8/10/2023 0 Comments Chromecast audio receiver![]() ![]() When you’re all plugged in, a little notification light pops up, indicating the status of the device. ![]() On the bottom and the sides is some grey plastic where you’ll find a 3.5mm jack socket, a Micro USB charging port and a reset button. The logo on top is supposed be a Google one, but I can’t help thinking it looks like a Beats headphone ear cup… You can tell the two new Chromecasts apart from the vinyl-inspired finish, which makes the Audio look like a little chunky record, complete with tiny grooves. It’s not going to hog much space next to or on top of your speaker or amplifier. It’s small as well, athough larger than that first Chromecast, and it weighs in at a supremely light 30g. Google’s adopted the same circular design as the latest Chromecast to make it look less like a USB stick. The Chromecast Audio looks nothing like the original Chromecast and that’s a good thing to me. It costs £30, the same as the new Chromecast, and for the money you get an easy-to-set-up piece of kit that might not be an essential buy for everyone, but has the potential to be awesome with future software updates. So not only can you listen to audio from the likes of Spotify and Google Play Music, but you can also play music straight from websites such as YouTube. It’s Google’s attempt to try and do for music what it did for video with the first-generation Chromecast. The Chromecast Audio is a small music streaming device that you can plug into a speaker system or hi-fi so you can access music over Wi-Fi. My receiver has 1.4a ports.įeel free to ask any questions or make any requests.Update: sadly Google announced in January 2019, they were discontinuing the Chromecast Audio, as its focus switches to the likes of Google Home and voice control. As soon as I unplugged the USB cable from the Chromecast itself it powered off. The rumors about HDMI 1.4 being able to power the Chromecast are false. Once the TV is turned off the audio cuts out immediately even though the Chromecast is plugged directly into my receiver. I'm not able to listen to Google Music while having the TV screen off. (Chromecast is a 2.4 GHz only device, FYI) My 2.4 and 5 GHz channels have different SSID names which didn't seem to matter. I was bummed out by this at first but then realized that after your setup is complete you can go back onto your 5 GHz band and still control the Chromecast just fine. I run everything in my apartment on the 5 GHz spectrum so I had to drop my phone and tablet down to the 2.4 GHz to set up the Chromecast initially. I also had some experimentation with wi-fi bands. Had to force virtual 5.1 through receiver to get all my speakers going. ![]() The two movies I tried (Transformers and Tron: Legacy) both played naitively in 2-channel stereo not 5.1. Google Play Movies was the biggest disappointment. YouTube and Google Music will decode as stereo only, if you want 5.1 you need to switch the receiver to Dolby Pro Logic or Circle Surround depending on your receiver or preference. During movie playback you can press an icon from the Netflix app to select the audio format being pushed. Some movies are still encoded in stereo such as Avengers which I was surprised by. Think of it like virtual 5.1 surround which is OK but no where near as good as a Blu-ray disc. Most Netflix movies are encoded in 5.1 which the receiver sees as Dolby Digital Plus. Volume controls still work from phone/tablet/PC which control the Chromecast output not the receiver volume. I have a Logitech Harmony so I just created an Activity to automatically switch to the proper HDMI with a button click. Works fine when you switch to the proper HDMI. I have a Pioneer VSX-1020 that's only a year old which I have the Chromecast hooked up to directly. Just got done setting up my Chromecast and can answer some "connecting to a receiver" questions. ![]()
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