Chromecast Audio - Tell us you success stories

The mysterious functioning of my CCA continues.

Was exploring the Home App options and found the dynamic mode setting, but can't find the volume control.

Decided what the heck, let's check casting from my laptop - lo and behold, my CCA now shows up as a device!??

And I can control the volume.

??
 
Volume control in the Home app is available when you have something playing. Tap the speaker icon on the "now playing" card.
 
As I type this I'm listening to music on my CCA. I have it hooked up to my DAC. It doesn't sound good as my cd set-up, but it sounds good and it's amazing how much new music I can find and listen to with Google Music. Not to mention I can listen to audio clips from the web, by casting my phone through the CCA.
 
I can't figure my CCA out.

This morning, I *again* lost the ability to cast from my laptop.

Just yesterday it was working fine, this morning, it is 'gone' from the laptop - no devices found.

Yet it is on my wifi network and I'm casting from my Android phone. Still no update yet, either.
 
I gave up trying to troubleshoot my laptop to CCA and just blew it away with a Factory Data Reset and then set it up again from my laptop.

And, I can cast again from my laptop.
 
And this morning, I can't cast from the laptop: "No devices found".

Argh.

Check arp -a and a ping from the laptop; yes the mac address and the IP address still match, yes can still ping the CCA, so it is still on my house network.

Sigh.

Start casting from my Android phone - worked for 10 minutes, then stopped. Google Home app says I'm still connected, but the music is coming from my phone, not my stereo.

Exit Google Home, re-enter, try casting again - ok, working for now.
 
I cast from an old Samsung tablet to three CCA's in three different systems.

Never bothered with synchronization as I never listen to more than one system at a time. The CCA that's turned on is the one that pops up on my tablet. All three CCA's are digitally connected to three different DAC's and those are a Schiit Modi MB, a Topping D30 and Fiio D3. Even with better sources ( SACD) I find myself streaming via the CCA for the majority of my listening.
 
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I must be cursed.

This morning I tried casting from my android phone and any time I tapped "cast" the display would rapidly display connecting/disconnecting.

Had to do another full factory reset.

Still trying to figure out the dropouts - really bad this morning.
 
Had to uninstall Google Home and do a fresh install to be able to cast from my phone.
 
I still wonder if it's just a faulty CCA. With so many made and sold, there are bound to be a couple of bum units out there. Were you ever able to temporarily try it right next to your router?

Mine are "stuck" in my Google Home like ugly on an ape. :D Nothing short of unplugging them makes them go away.
 
I cast from an old Samsung tablet to three CCA's in three different systems.

Never bothered with synchronization as I never listen to more than one system at a time. The CCA that's turned on is the one that pops up on my tablet. All three CCA's are digitally connected to three different DAC's and those are a Schiit Modi MB, a Topping D30 and Fiio D3. Even with better sources ( SACD) I find myself streaming via the CCA for the majority of my listening.
I'm with you. Although the sound of a well-mastered SACD is pretty awesome, streaming Spotify with a CCA is just too easy.
 
I only use my CCAs for background music on systems around the house, but they have been terrific for that purpose. Especially since I can use BubbleUPnP to send any music from my server onto them, in addition to using Pandora and TuneIn Radio. (And Tidal, when I'm not pissed at 'em. ;) ) The thing with the CCA is that I have found it to be a very inexpensive and reliable way to get music where I need it. Cost is minimal--I buy when Google sells them for $25 each. It's small, easily hidden, and plugs into anything I own. It's cool that some newer self-powered speakers are adding Chromecast support. It's about time. :)
 
I use several DAC's with my CCA's including an Audio GD NFB, Schiit Modi MB, Fiio D3 and Topping D30. I've tried all combinations in the same system and the winner is the Topping D30. It's an absolute killer combination with the CCA. My D30 came from massdrop and at $99 it's less expensive than any of the others except the $20 Fiio.

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FWIW, I had endless 'stuttering' issues which I have documented elsewhere, and tried every solution under the sun (including a bit of back-and-forth with Google) to get CCA to work competently with my Android phone. Finally consulted the list of CCA 'optimized' devices and saw that my LG phone was not included there. Simply bought a device which was--a Nexus 10 tablet, which I use almost exclusively for this purpose. Cost was trivial, especially compared with what many of us spend on audio equipment. CCA has worked properly about 98 or 99% of the time since then. I simply had the wrong device. Lesson learned!

Celebrated by buying two more (since this photo was taken) and now I have ten count'em ten CCA zones (plus a TV zone for others to use). I don't run all ten zones at once but it sure is nice having quality music anywhere in the house I want. And a fringe benefit is that each one needs an amp & speakers so I'm rewarded for hoarding!

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FWIW, I had endless 'stuttering' issues which I have documented elsewhere, and tried every solution under the sun (including a bit of back-and-forth with Google) to get CCA to work competently with my Android phone. Finally consulted the list of CCA 'optimized' devices and saw that my LG phone was not included there. Simply bought a device which was--a Nexus 10 tablet, which I use almost exclusively for this purpose. Cost was trivial, especially compared with what many of us spend on audio equipment. CCA has worked properly about 98 or 99% of the time since then. I simply had the wrong device. Lesson learned!

Celebrated by buying two more (since this photo was taken) and now I have ten count'em ten CCA zones (plus a TV zone for others to use). I don't run all ten zones at once but it sure is nice having quality music anywhere in the house I want. And a fringe benefit is that each one needs an amp & speakers so I'm rewarded for hoarding!

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Congrats!

It's a great sense of relief when you solve issues and stuff finally works.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you had to buy a $100+ device to get a $25 device to work?

That is what frustrates me about digital audio - it's still a hobby and as arcane or more than analog to get it to work.

In my investigations, the wifi router I just bought last year *may* be the culprit for my digital audio woes. So, like you, I may have to buy a device that costs more than the CCA to get the CCA to work acceptably.

I don't want to become a network expert, I don't want to dive into QOS, side channels, checking for the latest f/w update, testing for data rates, dropped packets, arp tables, mtu sizes, b/w shaping, mesh topology, mimo configuration.

I want to hook something up and have it...just...work. Drink beer, watch the sunrise/sunset, listen to something good.

(sorry, sorry - rant off)
 
I don't get how a device can be "optimized" for CCA. All a device does is send instructions to the CCA--there is no "streaming" from a phone or tablet to the CCA, as I understand it--the whole idea behind the "casting" was that it takes the load off of the device so you can use it for other things while your media is playing. Imagine trying to stream 4K video--if you had to use the phone to pull the video from the Internet (or your own server), then rebroadcast it from your phone to a Chromecast 4K, there would be huge bandwidth usage along with bogging down the phone to where it would be unusable.

The only thing I can think of is if the app in the phone is sending something (some kind of data and/or instructions maybe?) that might interrupt CCA playback, or not sending the instructions reliably. I see the phone/tablet/browser as being sort of like a DLNA control point, where you're instructing one device (a renderer, the CCA) to pull data from another (a "server" which in this case could mean the Internet streaming service). I have even had the "connection" between my phone and Pandora get lost (more below), but that did not result in dropouts. With dropouts in the stream, though...the data going straight from a wireless network to any Chromecast device does not even pass through a phone or tablet.

Having said that, I'm tempted to fire up a couple of my ancient phones and see what happens. Got an HTC Thunderbolt here...even an old Motorola Droid (the original with the slide-out keyboard). Can't get much older than that unless it has a hand crank on the side of it. :D

In my setup, I can tell one of our Google Home units to get the CCA in the kitchen to play one of my Pandora channels by name, and it just plays all on its own. It's obvious the playback is happening in the CCA since I can control its playback from the phone (using the Google Home app) or I can right-click in any Chrome browser window, select "Cast," pick the device, and then pause, stop or control its volume from Chrome. There are also times I have somehow "disconnected" from the CCA--I will start playback in the Pandora app on the phone, and after an hour or so, the CCA is still playing on its own while the Pandora app sits idle (and I can start a 2nd Pandora playback on the phone, separate from what's playing on the CCA), and I have to reconnect the phone to the CCA in order to change stations, which works most of the time but not always.

In my investigations, the wifi router I just bought last year *may* be the culprit for my digital audio woes. So, like you, I may have to buy a device that costs more than the CCA to get the CCA to work acceptably.
The good thing there...IF you change the router, you're improving everything else connected to it. I substantially upgraded over the holidays to "enterprise" level equipment and am getting an incredibly stable signal everywhere in the house now from ONE access point, vs. using two or three previously. I even get strong signals outside, so I could easily stream to my detached garage if I wanted to.

I hear ya, though. I'm the same way about this stuff. That is why I upgraded my network--I liked my old Linksys routers when loaded up with DD-WRT firmware as I could configure things my way, but I had one of them die during a brownout, and didn't want to fuss around trying to find another DD-WRT compatible router, then load a dozen different firmware builds until I found a stable one, then hope it all worked properly once I got it stabilized.

Even my original first-gen Chromecast was a huge disappointment when I got it. I would have to re-pair it with my network all the time, and it wouldn't stream reliably. I mothballed it for a year or two until I resurrected it for audio-only use on my Oppo (via the HDMI input). I don't know if it was the improved firmware, improved "Home" and "Cast" features, or what, but now it works fine. When I first got it, though, I felt the same way. Everyone was raving about how great it was, and it didn't work properly for me at all. In my case it was probably due to being an early adopter, and expecting it to work perfectly.

A CCA in the right environment does work well. It's just a shame that your own situation hasn't worked out. :( And I know it's not the only device out there that works well for some and not for others--electronic thingies always have a way of finding some crazy situation in which they do not play nice with others. Been there, done that plenty of times here!
 
I turned off the WiFi on the cable/WiFi router that cox communications supplied me and replaced it with a Linksys AC1900 WiFi router. Haven't had any dropouts since with any of my WiFi devices including a CCA, CC and the CC built into my Vizio TV.

I find that dropouts are almost always the fault of the WiFi router and not the device itself.
 
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I use Google Wifi to improve wifi coverage throughout my house and can routinely get 50-60M download even in the basement. When I bought CCA I was at first apprehensive, but after some initial difficulty finding my speakers it now connects with minimal issues. I can connect from either laptop or Android phone. Every now and then it blips out then I have to start again, but it's not often. Connecting to an older DAC and using Spotify Premium I've found it's a great way for me to find or test music that's new to me, search for old classical recordings, or listen as background. When I find something I really want, I can then order it for higher fi on my main rig. Very happy with it.

And at the price, I won't be upset even if I have to replace it once a year.
 
And at the price, I won't be upset even if I have to replace it once a year.
I have bought mine all for $25 when on sale at Google. An incredible bargain IMHO! One is in my main rig fed into a DAC, but the others are used for music randomly about the house. I am even thinking of finding a way to install one in the car--I know it's possible if the bits and pieces are installed properly, but it's not a priority. That'd be cool to have a CCA on the Aux input, or even a video Chromecast on an HDMI input. It would be more like a project to see if I could do it, as opposed to actually needing it. ;)
 
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