Before you give up your Chrome Cast Audio

The Volumio app on Raspberry has a built in YouTube option, from where you can make and store a play list of YouTube videos and play it. It can also play a lot of Internet radio stations.
 
This is kind of mini review or consultation thread after extensive use of Google Chrome Cast Audio in various way with various cables.

About 8 months ago, under this thread (https://www.hifivision.com/threads/chrome-cast-audio.67923/#post-747758) some of us discussed about CCA, I was not satisfied with it's analog out, rather I used it's optical out. But this cable have changed the analog out drastically. Low and Mid was already good with CCA, especially mid was vanishingly artifact free. Many hifi DAC sounds ear fatiguing even through mids, but not the CCA. It is easy sounding without being warm. Main problem with the CCA is the High Frequency which is kind of restricted sounding with the stock cable and also with many hifi branded cable. Canare L-4E6S gave (bought from ghent audio - http://www.ghentaudio.com/part/d11.html or http://www.ghentaudio.com/part/b01.html) a big relief on that restriction. Highly recommended for Google CCA.

Now I only use the analog out as I feel it's analog is superior than optical out with external DAC. Any cable non-believer person can test this cable and see how this canare cable change the expression of a device. I find many of us are selling their CCA, I like to request them to use the referred cable before giving up the CCA. Their might be better cables but those will cost much much more.
How good is the optical out of chromecast audio?
 
How good is the optical out of chromecast audio?

The optical out is excellent. In fact optical is the best connection possible if you are looking at bandwidth below 24/96. Optical does not have the EMI /RF problems that coax and usb have. Get a good cable and enjoy your music :)
 
Depends on your DAC.
Cheers,
Raghu
The optical out is excellent. In fact optical is the best connection possible if you are looking at bandwidth below 24/96. Optical does not have the EMI /RF problems that coax and usb have. Get a good cable and enjoy your music :)
Hi Newlash. Are you sure? Becuase I am using my Sony Android TV's optical out to feed my DAC & playing Tidal music by casting from my phone to my Sony Android TV. The sound of my TV's optical out is horrible. So thats why asked if cromecast audio also has the same issue.
 
Is it still worth buying chromecast if my receiver has one built in? Many pioneer receivers have built in chromecast.
Also using the heos app we use wifi to stream music (amazon music). In such scenario will getting chromecast audio be of any use?
 
Is it still worth buying chromecast if my receiver has one built in? Many pioneer receivers have built in chromecast.
Also using the heos app we use wifi to stream music (amazon music). In such scenario will getting chromecast audio be of any use?
Chromecast puck is an add-on for rigs that don't it.
If your equipment has it, then there is no need to have another one.
Cheers,
Raghu
 
Optical out of GCCA is not up to the mark. I am not sure if any DAC can make the sound better! A nice 3.5mm analog cable which have bright sound signature (like silver made one) will match CCA better. Of course I have not tried any DAC worth more than 1 Lakh with Optical of CCA.
 
Hi Newlash. Are you sure? Becuase I am using my Sony Android TV's optical out to feed my DAC & playing Tidal music by casting from my phone to my Sony Android TV. The sound of my TV's optical out is horrible. So thats why asked if cromecast audio also has the same issue.

Hi harsh...

Probably this particular television has a poor digital to optical convertor or there could be too much electrical noise getting into the digital to optical convertor. This is usually the problem when there is a lot of power intensive processing going on inside. However the CCA has been designed ground up just to deliver audio, and nothing else. And I find it's optical out to be excellent. Iam using an audio quest cinnamon mini optical cable I got from UK. And iam finding the sound pristine :)
 
Hi harsh...

Probably this particular television has a poor digital to optical convertor or there could be too much electrical noise getting into the digital to optical convertor. This is usually the problem when there is a lot of power intensive processing going on inside. However the CCA has been designed ground up just to deliver audio, and nothing else. And I find it's optical out to be excellent. Iam using an audio quest cinnamon mini optical cable I got from UK. And iam finding the sound pristine :)
Thank you so much newlash for helping me out with my query. I am ordering CCA right away.
 
Recently I found the optical out of my SONY PS4 Pro is pretty average, but strangely the optical out of my TV (TCL L55P2MUS ) is much crisp and defined. I am really disappointed by SONY. It is not related to GCCA but I just wanted to share about how optical out varied over various device with same content. I have played same Youtube Content for the comparison. One more experience, the new Google Chromecast 3 (not CC audio) have got nice improvement of sound over it's predecessor Chromecast 2.
 
I am using Modi 3 with CCA through optical in my living room for casual listening. Streamer is Saavn Pro (which I found to be better than Prime/ Ghana, Google and even Apple music). I found it to be pretty good. I recently tried using CCA as Roon endpoint and it sounds great though the living room is pretty bad acoustically.
 
Actually the driving capability of the pre section on the CCA is quite good and it can drive most power amps, ofcourse when set to play in analogue mode.
 
Hi, everyone. Is anyone still using Google ChromeCast Audio as a Bluetooth streamer?

I sometime use it and face massive latency. Is that normal?

Can anyone suggest a Bluetooth streamer with Co-axial digital out?
 
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