Chromecast audio - can anyone comment on sound quality?

[markbrauer]

Picked up a new CCA of off ebay for £21 the other day been trying it out with different bits of kit in the house using Roon.

Having a lot of fun pairing it with my Oppo PM3 plugged staight in to the CCAwith a battery power bank for power. Ive been roaming round the house, cooking, chilling out with in my pocket listening to tunes controlling with the roon app on my cell phone. For the price the performance has surprised ok not proper hifi but easily adequate for many other uses garage, bedroom, second system, kids room etc what a neat bit of kit

I too use my CCA as a streamer/headphone amp. I first mentioned it in this thread way back in Post #7.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chr...omment-on-sound-quality.782899/#post-11979624
It works extremely well with everything from 16 Ohm IEMs to the 300 Ohm Senheiser HD650, giving clean sound and more-than-adequate volume even on high dynamic range classical recordings. I keep it rubber-banded right to a battery power pack so it's "portable" - I can sit anywhere in the house, or out on the deck. I mostly use the Tidal HiFi app's built in cast function but also BubbleUPnP to cast files from my server. SQ from the CCA is not really that far off what I get from my desktop Burson DAC/amp fed by a Bluesound streamer. I also use the CCA when traveling, setting it up on the local WiFi. Much better headphone sound than I get straight out of my phone. BubbleUPnP even lets me stream my full-resolution backup files residing on Google Drive.

 

[Xanthophyll]

I too use my CCA as a streamer/headphone amp. I first mentioned it in this thread way back in Post #7.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chr...omment-on-sound-quality.782899/#post-11979624
It works extremely well with everything from 16 Ohm IEMs to the 300 Ohm Senheiser HD650, giving clean sound and more-than-adequate volume even on high dynamic range classical recordings. I keep it rubber-banded right to a battery power pack so it's "portable" - I can sit anywhere in the house, or out on the deck. I mostly use the Tidal HiFi app's built in cast function but also BubbleUPnP to cast files from my server. SQ from the CCA is not really that far off what I get from my desktop Burson DAC/amp fed by a Bluesound streamer. I also use the CCA when traveling, setting it up on the local WiFi. Much better headphone sound than I get straight out of my phone. BubbleUPnP even lets me stream my full-resolution backup files residing on Google Drive.

Jamie - this is a great idea and I'm very interested in hearing more about it.... As somebody who is brand new to this hobby.... Can I ask what may be perceived as a stupid question? How do you control the volume? (Sorry)

 

[Ggroch]

How do you control the volume?

Perhaps Jamie will have a different answer...but the Chromecast Audio has a volume control. It is accessible in the Google Home App, and probably also accessible from any other source app you would use, for example, I use Spotify to stream to the CCA, and I can control the volume from the Spotify app on my phone, or PC, or whatever else is the source.

The hookups described above seem to use the CCA's analog output. But, the Optical Digital out also has volume control that you can use when feeding it to a DAC.

 

[Xanthophyll]

Perhaps Jamie will have a different answer...but the Chromecast Audio has a volume control. It is accessible in the Google Home App, and probably also accessible from any other source app you would use, for example, I use Spotify to stream to the CCA, and I can control the volume from the Spotify app on my phone, or PC, or whatever else is the source.

The hookups described above seem to use the CCA's analog output. But, the Optical Digital out also has volume control that you can use when feeding it to a DAC.

Ahh....that makes perfect sense. Of course. And I'm assuming if you're using the optical out, you will then obviously need a DAC *and* an amplifier, correct? Thank you for replying Ggrouch, and helping a new guy out...!

 

[JamieMcC]

Yes volume can be controlled via the Google Home App, I can also control the volume via my roon app.
Volume control on both apps mirror each other so if I adjust on the roon app then the level on the Chromecast Home moves as well.

Yes need a dac if using optical. How ever don't be put off using a headphone jack straight into the Chromecast its honestly surprisingly good. Just turn down the volume plug in your cans and adjust volume up to suit.

 

[JamieMcC]

Also you can use a 3.5 trs to 2 x rca so you can plug into a amp and use the CCA dac to provide analogue input for your amplifier.



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[Ggroch]

Just announced...a great speaker to connect to your Chromecast Audio's Optical Output!

The new Amazon Studio Smart Speaker has a toslink optical input!

Only sort of kidding. With 5 drivers and built in auto-room equalization it is intriguing at $200 retail.

 

[Slater]

Just announced...a great speaker to connect to your Chromecast Audio's Optical Output!

The new Amazon Studio Smart Speaker has a toslink optical input!

Only sort of kidding. With 5 drivers and built in auto-room equalization it is intriguing at $200 retail.

You can run 2 as a stereo pair. That’s pretty badass as a replacement for small bookshelf speakers.

I wonder how running a pair works if you’re planning on using the CCA toslink? Does they each connect together like a daisy chain?

On a side note, I personally wouldn’t trust the “mic off” button. I could see a scenario where the mics could get accessed remotely and turned on. If I ever got any sort of echo device, I’d open it up and disable/disconnect the microphones myself. Call me paranoid, but having been in IT security I’ve seen plenty of things that would make anyone paranoid lol

 

[markbrauer]

Just a couple words about volume control. In most Android apps the hardware volume control uses at most 20 steps going from dead quiet to full loud. These same large steps are used when controlling the Chromecast Audio. This often results in one step being too quiet and the next too loud. If you control volume using the Google Home app you get the full 100 steps that the CCA is capable of, so you can set it to the exact level you want.

 

[dosley01]

Added this Music Hall 25.2 DAC to my CCA. I feel no need to spend more on a streamer. Sounding great! These are a great deal on the used market around $200.

 

[mobbaddict]

Anybody experiencing playback issues on Spotify with the Chromecast audio? I've tried using an Android and an iPhone and I often have the same issue with both, tracks being skipped with no reason. I don't have any other streaming service to compare to so I don't know weather this is a Spotify issue or worse-the CCA OS getting all buggy.

 

[gvl2016]

Yeah, it can be temperamental. Lately I also noticed Spotify plays at a noticeably lower volume than say Tidal through the CCA at the 100% volume setting. There was also an issue recently when I couldn't play tracks from my library but those that were not in my library played fine. May also be a wi-fi problem.

 

[mobbaddict]

Yeah, it can be temperamental. Lately I also noticed Spotify plays at a noticeably lower volume than say Tidal through the CCA at the 100% volume setting. There was also an issue recently when I couldn't play tracks from my library but those that were not in my library played fine. May also be a wi-fi problem.

I wonder if this has not to do with the guest mode. I deactivated it yesterday after posting and didn't have any issue after. I will test further tonight.

Edit: false trail...

 

[Zenithcric]

Thanks for keeping this thread alive, & reminding me of the CCA used in its simplest configuration —HP minijack stabbed straight into its dead-in-the-market heart! It’s been a long time since I did that, and you know, it doesn’t suck. I’m just enjoying music with it, which is what this is all about. & while it does sound different than what I’m used to, its a good thing. I decided long ago I preferred the CCA optical-out through any DAC i have in any two channel system I’ve configured, but this is fun.

I have three CCA’s and am waiting on a fourth to hold in reserve, as it was a steal of a deal. The only strange thing that has happened was I thought two of them had utterly died, on the optical side: no red light, no sound. At least into my DACs. Knowing they were no longer being made, I had planned to replace them with Nexum’s Tunebox TB20s. Eventually I tried the CCAs again and after some spotty connections they’ve functioned just fine. I only plug them in when in use, hoping that will prolong their usable life. The TB20s are good sounding and more versatile, but I no longer see them on Amazon (or eBay), only the TB21 and I don’t need it’s star function, which is analog to digital conversion so that you can play vinyl in one room and stream that to a TB20 in another room or floor.

I had a two channel system in an attic bedroom, but when my daughter moved back home from college I moved that down to my ‘sound cave’ in the basement and set up a parallel stereo system to compare the sound of the different tower speakers — since the TB20 has both an analog or optical output (like the CCA’s) and a digital coaxial I fed the optical to a Schiit Modi 3 on one side, and the coaxial to an SMSL S10 on the other. As i recall they sounded very similar; they both use the same AK4490 chip, though configured differently. I tried to keep this comparison as apples-to-apples as possible — & have two identical power amps which at another time were bridged mono, but for this back to stereo. So the same music stream, simultaneously into two pairs of speakers, set next each other. I level matched the systems by ear and could listen to them both at once or one then the other, though to listen to a particular set I’d have to get up and hit the Schiit SYS that’s in one system to effectively mute that one. Then sit back down, etc.
That was fun, and I learned that I wanted tone controls for the most recent speakers, but this — headphone right into a CCA listening to one of my found-on-Spotify favorites, Dieter piano trio “Parsifal” front to back, is also great fun!

 

[Zenithcric]

That’s Dieter Ilg, & he’s the bass player of the trio ... the piano player is good; the drummer very good IMHO. Ilg has a solo acoustic double bass album called simply “Bass” & it’s not boring, if you like the sound of that instrument ...