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Review and Measurements of Chromecast Audio Digital Output

captain paranoia

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What benefit do you see coming from the gold plating? :confused:;)

Absolutely none. As you well know...

And I would not recommend a metal TOSlink connector, either; most connected devices use plastic sockets, and we don't want our 'disposable' items (cables) to be harder than our 'non-disposable' items (sources, DACs).
 

Sal1950

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Absolutely none. As you well know...

And I would not recommend a metal TOSlink connector, either; most connected devices use plastic sockets, and we don't want our 'disposable' items (cables) to be harder than our 'non-disposable' items (sources, DACs).
Absolutey correct. Including the fact that the square metal ones increase the connectors weight and their chances of pulling themselves out of the socket over time. A truly poor design.
 

Darwin

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Like all Google products this on exists so they can monitor what you do with it and sell that to advertisers. No thanks.
 
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amirm

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Sal1950

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You have to ask that for a $6 item with shipping included???
I think you should take a sample of the gold and send it out for analysis.
At that price they could very well be substituting phools-gold. :eek::p
 
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amirm

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I think you should take a sample of the gold and send it out for analysis.
The lab will complain the sample is way too small!!! :D
 

mSpot

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Is there any way to know if Spotify playback are bit-perfect using this device?
Spotify premium quality is normally 320 kbps Vorbis, but Spotify streams to Chromecast using 256 kbps AAC:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Other-Partners-Web-Player-etc/Chromecast-Bitrate/m-p/3162774#M36847
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Li...-possible-Quality-to-Chromecast/idi-p/4523194
My speculation is that Spotify got lazy and implemented Chromecast streaming the same way for all users, so they don't have to distinguish between premium and non-premium subscriptions.
 

gvl

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When playing Spotify through CCA's optical I noticed my DAC indicates 24 bit data. Would be interesting to confirm if the CCA's digital volume control is using all 24 bits when playing 16 bit material.
 

tensor9

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When playing Spotify through CCA's optical I noticed my DAC indicates 24 bit data. Would be interesting to confirm if the CCA's digital volume control is using all 24 bits when playing 16 bit material.

Similar for my setup. When I'm streaming CD quality from Tidal via Roon, Roon says the stream is bit-perfect (16 bit/whatever sample rate), but my DAC says everything is 24 bit, but the sample rate does agree with Tidal/Roon.
 

gvl

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Hopefully the 100% volume setting on the CCA provides a bit accurate playback, however the volume control is indeed 24 bits lowering the volume shouldn't affect quality until way lower levels.
 

Breezy

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Some possibly stupid questions (I apologize):

1. The Google Chrome browser casting compression affects both analog and optical output options, right? Because the compression happens before the signal reaches the Chromecast Audio dongle?

2. What about Google Play Music android app on my phone? Safe to stream from that to avoid the high level of compression? Or should I be looking into alternative apps, such as the aforementioned Hi-Fi cast?

I've uploaded my music collection to my Google Music library, and it includes a lot of FLAC and 320kbps MP3s, so I'd like to have good streaming options for my remote living room set up. For truly critical listening, I have a wired connection from my computer and also good headphones/DAP/amp. The living room just has a "lowly" Pioneer VSX-532 receiver with stereo Def Tech speakers where I will be connecting my second Chromecast Audio. It needs to be "good enough" for pleasant though not necessarily highly critical listening. I might well be erroneously assuming that the DAC in VSX-532 is better than one in Chromecast Audio, but I thought I'd try optical connection to it too.
 

chauct

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I'd like to use the CCA's Optical Out but the DAC I have in mind only takes SPDIF. Does anyone use this C2G converter and can comment on its quality?
 
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chauct

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Some possibly stupid questions (I apologize):

1. The Google Chrome browser casting compression affects both analog and optical output options, right? Because the compression happens before the signal reaches the Chromecast Audio dongle?

2. What about Google Play Music android app on my phone? Safe to stream from that to avoid the high level of compression? Or should I be looking into alternative apps, such as the aforementioned Hi-Fi cast?

I've uploaded my music collection to my Google Music library, and it includes a lot of FLAC and 320kbps MP3s, so I'd like to have good streaming options for my remote living room set up. For truly critical listening, I have a wired connection from my computer and also good headphones/DAP/amp. The living room just has a "lowly" Pioneer VSX-532 receiver with stereo Def Tech speakers where I will be connecting my second Chromecast Audio. It needs to be "good enough" for pleasant though not necessarily highly critical listening. I might well be erroneously assuming that the DAC in VSX-532 is better than one in Chromecast Audio, but I thought I'd try optical connection to it too.

I don't know the answers to your questions but I thought I'd share my experience with the CCA. I'm streaming flac's to it from my Logitech music server (aka squeezebox). The DAC in it is more than decent, certainly falls into your "good enough" category. I don't know about you but I'm leery of having someone as a safekeeper of my music. Google may decide to pull a Microsoft Groove and you might have to move your music elsewhere. Plus, Google converts flac to 320k mp3 on upload.
 
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amirm

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