Jones Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 Hola, So, I have chromecast ultra connected to a smart tv. I currently use youtube music via the tv to stream sound to the amp and then the speakers. It would be more convenient to cast the music on my device on youtube music through the chromecast and then the tv/speakers, but I worry that the audio would then be further compressed through bluetooth and/or wife. When you cast to chromecast, is it further compressing the digital audio quality, or does the chromecast device itself create the same quality audio from the wifi signal so that I would not be losing any quality that way? Thanks in advance, J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuzzzer Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 14 minutes ago, Jones said: I worry that the audio would then be further compressed through bluetooth and/or wife. I don't know about sending the signal through your wife but a lot of people use chromecast for audio streaming and love it. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeloManiac Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 3 hours ago, Jones said: but I worry that the audio would then be further compressed through bluetooth and/or wife. I'm convinced that if your wife would join the local choir rehearsels, at least the vocal qualities would improve substantially! 🤣🤣 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 All seriousness aside....... Chromecast audio is not bad. I would prefer it to most Bluetooth receivers in most products. But if you get a quality streamer it will leave both behind quite easily. Good streamers using the raspberry pi platform can be had cheaply (Allo) and are as good or better up to the Node 2i price point. Shakey 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 16 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said: Chromecast audio is not bad. I would prefer it to most Bluetooth receivers in most products I agree. I often stream Spotify with my Chromecast Audio with my Cambridge Audio 840C's built-in DAC and the sound quality(based on recording) is very acceptable. With that said, my understanding is that Chromecast Audio is better geared for music than HDMI equipped Chromecast Ultra. Don't hold me to that but that is what I have read more than once. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeloManiac Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 Chromecast Audio is no longer available. Google ditched it last summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 I’ve been using a couple of Chromecast units for years and have found the sound to be fine, in the sense that I don’t hear anything annoying about it. The first one I got was one of the flat mushroom shaped units, because my 2011 TV was made one year before the smart models arrived. I used that unit for years, but then I got one of the newer round ones and put it on the main TV, while the older one went to my bedroom TV, where it still sounds fine. However, some new streaming services, like GEM (from CBC in Canada), don’t recognize the old model. On the main TV in the living room, using the round Chromecast unit with the main sound system works just fine, including with GEM, and the sound is good enough that I’ve been happy to listen to it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jones Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share Posted November 26, 2020 Thanks for the replies, all, and my wife got a kick out of the typo. Lots of helpful information here, but I'm not sure if my original/main question has been answered. My tv casting youtube obviously sends a signal directly from it to the amp. However, if I were to cast say a phone or a chromebook running a youtube song to the tv, either directly or through the chromecast, would that be like sending a compressed signal that gets recast and possibly degraded or further compressed by the tv and/or chromecast, or does the tv and/or chromecast simply produce it's own fresh signal to the amp with the information it is getting from the external device over WIFI. ? In other words, would there be a difference in audio quality if the tv streamed directly to the amp instead of the chromeboook, streaming to the tv which then streams to the amp? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbphoto Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 Does your amp have google cast/audio built-in? I'm not really understanding your setup. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jones Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share Posted November 26, 2020 No, the amp is a very old Pioneer VSX D307. The smart tv has no RCA outs, so I have to run an eighth inch headphone jack out from the tv which splits into red and white RCA that goes into the amp. I can run youtube directly from tv to amp, but it definitely is not as convenient with the tv Roku remote as it would be casting to the tv either from a chromebook or phone, or to the chromecast ultra which is plugged into an HDMI port on the tv. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbphoto Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 If the goal is to listen to music controlled from your iphone but without having to turn on your TV, then I would buy a $40 chromecast audio puck off of ebay and connect it directly to your amp via a 2nd headphone-to-RCA audio cable. Chromecast audio has been discontinued but still available on ebay. It's got an internal DAC that supports 96/24 pcm wifi audio and sounds great. I don't know if it would be better or worse than the audio path through your TV you are using today, but it's certainly a simpler and cleaner method. just my .02 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YK Thom Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 This conversation has caught my attention and might help me as well. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about streaming and wifi. My receiver (Marantz SR5008), does not have a wifi or bluetooth receiving ability. Over the past year I have have been streaming music from my computer in the den beside the living-room with a program I bought called Air My PC - prior to that I had been mirroring from an IPad. The signal is sent from the computer to my Apple TV ( second gen), which is connected to the receiver. Works pretty well. I can mirror either audio, video or both. I'm looking for a simple solution that would provide better audio than the Apple TV puts through if there is such a thing, and one that doesn't cost a small fortune. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbphoto Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Airplay runs at lossless cd-quality 44.1/16. This is upsampled slightly to 48/16 when it is sent to the ATV, but no real gain in SQ. First, is your ATV sending digital audio (either via HDMI or optical toslink cable) to your Marantz? I don't know for sure but I'm guessing your Marantz would have a better DAC than the ATV. Second, if you are not tied to Airplay/Apple, then you could pick up a $45 chromecast audio puck off of ebay and connect it to your Marantz via toslink cable. You would now be in the google camp and you could cast music at up to 96/24. I'm not too familiar with the ins-and-outs of google casting, but you need a chromecast-enabled app or browser to cast music to the chromecast audio puck. With both Airplay and Chromecast, you are trying to transport the digital music directly to the DAC in your Marantz which will have the biggest impact on SQ. In theory, Chromecast is better because it supports 96/24 vs Airplay 44.1/16, but YMMV. Also, you could eliminate the "Air My PC" app and maybe use a better/simpler chromecast enabled app on your PC. I've used both - chromecast can be a little glitchy at times, but both protocols can reliably transport the digital stream to the DAC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 plenty of CHROMECAST audio devices on EBAY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeloManiac Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 1 hour ago, RandyH000 said: plenty of CHROMECAST audio devices on EBAY That's not good, is it? It's been discontinued. Support and security updates will stop soon too. https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6260600 They no longer support setup from your computer. iOS 14 no longer shows the cast icon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeloManiac Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jones Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 After doing some more research I think I have my answer. I'm pretty sure that Chromecast, or probably just casting to the Roku Tv for that matter, preserves all audio quality that I would get if I hardwired my phone or laptop directly to the amp. I think that Chromecast just reproduces exactly what my phone is telling it to and sends the signal that IT creates to the amp, whereas if I were sending a Bluetooth compressed signal to an amp/speakers, I would loose significant audio quality. Because the WIFI that transmits to the Chromecast just tells the Chromecast what to play, the sound would be exactly the same. At least I can't seem to HEAR any difference, although I definitely can over a Bluetooth connection. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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