Chromecast Audio as endpoint? [Delivered; B333]

Yes. A difficult one. Maybe google advertising is more subliminally focused since I started using chromecast. I don’t know. I usually say “no” to those questions asking if they can collect your personal data. But I assume they are collecting something to make persistence and mobility work and personally I am ok with that. I know that others have stronger views.

Chromecast AUDIO is an audio only Chromecast. It has a decent inbuilt DAC or you can connect an optical cable and the data is passed through to your own DAC at upto 24/96 (depending on source).

So it’s perfect for casting Tidal’s “Hi-Fi” quality titles (ie lossless at 16/44)… if you cast Tidal’s “Master” titles you are getting the data at 24/48 (because the Chromecast Audio can’t unfold the data). I believe if you connect a DAC that is fully compliant with MQA then you would be getting MQA titles at their full fidelity, but not 100% sure.

In anycase, Chromecast AUDIO is an excellent solution for playing Tidal Hi-Fi titles!

Yes. Good point. I am using a regular chromecast usually over an off the pace hotel TV so I don’t believe a chromecast AUDIO would make a great deal of difference with higher rez or MQA. So in my particular use case I will continue to use a regular chromecast over HDMI to get the multi-media benefits.

But I am interested though in your experience with a chromecast AUDIO and pass through to a 24/96 DAC. How does pass through compare with the chromecast internal DAC? Also, I haven’t heard one but I can see that google are starting to embed chromecast in better quality active speakers comparable to a Sonos 5. That is an interesting quality point to many so this is a fast moving market.

If that’s your assumption, think again. Especially in the case of Google and Facebook.

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Don’t understand. Could you elaborate?

Not sure I agree with you, but I guess it doesn’t matter much :slight_smile:

Is there anyway of merging the chromecast threads? There are quite a few of them. I just discovered a group on another thread got a Chrome AUDIO working as a roon endpoint some time ago. So I guess it wasn’t common knowledge. Certainly not for me.

This is now a very long thread and when I tried to past the link roon warned me that @danny had already pasted it way back in this thread. Hadn’t seen it.

I don’t have a chromecast audio, just a regular one so I don’t know if I can get that working. I would be interested in others experience. Posters in the other thread comment that the quality is not as good as direct USB but for use cases where ultimate SQ is not a consideration like enabling a hotel TV when on a business trip as a roon endpoint it sounds ideal.

Hi,

We do merge duplicate / very similar topics, but this topic is a feature request and the one you linked is a user tinkering with 3rd party to software.

The forum search is quite powerful and will retrieve related content.

I think I probably meant ‘highlighting’ rather than merging. This is a very long years old feature request which has become difficult to navigate. I understand the workaround is from a 3rd party but it is actually now referenced twice in this thread where many interested parties will not see it.

BTW I have been surprised how controversial this request has become for a “roadmap” feature. It would help to focus the feature request I think if more were aware of possible workarounds and their limitations.

Are we talking about the same Chromecasts? I have three video Gen2 ones and one audio Chromecast connected to my home network. The video ones are connected via wired LAN and the audio one via wireless. None of them are attached to any google account. There isn’t even an option to do this. What are you talking about?

I can control them from any device connected to my home network, be it Android devices which are attached to different google accounts or a PC which doesn’t have to do anything with google, not even Gmail as I don’t use Gmail. Chromecasts can be controlled by Apple devices but I don’t have any.

I hope Roon developers know what a Chromecast is. Pretty much everything but Amazon devices supports it and its support by Roon is becoming a dealbreaker. I am shocked that Roon can’t stream to Chromecast, and it’s been in discussion since Sep 2015.

Chromecast API is open and anybody can write an application that casts to Chromecast without asking google for permission to do this. I feel something is fishy is going on at Roon regarding Chromecast. Sorry.

P.S. I haven’t read the whole thread. Maybe the explanation is there.

Hi @G_P,

There are technical people on this forum but I am not one of them. So maybe there is a way of doing it without a google account but I just blindly did this:

Set up your Chromecast device (3rd gen or older) - Android - Chromecast Help

I know this is an issue for some but I quite like the integration (I am assuming I will get) when I am asked to sign in with a google account to google/android apps so I normally don’t question it.

But I would really like to see chromecast integration with roon and if a google account is not strictly necessary then I totally get that. For some not bound into the google/android ecosystem I can imagine that being a very important consideration.

Interesting… When I was setting up my Chromecasts long time ago there wasn’t even an option to link them to a google account. Now it seems to be a requirement but only if one is using Android or Apple mobile devices. But if you click on the “Computer” option in your link, it says that it can be done from a desktop version of Chrome browser without a google account. Quick googling reveals the same:
How to set up a Chromecast without logging in to Google Home?

Yes, I see that now. But there are a lot of interesting things you can do with google home (like guest access) not possible from a PC. There doesn’t seem to be a PC google home.

But the point is the same. If the objection is an unwanted google account then there is a way round it. Thanks for making that clear.

But you can setup the Chromecast from a desktop (PC or Mac) and then use Google Home. This way the Chromecast won’t be linked to a particular google account.

Yes understood.

Just a thought, there is a clunky 3rd party workaround some have found success with. The links are a little way back in this thread. I couldn’t get it working with a regular chromecast. Maybe it only works with a chromecast audio or maybe I missed a step. You mentioned you had a lot of different chromcasts. Have you tried it? Got it working with different chromecasts?

I saw the link but I am not going to try it. It captures whatever is playing on the PC and casts it to a Chromecast. I am not interested in casting from PC. I cast from a phone or tablet. If I am at my PC I will listen there. I am only interested in Chromecast for occasional non-serious listening as a matter of convenience. So I can grab my phone and cast to Chromecast Audio connected to my boombox while I am doing something.

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Is it really this simple?

If so then am also disappointed Roon doesn’t yet have CCA support

Roon has made it repeatedly clear there will be no UPnP interface. It’s a long thread now but there are a few links that couldn’t be clearer further up. Is there another way of integrating with Chromecast?

Man, was really excited to fire up Roon and be able to play music on ALL of my devices quick and easy. Was super bummed out when none of the Chromecasts showed up… This could definitely convince me to hold out on paying after the trial.

Let’s not even get in to the whole Roon on my phone as more than a controller discussion…

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Just get a Roon endpoint and your done. You don’t have to spend much. (R pi etc) Also read Roons technical reasons for not supporting upnp.
Hi Fi has never been super cheap and if your interested in sound quality you will need to invest some.
Saying that, great sound has never been so cost effective as it is today. Try not to get sucked into diminishing returns and enjoy the music.
Roon. Especially with Tidal, makes it so much easier to just enjoy and discover music.

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