My whole house audio runs off a product Google no longer makes unfortunately (Chromecast audios).
There’s, no like-for-like new version, and no good replacement that I’ve found. Thankfully, this was a fixable problem and they fixed it vs. Just EOLing them.
WiiM Pro is a good replacement and support far more protocols in addition to chromecast audio, and much better DACs, but is at a different price point (though a far better value than anything else on the market).
It’s amazing how they basically perfected something, and then just dropped it in the trash.
I know it’s easy to explain that they basically sold them to everyone who wanted one. But it really feels like a device that/situation that a company like Google could maintain as a good will thing. As a standard. As a protocol.
“Buy new Chromecasts.”
Except that, despite their usual MO, they did actually fix it so people didn’t need to buy new devices.
My whole house audio runs off a product Google no longer makes unfortunately (Chromecast audios).
There’s, no like-for-like new version, and no good replacement that I’ve found. Thankfully, this was a fixable problem and they fixed it vs. Just EOLing them.
WiiM Pro is a good replacement and support far more protocols in addition to chromecast audio, and much better DACs, but is at a different price point (though a far better value than anything else on the market).
It’s amazing how they basically perfected something, and then just dropped it in the trash.
I know it’s easy to explain that they basically sold them to everyone who wanted one. But it really feels like a device that/situation that a company like Google could maintain as a good will thing. As a standard. As a protocol.
I had some luck cobbling together a HiFiBerry with some speakers. It’s not the same thing, but it does show up like a streamable audio device.
It’s not super cheap though.
Thats the vibe. In this case, it seems like they get more value from the signals they interpret from the devices already out there.
In a better world, these devices (and maybe even the Chromecast protocol) would be open sourced
You’d think such a simple protocol would be.