Deezer HiFi now on Chromecast

[chicks]

Their lossless streaming tier no longer restricted to Sonos.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/30/16221584/deezer-hi-fi-service-google-cast-sonos

 

[chicks]

Also soon via voice control. Cast to a CCA from Google Home, CD quality FLAC.

http://www.techradar.com/news/want-hi-res-audio-from-google-home-deezer-has-you-covered

 

[chicks]

...and Deezer teams up with MQA. Will MQA thus be coming to CCA? Stay tuned...

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2017/09/04/mqa-and-deezer-announce-partnership/

 

[jhoyt]

Is this only for CCA, or for the basic CC also? At any rate, it's good for the overall streaming community. I wonder if it will stream gapless?

 

[+48V]

I wonder if it will stream gapless?

I'd say that's very unlikely as it would require new firmware and possibly a new hardware configuration for the CCA.

Gapless playback works by pre-caching the upcoming track in a memory buffer so it can begin to stream before the current track ends. Once you hand off the stream to devices like the CCA, Echos, etc. they handle all throughput and my guess is they just don't have that capability. Without sufficient memory and coding on board...there's no where to "park" the tracks in the que. With any luck the next versions of CCAs & Echos will have this capability built in...I'm holding my breath.

​

 

[jhoyt]

Makes sense.

 

[+48V]

...and Deezer teams up with MQA. Will MQA thus be coming to CCA? Stay tuned...

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2017/09/04/mqa-and-deezer-announce-partnership/

Maybe, at some point. "Stay tuned" indeed. All depends on how quickly and how much of a "thing" Hi-Res becomes to Joe Blow down the road. My crystal ball says we'll have Hi-Res streaming by default in the future. For now, Hi-Res streaming is just now making somewhat substantial inroads to the audiophile camp. And bandwidth costs remain as a humongous bottom line expense for streaming services today.

At present, streaming "raw" anything above Redbook is off the grid and ridiculously unfeasible for both the provider and the consumer. MQA is attempting to solve this issue with current in-place server technology and financials. But even with the keen MQA "workaround" for today's audiophiles and streaming providers, the market is just not ripe enough yet for mass market adoption with pedestrian gizmos like the CCA.

Several seemingly large dominoes need to fall in order for Hi-Res to become pervasive.
Technological improvements must/will reduce:

• capable devices' mfg. cost.
• overall bandwidth cost (wired & wireless)
  
• a very perceptible SQ improvement; regardless of acoustical environment

This is not a mater of 'if' because all of the above will happen. It's just a matter of when... I shiver to guess when that will be.

​

 

[chicks]

Interesting. Deezer just showed up as a music source in the Alexa app. They’ve been advertising for months that they’re coming to Google Home, but no sign of it in the Home app yet.

However, even though the skill is available in US English, it’s not (yet) available here due to geographical restrictions. WTF?

 

[chicks]

Deezer support page says it will be available in US, on all Alexa-Enabled devices, starting this month.

https://support.deezer.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115005965745-Deezer-on-Amazon-Alexa