Jump to content
IGNORED

Chromecast Audio (Analog and Digital Outputs) $35


Recommended Posts

Unplugged the CCA and still have connectivity to both renderers and Tidal. I could have saved myself $35 and much embarrassment. I did check this once before and lost connectivity but now its working fine. Sorry

 

Larry

No apologies necessary Larry, I haven't tried upsampling Tidal but when used with CCA, I do think it sounds better casting directly from the Tidal app than via the Bubble UPnP app.

Link to comment
2016 | DAR__KO

 

Just a heads up Ifis SPDIF Reclocker been reviewed on DAR as mentioned with CCAST...

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Computer Audiophile mobile app

Having tried a few DAC's with the GCA I agree the optical out isn't great, depends on the optical input of the DAC though. I will try a cheap optical to coaxial converter before I shell out for the IFI. I did try the IFI Micro Dac that has this reclocker built-in and wasn't particulary impressed....

Link to comment
I was about to buy a Wyred Remedy reclocker this weekend. Thanks for this link. I might get this instead, at under half the price.

 

Quite a good review.

 

I now have a CCA with an iFi SPDIF purifier. Ot improves sound quality significantly but it's still sub par vs a good CD transport, not to mention a good USB asynchronous implementation.

 

Great value for money and very good to discover new stuff with Tidal HiFi.

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.-

Groucho Marx

Link to comment
I now have a CCA with an iFi SPDIF purifier. Ot improves sound quality significantly but it's still sub par vs a good CD transport, not to mention a good USB asynchronous implementation.

 

Great value for money and very good to discover new stuff with Tidal HiFi.

 

Which CD transport? Which asynchronous USB implementation? In each case, which DAC?

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

- Einstein

Link to comment
I now have a CCA with an iFi SPDIF purifier. Ot improves sound quality significantly but it's still sub par vs a good CD transport, not to mention a good USB asynchronous implementation.

 

Great value for money and very good to discover new stuff with Tidal HiFi.

Thanks for this info. I'm still waiting for my reclocker to arrive. If it still is sub-par then I'll return my CCA I think, and go for a Bluesound Node 2 - I'll keep the reclocker though.

 

 

Sent from my Blackberry DTEK50 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Which CD transport? Which asynchronous USB implementation? In each case, which DAC?

 

Cambridge CXC upgraded by Qualiaphysic via SPDIF;

Fanless SSD Netbook and Tellurium Q Black USB cable;

Mytek Brooklyn in both cases.

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.-

Groucho Marx

Link to comment

This weekend I have connected the CCA, mainly for the purpose of background music while my PC is not turned on, and to have internet radio. To be honest I didn't had high expectations, but I was positively suprised how interet radio sounded good.

 

Than I tried exploring with uncompressed material on NAS, and I'm impressed with what this little device can do for 35 USD.

 

It cannot compete with my digital interface, but for such a price difference is remarkable undertaking, bravo GOOGLE!

Link to comment
I now have a CCA with an iFi SPDIF purifier. Ot improves sound quality significantly but it's still sub par vs a good CD transport, not to mention a good USB asynchronous implementation.

 

Great value for money and very good to discover new stuff with Tidal HiFi.

Thanks for the feedback, so you're comparing:

Flac>Notebook>USB>DAC against

Flac>Notebook>Bubble>GCA>Optical>IFIpurifer>DAC?

Link to comment
Thanks for the feedback, so you're comparing:

Flac>Notebook>USB>DAC against

Flac>Notebook>Bubble>GCA>Optical>IFIpurifer>DAC?

 

Not a problem.

 

Actually I'm comparing:

Local redbook flac in Netbook>USB>DAC

vs

Tidal HiFi (cloud redbook)> GCA>Optical>iFi> SPDIF>DAC

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.-

Groucho Marx

Link to comment
Cambridge CXC upgraded by Qualiaphysic via SPDIF;

Fanless SSD Netbook and Tellurium Q Black USB cable;

Mytek Brooklyn in both cases.

 

Hmmm, so assuming the CCA is receiving a bit perfect stream, we'd have to conclude that the output from the iFi still has more jitter than the output from both the CD transporter and the USB.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

- Einstein

Link to comment
Not a problem.

 

Actually I'm comparing:

Local redbook flac in Netbook>USB>DAC

vs

Tidal HiFi (cloud redbook)> GCA>Optical>iFi> SPDIF>DAC

So you cannot be actually certain you are comparing like with like. The Tidal source files may been mastered differently to the source CDs of the local FLAC file rips. It would perhaps be a better test if you did use a UPnP/DLNA media server to provide the same local FLAC files for network streaming & playback by CCA, via the BubbleUPnP Android app.

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

Link to comment

You're making a good point.

 

But in the case of the files I've compared I'm pretty much certain that the mastering is the same.

 

I used for comparison several recent editions of classical music that AFAIK have only one published mastering version.

 

And I really wanted to compare a local file solution vs a cloud solution.

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.-

Groucho Marx

Link to comment
You're making a good point.

 

But in the case of the files I've compared I'm pretty much certain that the mastering is the same.

 

I used for comparison several recent editions of classical music that AFAIK have only one published mastering version.

 

And I really wanted to compare a local file solution vs a cloud solution.

I've always preferred local files v streaming from the cloud but this may change as some using the Rednet AOIP interface say streaming now matches local files.

Link to comment
I've always preferred local files v streaming from the cloud but this may change as some using the Rednet AOIP interface say streaming now matches local files.
Streaming audio files (ie, non realtime, yet to be decoded audio file data), regardless of streaming them from the cloud or from a local source, compared to streaming actual realtime Audio over IP (provided by Rednet, or otherwise) is like comparing apples with oranges.

 

With AoIP, the audio file decoder & player is, by definition, at the sender end of the network; whereas with network audio file streaming the file decoder & player (such as the CCA device) is at the receiver end of the network.

 

With network audio file streaming you have the guarantee that the receiver is always playing the same file, regardless of it coming from the cloud or a local source - assuming that it is the same source file to begin with of course!

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

Link to comment
So you cannot be actually certain you are comparing like with like. The Tidal source files may been mastered differently to the source CDs of the local FLAC file rips. It would perhaps be a better test if you did use a UPnP/DLNA media server to provide the same local FLAC files for network streaming & playback by CCA, via the BubbleUPnP Android app.

 

Or perhaps compare Tidal on the CCA to Tidal on the netbook.

 

(Of course, this only works if Tidal can talk directly to the USB DAC. The last time I tried it with my Dragonfly Red, Tidal could only see it as 24/96 so it wouldn't talk to it in direct, exclusive mode.)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment

If you have an android device, Cloud Player by Double Twist is a good player. Loading albums from Google Drive (in my case) is pretty slow, but the navigation is good and so is the SQ.

 

I tend to think playing flac files this way sounds better than playing the same tracks from Tidal, but I have not done extensive comparisons, and I could be wrong. I listened this morning to Chopin piano concertos (Lisa Angeles Philaemonic with Giulini and Zimmerman) and I could swear there was better transparency from the flac file. Things sounded a little congested with Tidal. Will do some further comparisons.

 

Has anyone else done similar tests?

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...