[cmrheadphones]

Hello all

I have Chromecast Audio's all over my house and bought a number of spares so this is not too tricky to try.

I've done some goggling but still a bit confused!

I was reading that CCA's make fairly good headphone amps. How do they compare for using with a phone to say the Tempotec Sonata non pro that I am currently using?

I'm struggling with the chain of connections. I would need a powerbank of some sort presumably to power the CCA for use with a mobile. is a certain sort recommended?

What would be the best way to link up headphones, CCA and phone? struggling to get my head round this!

Any advice welcome!

Thanks

 

[Celamojo]

Not sure what you mean by using chromecast as head amp here

 

[Mightygrey]

Not sure what you mean by using chromecast as head amp here

Presumably, the CCA outputs a line-level signal (~2V) at full volume, so I guess you could plug in a 3.5mm terminated headphone and attenuate the volume digitally via a player.

 

[Mightygrey]

Presumably, the CCA outputs a line-level signal (~2V) at full volume, so I guess you could plug in a 3.5mm terminated headphone and attenuate the volume digitally via a player.

I can confirm that that does indeed work, I plugged-in my Grado Hemps straight into the CCA and it worked, no worries. I did need to turn the volume way down and there wasn't much usable headroom, but it's definitely an option as a small discrete streaming + amp device.

 

[HipHopScribe]

Technically you can do this, but I'd avoid it, especially with low impedance headphones. The analog output from a Chromcast Audio is designed as a line-level output and the output impedance is way too high for most headphones, which can negatively affect your sound quality.

The best way to use a Chromecast Audio with headphones would be to run digital output over an optical cable to a DAC, then from the DAC to a headphone amp. The 2nd best way would be to run analog output from a Chromecast Audio to a headphone amp, and connect your headphones to the amp.

So at the very least I'd pick up a cheap amp and add that to the chain between the CCA and your headphones. But really if you have a phone and a Tempotec Sonata I'd just stick with that