[markbrauer]

  Anything encountering a similar issue to me?
 
CCA->E17 via optical is noisy as hell - clicks, hiss, audio cutouts - virtually unlistenable

My CCA optical output plays 96/24 perfectly into my Burson DAC/amp. 192/24 also works but I'm not sure if conversion to 96/24 happens along the way - like in the server or streaming/player software.
 
Looking on HeadFi at least one reviewer has reported similar problems with the E17, reporting "some crackling/distortion".
http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-e17
 
First thing I would do is feed the E17 from another optical source - some older desktops and laptops have optical output, as do many TVs and home theater devices.
 
I'd also swap out the optical cable.
 
Good luck.

 

[RobertUSA]

Sound quality and power is excellent, however the Google developers arrogantly made a bad product management "go-to-market" decision regarding EQ  

 
It looks like Google has no intent to add EQ software to the CCA device and controller software within the Chromecast app ;(

Bummer, there was so much promise for CCA streaming to self-powered monitor speakers, component power amps, headphones, and earbuds
 
https://code.google.com/p/google-cast-sdk/issues/detail?id=705
 
Project Member #63 sya...@google.com

 Chromecast Audio was designed to provide streaming content from the service provider. Processing of that content is not part of the feature set. Chromecast Audio is designed to feed audio systems of a very broad variety, across a wide range of user tastes, and many of those provide their own post-processing feature sets. Chromecast Audio was not intended to provide redundant capabilities in that regard.

 
 
I guess we can ask the question why google play music still doesn't have EQ built in 

I can look into Amazon products to see what kind of digital streaming and DSP they support. If they can't do it, maybe there's a "me too" product coming from China soon

 

[rbc3585]

Hi! First time poster here and I'm very new to hifi audio generally. I'm looking to use the chromecast audio as part of a portable streaming solution around the house. Couple of questions for anyone who has done so.
1. Has anyone used it extensively with a power bank, and if so do you have battery capacity to playtime ratios? I'm thinking I'll go with a 5000-10000mah pack, but wondering how small I can go without having to recharge too frequently.
2. Has anyone tried outputting audio to the Teac Ha-P50 via toslink? (smallest decent dac I've been able to find that has both an  internal battery and optical input, though if anyone can think of any others let me know!)
Thanks!

 

[markbrauer]

 
1. Has anyone used it extensively with a power bank, and if so do you have battery capacity to playtime ratios? I'm thinking I'll go with a 5000-10000mah pack, but wondering how small I can go without having to recharge too frequently.

 
I have used a power bank quite a bit. First and foremost the Chromecast Audio sounds better when powered by the batteries rather than the wall wart. To be cliched - it sounds more analog.
 
My power bank is a REV brand, purchased for around $20 on sale at Best Buy. It is rated at 12,000 mAh. It has a constant digital readout of charge remaining, in percent.  When powering the CCA it takes over 20 minutes* to drop 1%. I have timed this when the battery is full and when it is almost empty, and the rate of drop is consistent. The discharge rate is also the same whether or not the CCA is playing music or just plugged in and idle. It is also the same whether using the analog or optical output.
 
1% of 12,000 is 120 mAh so the CCA uses 120 mAh every 20 minutes, or 360 mAh in a hour.
 
If you want the power bank to last say 10 hours, it should have a capacity of at least 3600 mAh. Simple calculation. With my 12,000 mAh unit I get over 33 hours.
 
As far as a DAC/amp, I would advise giving the internal one in the CCA a try. I use my CCA mostly as a headphone amp and find that the sound quality is more than acceptable. It has none of the whimpyness you get when driving headphones out of a phone or laptop. It does a great job on my hard-to-drive 300 Ohm Sennheiser HD650, my 32 Ohm Noontec Zoro II, and my 16 Ohm RHA 750. Plenty of volume and a full-bodied sound. If you look on the web you can find many others CCA owners who find this is true. The CCA's internal volume control is up to this use, sounding good throughout it's range.
 
So, get yourself a real short USB cable, lash the CCA to a pocketable power bank and start wandering the house. You may find that's all you really need.
 
* It is actually more like 24 minutes for each 1% but I'm trying to be conservative in my calculations.

 

[rbc3585]

Thanks for the battery stats! I'll probably go with the anker powercore 10000. I'm using Sony mdr-1as, which my phone and computer do a pretty good job of driving (huge upgrade from the Sennheiser in-ear momentums anyway). So I'll test them with the chromecast before investing in a dac.

 

[peter123]

Hi! First time poster here and I'm very new to hifi audio generally. I'm looking to use the chromecast audio as part of a portable streaming solution around the house. Couple of questions for anyone who has done so.
1. Has anyone used it extensively with a power bank, and if so do you have battery capacity to playtime ratios? I'm thinking I'll go with a 5000-10000mah pack, but wondering how small I can go without having to recharge too frequently.

2. Has anyone tried outputting audio to the Teac Ha-P50 via toslink? (smallest decent dac I've been able to find that has both an  internal battery and optical input, though if anyone can think of any others let me know!)
Thanks!

The iBasso D14 seems to be ever so slightly smaller. Could at least be an alternative (it has a combined coaxial/optical input)......

 

[rbc3585]

The iBasso D14 seems to be ever so slightly smaller. Could at least be an alternative (it has a combined coaxial/optical input)......

Not a bad idea. I'm slightly put off by the dated mini usb port, but at least charging can be turned off on the D14.

 

[Ggroch]

Slightly larger than the Teac...only slightly, but with a richer feature set and about double the battery and max output is the XDuoo XD-05.  I have had great results with Chromecast on it for about the same price. 

 

[Ggroch]

A chromecast competitor, the Echo Dot is out and mine arrived yesterday.  $50 (or $40 if you buy through your existing Echo).   No optical output - Aux out only. 
 
Compatible with Spotify, Amazon Music (reg and unlimited) and Pandora. Not compatible with Google Music, Tidal,
 
A bit smaller than a hockey puck (so lots bigger than Chromecast Audio). 
 
I mention it because the smart voice control is pretty slick.   You can sing the lyrics to a song and Alexa can find the song on Amazon or Spotify.  Or say "Alexa, play Janis Ian radio on Spotify" and it will.  I think voice control will be a major in home interface going forward.   The dot shows up on Spotify as a connect device so if you like the Spotify app its compatible. 
 
Perhaps the upcoming Google Home hub thing will be the best of all worlds (have not seen yet if that has optical out).  
 
So far I like the dot. Sound quality from the aux out is good. But it will not replace the CCA at this point.  

 

[dmance]

The latest firmware 1.21.74816 sounds fantastic. Did they fix the dynamic range, jitter? No comments on the forums...but have a listen (you may have to request access to the preview builds to download it)

 

[Ggroch]

The latest firmware 1.21.74816 sounds fantastic. Did they fix the dynamic range, jitter? No comments on the forums...but have a listen (you may have to request access to the preview builds to download it)

Dmance, thanks for the heads up.
 
I agree that something in the signal has changed / improved with Preview Firmware 74816..  Earlier in this thread I  with another owner that the gorgeous sounding but signal quality sensitive Yulong D200 DAC stuttered (sound cut out) 3-4 times every five minutes or so with earlier CCA firmware using the TOSLINK output.   It was a serious and consistent bug with the D200 and other DACs using the ES9016 chip, and was evident but not as frequent with the more common ES9018 chipset DACS.
 
I just re-connected my D200 with the a CCA 74816 firmware and no stutters at all in 40 minutes.  I will keep monitoring but am very pleased with the change as the D200 is the best sounding Dac I own and was unusable with CCA.
 
So something has definitely changed.   I am not convinced that you can hear the level of Jitter that was in older CCA firmware, but something has improved and perhaps you can hear jitter (or your DAC is more sensitive to jitter) than most.

 

[dmance]

I have an exaSound e22..and yes, I should have added that it now plays almost perfectly with only 1-2 stalls at the start of a song, vs every 30 seconds. I thought the sub second delays was attributable to internet buffer starvation...not jitter. I imagine Google had to do work on their network to rush my song to my nearby ISP hub, just guessing.

 

[Ggroch]

On further listening with my ES9016 DAC and the 74816 firmware the stuttering still exists but not as bad.  Problems start happening after the 1st 30 minutes or so (Trump debate syndrome??).  I will keep trying. 

 

[dmance]

I don't think it's jitter that stalls playback. It's the demands on your home network for streaming. Well my guess. Try the $19 Google ethernet wired charger.
https://store.google.com/product/ethernet_adapter_for_chromecast
This seemed to help my situation.

 

[almarti]

Has anyone paired CCA through TOSLINK to Chord Mojo? If so, which are the results?

I use Mojo from USB laptop and iPad/iPod with HD600 and Etys ER-4PT, but lately Mojo driving stereo amp Marantz PM-17 KI Series to speakers Chario Lynn. I am looking for a wirless connectivity for amp/speakers, and it is not clear for me about differences of CCA to Airport Express, Fon Gramofon and other alternatives than price comparison.

Any help and recommendation on this is very welcome. Thanks