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Would like to hear thoughts on Chromecast audio


jimjimbo

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I'm a broadcast chief engineer for a FM radio station KEPC in Colorado. My broadcast stream gives me numbers on if the device is a PC, Apple, Android, Alexa, Chromecast or other. I can tell you that the numbers for chromecast vs Alexa are small for Chromecast. What does that mean for the future of Chromecast? I don't know, I'm just telling what I see and PC is still king of the hill with both type of phones added together pulling higher numbers than PC. Myself I use Airplay but may use a server in the future.

OK now I have to plug the station as we have 7000+ song play list so if your tired of the some old stuff check us out. Non profit college radio. Sorry I had to do it, I'm so ashamed no I'm not :)

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 Both of the units arrived yesterday along with the cables. Set one of them up in my living room with an older Yamaha receiver which is only used for TV and background music. Set up was flawless and Spotify premium automatically connected. I have no complaints so far. 

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17 hours ago, Kalifornian said:

Have mine hooked up to a flea watt chinese amp to La Scalas.  I stream Tidal and flac files from my NAS with zero issues.  Sound quality is excellent (I am connected using RCA).  Guessing it might be even better if I had an awesome DAC and connected over optical...

 

What app are you using to access your FLAC files on your NAS? This was my issue a bit over a year ago. I gave up. Wondering if things have gotten better. Can you please tell me your NAS to device hardware/software chain? I have zero issue with the music once I actually get it to play, but almost no luck with FLAC files playing via Hi-Fi Cast and other. I've got a Qnap with a few different media serving devices DLNA and the like....but I do not have PLEX.

 

To be clear I have zero interest in streaming music from the Internet. I want to play my files on my NAS on my network. Things like Sonos, Popcorn Hour, OPPO, WD,  just about anything that can see my NAS works great throughout my house with the exception of Chromecast Audio, Google Home, <Insert> Phone App (tired several).

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4 hours ago, rplace said:

 

What app are you using to access your FLAC files on your NAS? This was my issue a bit over a year ago. I gave up. Wondering if things have gotten better. Can you please tell me your NAS to device hardware/software chain? I have zero issue with the music once I actually get it to play, but almost no luck with FLAC files playing via Hi-Fi Cast and other. I've got a Qnap with a few different media serving devices DLNA and the like....but I do not have PLEX.

 

To be clear I have zero interest in streaming music from the Internet. I want to play my files on my NAS on my network. Things like Sonos, Popcorn Hour, OPPO, WD,  just about anything that can see my NAS works great throughout my house with the exception of Chromecast Audio, Google Home, <Insert> Phone App (tired several).

Using BubbleUPNP. It links to Tidal, Spotify, and my NAS. You can make mixed playlists between the three. I have a Synology NAS and am using the Synology music server app to serve up the FLAC

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Thing of it is, the chromecast is merely a renderer.  It requires a control point of some kind (like Hi-Fi cast) which points it to data from a server of some kind (be it in your home or out on the 'net).  It will not perform the task of being its own control point.

 

I use "Hi-Fi Cast" as a control point to stream my flac files using any one of several media server programs on my laptop.  Works perfectly with the built-in ChromeCast in my NAD amplifier.  In Hi-Fi Cast select the Chromecast as renderer and whatever you're using to serve the flac files as the Media Server.  The ChromeCast won't go out and pick up files just sitting on a hard drive somewhere, they have to be "served."

 

 

You'll have to fire up a media server program with which to feed the chromecast.  If you're using Linux I can help you with that, anything else and I've got no opinion or experience.

 

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8 hours ago, rplace said:

 

What app are you using to access your FLAC files on your NAS? This was my issue a bit over a year ago. I gave up. Wondering if things have gotten better. Can you please tell me your NAS to device hardware/software chain? I have zero issue with the music once I actually get it to play, but almost no luck with FLAC files playing via Hi-Fi Cast and other. I've got a Qnap with a few different media serving devices DLNA and the like....but I do not have PLEX.

 

To be clear I have zero interest in streaming music from the Internet. I want to play my files on my NAS on my network. Things like Sonos, Popcorn Hour, OPPO, WD,  just about anything that can see my NAS works great throughout my house with the exception of Chromecast Audio, Google Home, <Insert> Phone App (tired several).

 

Do you have DLNA server software installed and running on your NAS?

 

If so, you should be able to select that server in Hi-Fi cast, and select the CCA as the renderer.

 

BTW, I've had good experiences with Minimserver for FLAC files on my PC.  They have a page for installation on Qnap.  Might be worth a try.

https://minimserver.com/install-qnap.html

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  • 8 months later...

Since I finally got my internet figured out for the most part, I finally hooked up both of the CCA's I bought in the two upstairs systems.  I wish I'd bought more of them as it would have been great for the  garage and living room, too.  Anyone have any they decided not to use?

 

@jimjimbo  How do you like yours?  Did you get them working?

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1 hour ago, avguytx said:

Since I finally got my internet figured out for the most part, I finally hooked up both of the CCA's I bought in the two upstairs systems.  I wish I'd bought more of them as it would have been great for the  garage and living room, too.  Anyone have any they decided not to use?

 

@jimjimbo  How do you like yours?  Did you get them working?

I honestly haven't used them as much as I thought I would, but they are working as advertised.

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On 1/26/2019 at 12:58 PM, MoparBob said:

I'm a broadcast chief engineer for a FM radio station KEPC in Colorado...

 

So I'm sitting in my garage having a cigarette reading this, and I web-search "kepc radio", I get to the website and I'm looking around (I'm on my phone) and I want to follow the link for "stream now" or something like that and it winds up giving me a 3D barcode to scan to load the player to my phone.  I'm on my phone, I can't scan the screen or at least don't know how.  I don't know what to do.  Can you give me a hand with that?   I'd like to listen to the song that's playing just now.

 

Seriously, I'd liked to have heard the song, but given your stated position in the unstated hierarchy, perhaps you can let the web-facing folks know that the setup doesn't work well with the current-ish duckduckgo browser on an Android 8.1.0

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I use amazon music (which, by the way, just released a whole bunch of music in 850kbs16-bit/44.1kHz and 3730kbps 24-bit/192kHz), cast from my tablet through the Chromecast Audio (which has DSP level bass and treble adjustments and bit-perfect stream at max volume level 100), through toslink to a Topping d30 DAC, then to my pre and amp. I am consistently impressed with the detail in sound I get, so much so that I have mostly stopped listening to FLAC and DSF files on my laptop played through Foobar and through the same DAC (using the best high-res drivers). The Chromecast audio and streaming service is way more convenient and I honestly think it sounds just as good or better than high-res files on my computer. Not bad for a 30$ streamer.

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