I wanted to do a review of the Google Chromecast Audio, chiefly because there are things about using it I would have liked to have known beforehand, so I hope this might help prospective buyers to get the best out of it.
My music sources are Tidal, CD and the odd music Bluray, but for music I use Tidal 90% of the time. Previously I used my iPad directly into the Apple-friendly USB port of my former Pioneer AV receiver. This was good because it used the AVR's internal DAC, but was bad because it used wifi rather than a direct ethernet connection and it wasn't so good for browsing Tidal since my main means of operating it was near my AVR, not my sofa.
Having recently bought my Anthem AVR that doesn't have streaming of any kind built-in or an Apple-friendly USB port, I had to look at another means to stream Tidal, but this also presented an opportunity. By purchasing a streamer I could use my iPad as a remote control instead of a source and browse music comfortably from my sofa.
I could have gone straight for a Bluesound Node 2 or Auralic Aries mini at £500 a piece, but seeing positive reviews about the £30 Chromecast Audio, I thought it would be sensible to give this a shot first. I planned from the start to use its optical output into my AVR to use my amp's own DAC, which I anticipated would be superior over the Chromecast Audio. Read on...
Interestingly I purchased the Chromecast Audio itself at Currys. I had forlornly hoped they'd also sell the Ethernet adaptor and optical cable, but the sales guy there didn't even know they did such a thing - he actually had to look it up on Google and suggested that I order it online directly from Google! And physical stores wonder why they're losing so many sales to the internet!
So initially I would set it up using its analogue output. Conveniently I already had a 3.5mm to RCA phono pair lead.
Set up was simplicity itself, if anything a little TOO simple. I plugged it all in, downloaded the Google Home iOS app and followed the instructions. A tip here from the What Hifi review: ensure you go into settings and set the sound quality to "High Dynamic Range". Why this isn't the default is anybody's guess.
A few things worthy of note here: its only output is a hybrid 3.5mm optical / analogue. So if you planned to use the digital output, you can't use a conventional optical cable: it has to be 3.5mm one end, toslink optical the other end.
If you intend to use the digital output, the High Dynamic Range setting is no longer visible on the app's settings. Evidently the app decides that if you're using the optical out, it WILL decide that High Dynamic Range setting is employed automatically.
Also the Google Home app does have some streaming services built-in that you launch directly from the Google app; Google Play, Spotify, Tune-In Radio and Deezer, but the real joy and power of the Chromecast Audio is that its use is built in to many other apps. So in Tidal's case, you open Tidal, not Google Home, start an album, swipe up the album details from below, select the Chromecast icon, find your device listed and away you go. Now my iPad is purely operating as a remote control and the music itself is coming across the ethernet.
This versatility is excellent. Should I want to try the free trial of Qobuz for example, which I will soon, I know Qobuz's app is similarly Chromecast compatible. Crucially, unlike my experience with Airplay that tends to get buggy if you have neighbours' wifi in close proximity, or when visitors come and their devices are trying to handshake with my wifi, Chromecast has been rock-solid with no freezes or stalls within the app. You might expect this from an IT powerhouse like Google, but they clearly wanted this to work properly and in my case, it does. This is a crucial aspect of rating a streamer in my opinion. Some award-winning streamers have some pretty awful user-reviews for this reason: poorly supported shaky apps that undo completely the audio prowess of the streamer itself: not the case with the Chromecast Audio.
If you do go for the ethernet adaptor, again the app decides to use this automatically. It's a shame that this can't be manually selected within the app, as the conspiracy theorist within you will always be wondering if it's REALLY using the ethernet input, or still clinging onto your wifi. There are ways of finding this out, but it's not straightforward by any means.
So to the sound.
I don't know what I expected from a £30 unit's own DAC and analogue output, but it was pretty awful to be frank. Every part of the frequency range was thick, heavy and dull. My system is very revealing, toe-tappingly snappy and lively and all of that musical joy had been bled out of the sound. It felt like I was playing a really low bitrate internet radio stream. (And yes, this was using the High Dynamic Range setting). Had it been my old AV receiver's analogue input, I could have laid a certain amount of blame at the AVR, but I couldn't do that with the Anthem. If this was all the Chromecast Audio was capable of, it wasn't going to be a keeper.
By comparison, plugging the iPad directly into the analogue input of the AVR using the iPad's 3.5mm headphone jack using the very same lead improved detail, timing and sense of space into the recording, although it still was some way short of CD playing an identical album.
I couldn't help thinking at this point, what on earth Cyrus Audio are thinking selling their analogue-input only Cyrus One and a Chromecast Audio as a package with Tidal free for a few months trial. From my experience, this would be selling the amp and Tidal as a source very short indeed. Surely you'd want to recommend a streaming source that would show off your amplifier not strangle it!
It was so bad that until the optical cable and ethernet adaptor arrived from Google, I didn't use the Chromecast again. I took some joy in spinning my dusty cd's again and hearing my system unhindered and full-fat. Ah bliss.
Then the optical cable and ethernet adaptor arrived.
My expectations at this point were muddled. In theory, keeping it all digital from ethernet to amplifier would just mean that all the ones and zeros would find their way to the music. However, I was conscious that some streamers, notably the Sonos Connect were allegedly so jittery that the best of DACs couldn't possibly put the timing right. Would that be the case with the Chromecast Audio?
Further muddying my expectations, I was also using an optical output from my CD player to my Anthem AVR, so for comparison purposes it was as like-for-like as it could be: in both cases I'd be using the Anthem's own DAC.
So it was time for some back-to-back comparisons: Tidal on Chromecast Audio vs identical CD's.
First things first: intial reaction was: 'wow, that's a huge step up from the analogue output of the Chromecast'. Huge. The timing, detail and space were all back. Smiley face was back too. All the characteristics that I like about my system were present again: tight fullsome bass, open spacious soundstage and sweet top-end. The £60 total I paid for this source (Chromecast Audio £30, hybrid 3.5mm to optical cable £15 and ethernet adaptor £15) seemed far far better value than the £30 Chromecast Audio on its own.
But was it the SAME as CD? Curiously no, it wasn't and I have no idea why, even though I was using my Anthem's internal DAC in both cases. One of my principal test discs was Rosalia de Souza's D'Improvviso, mainly because it's well recorded and tests the system's spaciousness, naturalness of tone and timing...and I've played it to death so I know it very well.
Through my CD player, the treble was ever so slightly more forward: through the Chromecast Audio the treble seemed VERY slightly rolled off, but I had to listen back and forth a few times to be certain of the differences: it certainly wasn't night and day. Perhaps the sort of difference between a DAC's own filter options for example.
It's at this point that I'm wondering precisely what the likes of a £500 Bluesound Node 2 or Auralic Aries Mini could offer beyond the £60 Chromecast Audio with the optical cable and ethernet adaptor and it's led me to a conclusion.
If you have a half-decent budget amplifier or better with analogue-only inputs and a sound you really enjoy already, then I couldn't honestly recommend the Google Chromecast Audio as a source. Yes it works flawlessly, but the sound quality from its analogue output will strangle your system. I wouldn't use it in my system 2 for the same reason. If you only have analogue inputs on your amp, then the Bluesound Node 2 or Auralic Aries mini make more sense.
But if you have an amp that has a decent optical input, or you intend to add a decent DAC to your analogue only amplifier, then I couldn't recommend the Chromecast Audio highly enough.
So if you do have a Cyrus One and Chromecast Audio and are taking advantage of the 3 months' worth of free Tidal subscription, do your system a favour and get a decent DAC.
My music sources are Tidal, CD and the odd music Bluray, but for music I use Tidal 90% of the time. Previously I used my iPad directly into the Apple-friendly USB port of my former Pioneer AV receiver. This was good because it used the AVR's internal DAC, but was bad because it used wifi rather than a direct ethernet connection and it wasn't so good for browsing Tidal since my main means of operating it was near my AVR, not my sofa.
Having recently bought my Anthem AVR that doesn't have streaming of any kind built-in or an Apple-friendly USB port, I had to look at another means to stream Tidal, but this also presented an opportunity. By purchasing a streamer I could use my iPad as a remote control instead of a source and browse music comfortably from my sofa.
I could have gone straight for a Bluesound Node 2 or Auralic Aries mini at £500 a piece, but seeing positive reviews about the £30 Chromecast Audio, I thought it would be sensible to give this a shot first. I planned from the start to use its optical output into my AVR to use my amp's own DAC, which I anticipated would be superior over the Chromecast Audio. Read on...
Interestingly I purchased the Chromecast Audio itself at Currys. I had forlornly hoped they'd also sell the Ethernet adaptor and optical cable, but the sales guy there didn't even know they did such a thing - he actually had to look it up on Google and suggested that I order it online directly from Google! And physical stores wonder why they're losing so many sales to the internet!
So initially I would set it up using its analogue output. Conveniently I already had a 3.5mm to RCA phono pair lead.
Set up was simplicity itself, if anything a little TOO simple. I plugged it all in, downloaded the Google Home iOS app and followed the instructions. A tip here from the What Hifi review: ensure you go into settings and set the sound quality to "High Dynamic Range". Why this isn't the default is anybody's guess.
A few things worthy of note here: its only output is a hybrid 3.5mm optical / analogue. So if you planned to use the digital output, you can't use a conventional optical cable: it has to be 3.5mm one end, toslink optical the other end.
If you intend to use the digital output, the High Dynamic Range setting is no longer visible on the app's settings. Evidently the app decides that if you're using the optical out, it WILL decide that High Dynamic Range setting is employed automatically.
Also the Google Home app does have some streaming services built-in that you launch directly from the Google app; Google Play, Spotify, Tune-In Radio and Deezer, but the real joy and power of the Chromecast Audio is that its use is built in to many other apps. So in Tidal's case, you open Tidal, not Google Home, start an album, swipe up the album details from below, select the Chromecast icon, find your device listed and away you go. Now my iPad is purely operating as a remote control and the music itself is coming across the ethernet.
This versatility is excellent. Should I want to try the free trial of Qobuz for example, which I will soon, I know Qobuz's app is similarly Chromecast compatible. Crucially, unlike my experience with Airplay that tends to get buggy if you have neighbours' wifi in close proximity, or when visitors come and their devices are trying to handshake with my wifi, Chromecast has been rock-solid with no freezes or stalls within the app. You might expect this from an IT powerhouse like Google, but they clearly wanted this to work properly and in my case, it does. This is a crucial aspect of rating a streamer in my opinion. Some award-winning streamers have some pretty awful user-reviews for this reason: poorly supported shaky apps that undo completely the audio prowess of the streamer itself: not the case with the Chromecast Audio.
If you do go for the ethernet adaptor, again the app decides to use this automatically. It's a shame that this can't be manually selected within the app, as the conspiracy theorist within you will always be wondering if it's REALLY using the ethernet input, or still clinging onto your wifi. There are ways of finding this out, but it's not straightforward by any means.
So to the sound.
I don't know what I expected from a £30 unit's own DAC and analogue output, but it was pretty awful to be frank. Every part of the frequency range was thick, heavy and dull. My system is very revealing, toe-tappingly snappy and lively and all of that musical joy had been bled out of the sound. It felt like I was playing a really low bitrate internet radio stream. (And yes, this was using the High Dynamic Range setting). Had it been my old AV receiver's analogue input, I could have laid a certain amount of blame at the AVR, but I couldn't do that with the Anthem. If this was all the Chromecast Audio was capable of, it wasn't going to be a keeper.
By comparison, plugging the iPad directly into the analogue input of the AVR using the iPad's 3.5mm headphone jack using the very same lead improved detail, timing and sense of space into the recording, although it still was some way short of CD playing an identical album.
I couldn't help thinking at this point, what on earth Cyrus Audio are thinking selling their analogue-input only Cyrus One and a Chromecast Audio as a package with Tidal free for a few months trial. From my experience, this would be selling the amp and Tidal as a source very short indeed. Surely you'd want to recommend a streaming source that would show off your amplifier not strangle it!
It was so bad that until the optical cable and ethernet adaptor arrived from Google, I didn't use the Chromecast again. I took some joy in spinning my dusty cd's again and hearing my system unhindered and full-fat. Ah bliss.
Then the optical cable and ethernet adaptor arrived.
My expectations at this point were muddled. In theory, keeping it all digital from ethernet to amplifier would just mean that all the ones and zeros would find their way to the music. However, I was conscious that some streamers, notably the Sonos Connect were allegedly so jittery that the best of DACs couldn't possibly put the timing right. Would that be the case with the Chromecast Audio?
Further muddying my expectations, I was also using an optical output from my CD player to my Anthem AVR, so for comparison purposes it was as like-for-like as it could be: in both cases I'd be using the Anthem's own DAC.
So it was time for some back-to-back comparisons: Tidal on Chromecast Audio vs identical CD's.
First things first: intial reaction was: 'wow, that's a huge step up from the analogue output of the Chromecast'. Huge. The timing, detail and space were all back. Smiley face was back too. All the characteristics that I like about my system were present again: tight fullsome bass, open spacious soundstage and sweet top-end. The £60 total I paid for this source (Chromecast Audio £30, hybrid 3.5mm to optical cable £15 and ethernet adaptor £15) seemed far far better value than the £30 Chromecast Audio on its own.
But was it the SAME as CD? Curiously no, it wasn't and I have no idea why, even though I was using my Anthem's internal DAC in both cases. One of my principal test discs was Rosalia de Souza's D'Improvviso, mainly because it's well recorded and tests the system's spaciousness, naturalness of tone and timing...and I've played it to death so I know it very well.
Through my CD player, the treble was ever so slightly more forward: through the Chromecast Audio the treble seemed VERY slightly rolled off, but I had to listen back and forth a few times to be certain of the differences: it certainly wasn't night and day. Perhaps the sort of difference between a DAC's own filter options for example.
It's at this point that I'm wondering precisely what the likes of a £500 Bluesound Node 2 or Auralic Aries Mini could offer beyond the £60 Chromecast Audio with the optical cable and ethernet adaptor and it's led me to a conclusion.
If you have a half-decent budget amplifier or better with analogue-only inputs and a sound you really enjoy already, then I couldn't honestly recommend the Google Chromecast Audio as a source. Yes it works flawlessly, but the sound quality from its analogue output will strangle your system. I wouldn't use it in my system 2 for the same reason. If you only have analogue inputs on your amp, then the Bluesound Node 2 or Auralic Aries mini make more sense.
But if you have an amp that has a decent optical input, or you intend to add a decent DAC to your analogue only amplifier, then I couldn't recommend the Chromecast Audio highly enough.
So if you do have a Cyrus One and Chromecast Audio and are taking advantage of the 3 months' worth of free Tidal subscription, do your system a favour and get a decent DAC.