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Chromecast Audio (Analog and Digital Outputs) $35


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Here's what Chris said in his review,

 

My first test was to stream Spotify to see if the audio was no longer converted from 44.1 kHz to 48 kHz. This was a success. Spotify streams at the correct sample rate of 44.1 kHz.

 

What am I'm missing, not disagreeing trying to understand. And as i said it doesn't sound like RB.

 

That was in relation to CCA resampling everything to 48 kHz. It has since been fixed with a firmware update and now it also handles higher bitrate like 24/96 FLAC (audio CD is 16-bit/44.1kHz).

 

In addition to what @alligatorman and @Snowmonkey have said below, you can also read up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Bit_rate.

 

Not required IMHO... just enjoy the music... but if you feel the need for more information then it should help.

 

Spotify, Apple Music and pretty much everyone streams at MP3 quality.

 

Only Tidal streams at a higher bitrate, more info at TIDAL · High Fidelity Test.

 

"Red book" is an audio CD. Spotify is a streaming service at less than CD quality. I would google it if you need further clarification.

 

As alligatorman says, Redbook is a format specification for audio CD's. The specified sample rate for Redbook is 44,100 samples per second. Even if a file is ripped from a CD and compressed to MP3 or AAC, that sample rate will be unaltered. The compression is achieved by different methods, such as eliminating data from a track which is thought to not contribute to the audible experience of users. Of course, the more data which is eliminated, the more that audible experience starts to be degraded. Spotify chooses to stream at a maximum of 320 kilobits per second, which is not fast enough to carry uncompressed data sampled according to the Redbook specification (that would require 1141 kilobits per second). This means the data needs to be compressed. 320 kbps actually allows quite good sound quality, but not quite as good as a CD, as you are noticing.

BTW, have you specified 320 kbps streaming from Spotify? It requires a premium (paid) account and you need to opt in.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world - Martin Luther

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As alligatorman says, Redbook is a format specification for audio CD's. The specified sample rate for Redbook is 44,100 samples per second. Even if a file is ripped from a CD and compressed to MP3 or AAC, that sample rate will be unaltered. The compression is achieved by different methods, such as eliminating data from a track which is thought to not contribute to the audible experience of users. Of course, the more data which is eliminated, the more that audible experience starts to be degraded. Spotify chooses to stream at a maximum of 320 kilobits per second, which is not fast enough to carry uncompressed data sampled according to the Redbook specification (that would require 1141 kilobits per second). This means the data needs to be compressed. 320 kbps actually allows quite good sound quality, but not quite as good as a CD, as you are noticing.

BTW, have you specified 320 kbps streaming from Spotify? It requires a premium (paid) account and you need to opt in.

 

Thks for the detailed explanation, yours I understand, what I didn't get was that the sample rate is the same for both. So the bit depth would be less for MP3. Yes I do have Premium.

rogerdn

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Thks for the detailed explanation, yours I understand, what I didn't get was that the sample rate is the same for both. So the bit depth would be less for MP3. Yes I do have Premium.

The bit depth (16 bit) is also unaltered for MP3 AFAIK. As I said, the compression is achieved by eliminating supposedly "redundant" data. Actually FLAC (and ALAC) manage to achieve nearly 50% compression by removing data that is truly redundant, in that those files can be uncompressed back to an identical copy of the original file from which they were derived.

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

- Einstein

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I added a, Wyred 4 Sound Remedy between the Chromecast Audio and my Audio-GD Reference 5 DAC this afternoon and heard the improvement in about 5 seconds playing Miles' Jack Johnson. Switching to Sketches of Spain which can sound quite harsh on my system (JBL compression drivers are not forgiving ) sounded much smoother, brushes, cymbals, castanets more natural, greater separation of layers of sound. A very worthwhile improvement. Not a small chunk of change for casual listening but if the CCA is used for serious listening my vote is try one out.

 

Thanks for sharing, Jeff. This is something I'm going to try as well. The Remedy seems like a good investment for digital music playback, regardless of the components.

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I'm not gonna get crazy , ripping again all the albums because CCA does not recognize them all. One is ok, another not...bad bad. You have to checked them out and then change the compression, bitrate....? No , thanks.

Just for the record, you don't have to re-rip all your albums. There's this thing called a computer which can convert all your files for you with a single command. It may take it a couple of days, but it don't mind.

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

- Einstein

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Just for the record, you don't have to re-rip all your albums. There's this thing called a computer which can convert all your files for you with a single command. It may take it a couple of days, but it don't mind.

 

Please, could you remember me what' exactly the files in flac, aiff...CCA need ? Thank you

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Please, could you remember me what' exactly the files in flac, aiff...CCA need ? Thank you

Well I used JRiver, because I happened to have it to hand. I just got it to list all my music files, selected them all and told it to convert them all to FLAC. I imagine other software like foobar or XLD can do the same.

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

- Einstein

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I got them all in flac, but some works and others not

Me too. I managed to fix most of those by getting JRiver to re-compress them (as FLACs). A small number of hi-res files still don't work. I wouldn't bother if the CCA wasn't improving the sound of my system so much.

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

- Einstein

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Just a reminder that if you are using a media server with the CCA that supports transcoding (converting on the fly while streaming, without actually altering the stored file), you might not need re-compress any of the FLAC files that the CCA currently can't play. For example, MinimServer (via its MinimStreamer component) can transcode FLAC files to WAV which the CCA should then be able to play.

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

-- Jo Cox

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Just a reminder that if you are using a media server with the CCA that supports transcoding (converting on the fly while streaming, without actually altering the stored file), you might not need re-compress any of the FLAC files that the CCA currently can't play. For example, MinimServer (via its MinimStreamer component) can transcode FLAC files to WAV which the CCA should then be able to play.

 

Ok, and what app do you use for the iPad or Android to control minimserver?

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Not sure what you're referring to here by asking about an app to 'control' MinimServer.

 

If what you are actually referring to is an app to control the ChromeCast Audio device (so not strictly speaking 'controlling' MinimServer itself) when using MinimServer as the UPnP media server that provides the music files for the playlist/playback queue, then the BubbleUPnP Android app mentioned previously in this thread would be the one to use. Unfortunately, it's not available for iOS devices.

 

On the other hand, if by 'control' MinimServer you are referring to is configuring MinimServer's (and therefore MinimStreamer's) settings for transcoding, you can set those on the UI provided on the computer its running on. MinimServer can also run on some NASs and on 'headless' computers. In that situation you can control MinimServer and configure its setup remotely using the provided MinimWatch application from a computer on the same network. There is no equivalent MinimWatch app available for iOS and Android.

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

-- Jo Cox

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Are people having problems playing 16/44 flac files? all my redbook 16/44 files play without any issues, only once in a while do the hires files not play, but even then I have found with about 40% of them if I stop and start the playback a few times even the stubborn hires ones will play eventuality. I would give google some time to work out their playback issues before you re-encode just to get around a temporary bug.

ReadyNAS Ultra/6 stored flac->GigE network->roon->Uptone JS-2->microRendu->W4S Recovery->W4S DAC-2v2 SE>W4S STP-SE STG2 Preamp->W4S ST-1000 Amplifer->Von Schweikert VR-44

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Are people having problems playing 16/44 flac files? all my redbook 16/44 files play without any issues, only once in a while do the hires files not play, but even then I have found with about 40% of them if I stop and start the playback a few times even the stubborn hires ones will play eventuality. I would give google some time to work out their playback issues before you re-encode just to get around a temporary bug.

 

Never had any issues with RBCD 16-bit rips. Some 24-bit don't play though not too many. Don't have anything higher res than 24-bit.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world - Martin Luther

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Has anyone bought the ethernet connector for CCA from Google? I am curious how it performs versus wireless. My house is wired for ethernet so I tend to use wired connections for most everything if possible.

I am using this: https://store.google.com/product/ethernet_adapter_for_chromecast and have had no issues.

A listening test comparing components is valid only when you are able to instantaneously switch between components which have been properly level matched and whose identities are unknown to you.

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The same ethernet adapter for the Chromecast should work with the Chromecast Audio. The adapter connects via the micro USB port, so should presumably also provide the CCA with its power supply.

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

-- Jo Cox

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Thank you Cebolla, again. I'll try to check what you say in a few hours, and see what's the or my trouble

 

Finally, I tested after installing minimstreamer, and I have to say that almost every files are working with CCA. I really don't know why technically happens, but actually happens!

Maybe I tried about 30 different songs, all of them in FLAC and Several type of (24 , 16-44...). Maybe 2 songs didn't play. I'll try to find out what happen to those files.

Thank you again.

 

Equipment used: CCA to the Dac with toslink, Dac to amp, of course. And Minimserver/ ministresmer opened in mac mini. Control and choose the songs with app BubbleUpnp with rendered CCA.

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Are the 24 bit files that don't play higher than 44.1kHz ?

 

Did not notice actually. Have since then started transcoding everything to WAV 24 bit.

 

Hopefully, that takes care of things.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world - Martin Luther

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Super helpful thread, everyone! I have a question about getting a cheap DAC vs not, which has perhaps already been answered ("yes"), but if anyone could address my specific case I'd very much appreciate it.

 

Here's my use-case: I'm putting together an audio system for our living room, almost from scratch. The inputs will be 1- a turntable (model TBD, maybe the Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB I've seen well-reviewed), 2- audio split out from the HDMI of a Roku 2 box (probably -- I know it's not ideal, but the problem is that our projector the Roku would be feeding has HDMI in, but no audio-out. The Roku 1 has RCA outputs, but it's supposedly rather sluggish), and most importantly 3- a Chromecast Audio to pull music from our music collection on a Synology NAS. I'd like to minimize cost while still sounding good. I'll be getting Elac Debut 6 bookshelf speakers (I think they're €350 here), and I need to decide what to do about an amp. I was originally thinking one of the new, cheap digital ones (Topping, Dayton Audio) I've seen recommended, but it looks like I need more inputs than those are meant for, so now I'm looking for used "real" amps. (I'm slightly limited by the fact that I *don't* want a tuner, because then I'd have to pay a radio license fee.)

 

Right now I'm seeing locally available a used NAD 314 for €130, and a used Technics SU-X502 for €65. The NAD seems well-reviewed (I can't find any reviews on the other) so I'm assuming it's better quality, but it only has analog inputs, while the Technics has digital, too.

 

Do you think I would be better off with the NAD, even though it means using the CCA's own DAC/pre-amp, or going with the Technics' DAC? Thanks!

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