Chromecast Sample Rates?

[BlackJack]

Maybe just a connection problem:

Chromecast Audio dropouts

Interesting … Having just had some dropouts with ROON resampling 24/96 to 24/48 on the one of the CCAs I was using to test before, I eased the mini Toslink out a tad and that cured it. Took off the resampling in ROON and now playing beautifully at 24/96. I’m currently using a cheap Fisual Pro Install cable as I am not convinced about high cost cable especially on optical, but then the Fisual is by far cheapest I’ve ever used on anything. I wonder if the issue is with the cable or the socket ? W…

I have one CCA using analogue out and one using optical out and both play content up to 96 kHz without a problem.

[John_Warden]

@dabassgoesboomboom

It hasn’t worked at 96kHz for a long while unfortunately. Check out this Google thread of complaints:

https://support.google.com/chromecast/thread/356030

Thanks for the quick response @dabassgoesboomboom - that’s what I feared but had hoped not to have confirmed.

@BlackJack

I have one CCA using analogue out and one using optical out and both play content up to 96 kHz without a problem.

From your experience @BlackJack it seems a bit hit-and-miss. It’s a shame that it’s a miss for me. I’ve tried another cable and fiddled with easing the cable out a bit … no change.

So what step next? My goal was to improve the Chromecast Audio sound without a big expense, and the deal on the DacMagic made that possible. At CD quality it’s already better, but I was looking forward to using higher res files too, as they made quite a difference when using the audio out from the Chromecast. I don’t want to go spending a lot to get this sorted, but I’m open to suggestions.

[Rugby (aka Daniel or Big Dan)]

And you are using wireless? So what you are looking for is a wireless endpoint that can do hi res out via toslink.

You could go the raspberry pi route, but, that will take some diy and potentially messing around with linux, but, it would be fairly cheap.

Or you could get a used Squeezebox Classic on ebay and use it’s toslink out. Here is one on ebay now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Logitech-Squeezebox-Touch-With-Remote-And-Power-Cable-Black-Touchscreen/124036777808?epid=1001829760&hash=item1ce12b0750:g:GNQAAOSwUrZeCuYw

I love the old squeezeboxes and still have several in use.

[Jazzfan_NJ (Listening to JAZZ since 1972!)]

@Rugby

Or you could get a used Squeezebox Classic

The Squeezebox Classic and Duet are also limited to a maximum of 24bit/48kHz. However the Squeezebox Touch and Transporter can both do 24bit/96kHz (and 88.2kHz). If you have a good DAC go with the Touch and use the digital out. If you don’t have a good DAC then give the Transporter a listen, it even has balanced analog outputs. No DSD or MQA support in any Squeezebox device.

[Rugby (aka Daniel or Big Dan)]

@Jazzfan_NJ

Squeezebox Touch

Yes, I meant Touch, brain glitch, thanks. It can do 24/192 with the patch, though.

@Jazzfan_NJ

No DSD or MQA support

It is to replace a Chromecast, which also doesn’t have either.

[John_Warden]

@Rugby

Squeezebox Touch

Yes, I meant Touch, brain glitch, thanks. It can do 24/192 with the patch, though.

Ralph_Pantuso:

For a moment I was excited @Rugby because I have a couple retired Duets in the loft, but having dug them out and got them running (5 minutes effort only) … it confirmed exactly the limit of 48kHz - which is just the same as the Chromecast Audio of course.

I will have a quick look on eBay for the Touch, and they seem to go for around £100 … which is making getting the DacMagic 100 look rather less of a bargain …

[John_Warden]

For a little more I got a very small Windows 10 PC to run Roon Bridge for multichannel use in the sitting room. I may try that in the kitchen to try out the USB streaming to the DacMagic - that gets up to 192kHz and avoids a potentially jittery SPDIF source, assuming the DAC has better timing. Again, comments welcome.

[Timothy_King]

Blockquote Hi, I found your post from last year, and wondered if you can help me spot what I’m missing. I’ve been using a Chromecast Audio in the kitchen for some time, successfully streaming up to 24/96 using the analogue out. I decided to get an external DAC (Cambridge DacMagic 100) and connect using the TOSLINK. It’s improved the sound significantly, but … now I can’t stream anything above 48kHz.

Blockquote Hi John, I later found out Chromecast Audio supports 96kHz via optical output only on paper.
It hasn’t worked at 96kHz for a long while unfortunately.

Blockquote From your experience @BlackJack it seems a bit hit-and-miss. It’s a shame that it’s a miss for me. I’ve tried another cable and fiddled with easing the cable out a bit … no change.

Yes. Very hit-and-miss. I currently have seven (yes, seven) Chromecast Audio’s connected within my house. Four via Optical Out. Three via Analog, using the CCA internal DAC. I’ve had at least 3-4 CCA’s for several years now.

At some point, I think in the 3rd quarter of 2018ish, my CCA’s stopped working for anything above 48 kHz sample rates. It started as only the one’s connected via optical output. It eventually became a thing that consistently happened to ALL of them (analog and optical). They would stutter and drop out regularly. Nothing I could do would fix them. Reboots. Fresh reinstalls. It’s actually the reason that finally tipped me over the hedge to take the plunge on Roon. I didn’t want to manually downconvert my entire library to 44.1 and 48, and Roon’s Zone-by-Zone Sample Rate conversion was the silver bullet I needed to keep my whole-home running smoothly.

The problem persisted for a little more than a year. Then, mysteriously, for reasons I can’t pinpoint and don’t understand, the capability returned, as suddenly as it has disappeared. As of about October or November of 2019, all of my CCA’s, Optical and Analog, all play 24/882. and 24/96 content, by-and-large completely stutter free (for hours and days at a time, not multiple-times-every-4-minute-song). I have had a couple of quick hiccups, but they happen now on a weekly basis rather than a every-track basis. Everything works. No idea why.

Because of this:
I bought Roon to handle downsampling
I started buying Raspberry Pi’s(affordable) and installing RoPieee to be grouped together within Roon as a Chromecast alternative. For background music CCA’s sound fine (better than fine). For critical listening I have found that anything that supports Roon Advanced Audio Transport (rather than Google Cast) tends to image a little better, and that includes Raspberry Pi’s running RoPieee.

TIFWIW and on any given day, your Chromecast Audio woes may just disappear… I hope you don’t have to wait more than a year, like I did, for it to happen.

[AudioDreamer (Mike)]

@John_Warden

I will have a quick look on eBay for the Touch, and they seem to go for around £100 … which is making getting the DacMagic 100 look rather less of a bargain …

I have 2 touches available for purchase. With the Enhanced Digital Output plug-in they will actually do 24/192. PM me if interested.

[John_Warden]

@AudioDreamer

PM me if interested.

Thanks. Will do

[CostasD (Costas)]

@John_Warden

I can’t stream anything above 48kHz

Make sure Full dynamic range is enabled on the CCA’s device settings in the Google Home app:

[John_Warden]

Thanks @CostasD but that I have that set already. Must be something else

[Andy_Foster]

Ah that old DacMagic. As I posted in the Chromecast Audio Dropout thread, I was trying my DacMagic alongside my Beresford DAC and my Cyrus 6DAC amps with built-in DACs. It appears there may be something about the clock recovery/jitter cleaning on toslink with the DacMagic. The DacMagic would suffer breakup or not syncing at all when the other DACs appeared fine when being dirven by the toslink from a CCA at high sample rates. The CCA’s do appear to be weak at the physical connection and I found I could use the DacMagic to “tune” the connection when tweaking the cable in the CCA socket. A slight twist or in/out adjustment would bring the music back without break up.

All been running fine at 24/96 for quite a while now on CCAs.

Never tried the USB.

[CrystalGipsy (Resisting the flow!)]

Shame non Google products are still nobbled to max 48/24 my newly aquired JBL link supports upto 96/24 via Google Cast not via Roon it seems.

[CrystalGipsy (Resisting the flow!)]

Would it really hurt to have options to change the allowed sample rate and bit depth like you have on RAAT. I have two devices that both support upto 96/24 yet Roon only allows max 48/24. It really does seem that nobody seems to be implementing this hires audio flag in Chromecast enabled products as this issue crops up time and time again and these audio devices are able to support higher rates.