One of the reasons to use Roon for me.
Chromecast quality
- Thread starter usatencu
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Is Google Cast same as Chromecast? From Wiim Home, I have to enable Chromecast Audio, then my Wiim Pro will show up in the Qobuz app as an option. As far as I can tell, streaming is coming through Ethernet per the Wiim Home Audio Input page.
From Chromecast Home or Wiim Home? How do I do that? I could not find this setting.
Yes, it is. Unfortunately, Google has been using all kinds of ambiguous name tags for the protocol, their own hardware products and services third parties could integrate into their products. So, as long as we are not referring to any particular Google hardware product, "ChromeCast", "Chromecast built-in" and "GoogleCast" (irrespective of exact spelling, case and the number of blanks inserted) are all the same thing (with "Google Cast" being the most recently used name for the protocol itself.
Whenever Google Cast is involved, the app making use of it is merely a remote control, telling the hardware device which URL to retrieve a stream from. So, the data stream does not go through the smartphone or tablet you are using, but your smartphone or tablet just tells your hardware device (probably a WiiM device in this case) which stream to retrieve from which resource on the Internet. Once music is playing, you can close the app, or even switch of the smartphone or tablet and the music will continue to play.
Tidal Connect or Spotify Connect are doing the same thing in principle, but they don't rely on Google Cast or any other 3rd party streaming protocol. They use their own proprietary protocol and both are working very well. Contrary to all solutions relying on Google Cast, they do support gapless playback. If you listen to any continuous album (like e.g. most albums by Jean-Michel Jarre) via Qobuz and there is no gap between the tracks, you know that Google Cast is not in use.
But as I said, Qobuz has not finished its own gapless "connect" protocol, yet. Consequentially, if you want to listen to Qobuz music on your WiiM device, then your options are to either ...
- enable and use the Qobuz music service in the WiiM Home App. In this case, WiiM Home will use the Qobuz API to play music directly from your WiiM device. The only downside is, that you are limited to the features available in WiiM Home. Playback will be gapless and with the highest available quality.
- use the Qobuz app with the WiiM device as a Google Cast target. Google Cast needs to be enable on the WiiM device. It's not gapless and it's probably limited to 24 bit 96 kHz (unless you have a WiiM Ultra, using the latest and greatest Google Cast SDK, which doesn't support such high sampling frequencies, at least yet.
- use the Qobuz app on your smartphone or tablet with Bluetooth transfer to the WiiM device. Yeah, Bluetooth. Lossy. Not great. But commonly available.
- use the Qobuz app on your smartphone or tablet with AirPlay 2. This option is limited to iPhones and iPads and it's not supported with the WiiM Ultra. And it's lossy.
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It’s limited to 24/96 by Qobuz itself as they think Chromecast is unstable for them beyond that.
Strangely enough, unlike Apple Music , Qobuz can deliver lossless CD quality over AirPlay 2. There’s an audiophilestyle link that some member (struggle to recall their name
) has posted over a score of times that confirms that 
Yes, thanks for you explanations. I have been doing #1 as a typical Wiim user. It works fine up to 24 bits 96 KHz as limited by my DAC. Recently I started playing with Chromecast as #2 in the list above. May not have the latest SDK. When casting to my Wiim Pro, Qobuz app on my Galaxy phone says "up to 16 bits, 44.1 KHz".Has that been of any help?
- enable and use the Qobuz music service in the WiiM Home App. In this case, WiiM Home will use the Qobuz API to play music directly from your WiiM device. The only downside is, that you are limited to the features available in WiiM Home. Playback will be gapless and with the highest available quality.
- use the Qobuz app with the WiiM device as a Google Cast target. Google Cast needs to be enable on the WiiM device. It's not gapless and it's probably limited to 24 bit 96 kHz (unless you have a WiiM Ultra, using the latest and greatest Google Cast SDK, which doesn't support such high sampling frequencies, at least yet.
- use the Qobuz app on your smartphone or tablet with Bluetooth transfer to the WiiM device. Yeah, Bluetooth. Lossy. Not great. But commonly available.
- use the Qobuz app on your smartphone or tablet with AirPlay 2. This option is limited to iPhones and iPads and it's not supported with the WiiM Ultra. And it's lossy.
Also, see
Post in thread 'Pro Plus: Chromecast & Qobuz'
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/pro-plus-chromecast-qobuz.3891/post-62315
Post in thread 'Pro Plus: Chromecast & Qobuz'
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/pro-plus-chromecast-qobuz.3891/post-62315
Definitely not for me, the last time I tested. That was streaming to a Google Chromecast Carbon, an Onkyo R-N855 and a Pioneer VSX-S520, though.
If so, the WiiM may be the only one capable of gapless playback. (I don't have any other device to test it on.)
But I've always wondered why even Google Cast from YTM to WiiM can't do gapless, but Spotify can.
Sorry, there appears to be a bug in the Spotify app. If I first connect to SpotifyConnect and then switch straight to GoogleCast, the icon changes and I get gapless, but it actually still maintains SpotifyConnect.
If I explicitly connected with GoogleCast from the beginning, it did not go gapless.
That's a strange behaviour and doesn't make things easier. I will try to replicate this tomorrow.
Somehow it looks like things are drifting apart in the streaming world ...
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