast using Jriver as I can't find a cast symbol on my Jriver app remote on the Iphone. I just picked one of these up a couple weeks ago and have basically been using it for NPR and Pandora until I take the time to figure it out for JR. Googling the answer brings me on a tour of multiple links filled with all kinds of confusing info, for me anyway. Does anyone have a set of concise directions I can use to get this up and running with Jriver?
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I may have misled you about JRiver. Yes, I am casting JR, but using the Gizmo remote app, not the JR app.
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Thanks Gary. Am now able to cast youtube via Google Home.
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:thumb: