finally a competitor for Sonos??????
Discussion
paulrockliffe said:
Whether that's better than Sonos depends on the user, but it's certainly a lot cheaper!
No doubt about that - £30 Chromecast Audio vs £280 Sonos Connect is the most extreme example, but even building a reasonable system especially for the Chromecast Audio is usually much cheaper than a pair of Play units.It will be interesting to see how things develop - Sonos is very good and has got a great foothold in the market, but the might of Google and the cost of their kit must make a big difference. I can also see Google Cast being built into AVRs - a bit more like Airplay and Spotify have been. Sonos would find it difficult to go down that route at the moment given the Connect itself costs more than a basic AVR.
kingston12 said:
paulrockliffe said:
Whether that's better than Sonos depends on the user, but it's certainly a lot cheaper!
No doubt about that - £30 Chromecast Audio vs £280 Sonos Connect is the most extreme example, but even building a reasonable system especially for the Chromecast Audio is usually much cheaper than a pair of Play units.It will be interesting to see how things develop - Sonos is very good and has got a great foothold in the market, but the might of Google and the cost of their kit must make a big difference. I can also see Google Cast being built into AVRs - a bit more like Airplay and Spotify have been. Sonos would find it difficult to go down that route at the moment given the Connect itself costs more than a basic AVR.
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertain...
durbster said:
As this thread has drifted into a discussion about SONOS and Chromecast, I just wanted to add that I'm still very happy with my HEOS system 
There's lots of alternatives to sonos they are all bringing out systems Yamahas new range will all have a system in
Samsung
LG
Chromecast
Gramafon
Be nice if they all adopted a standard so the consumer had choice but I suppose there is little chance of that
Apologies for the thread resurrection, but this seems to be the leading thread for Chromecast Audio users on PH, and I've got a question.
If we've got four CCAs set up around our house and I set a playlist going using my phone on the two CCAs in the living areas... then my wife wants to add some of her own tracks to the playlist, can she see and work with the playlist that I started playing? In other words, does everybody interact with a single playlist if a group of CCAs is playing? Or is it every user for themselves?
I understand that a Sonos system would show a common playlist for everybody interacting with it, which makes it great for parties where you want to let guests choose music too, but can Chromecast do the same?
Edit: I'd be sending the cast from Google Play Music rather than Spotify or Deezer.
If we've got four CCAs set up around our house and I set a playlist going using my phone on the two CCAs in the living areas... then my wife wants to add some of her own tracks to the playlist, can she see and work with the playlist that I started playing? In other words, does everybody interact with a single playlist if a group of CCAs is playing? Or is it every user for themselves?
I understand that a Sonos system would show a common playlist for everybody interacting with it, which makes it great for parties where you want to let guests choose music too, but can Chromecast do the same?
Edit: I'd be sending the cast from Google Play Music rather than Spotify or Deezer.
Edited by threadlock on Monday 18th April 13:51
johnwilliams77 said:
sparkyhx said:
But Sonos sound isn't brilliant the functionality, ease of use, stability, and connectivity is what swings it - I wonder if the Denon stuff is better with the same/similar functionality
Really? I find the speakers sound very good. johnwilliams77 said:
dmsims said:
Earsavers then!
Hearing is good. I genuinely think the sonos sounds very good. Obviously when you start spunking many thousands there should be a big improvement but I am not likely to do that threadlock said:
Apologies for the thread resurrection, but this seems to be the leading thread for Chromecast Audio users on PH, and I've got a question.
If we've got four CCAs set up around our house and I set a playlist going using my phone on the two CCAs in the living areas... then my wife wants to add some of her own tracks to the playlist, can she see and work with the playlist that I started playing? In other words, does everybody interact with a single playlist if a group of CCAs is playing? Or is it every user for themselves?
I understand that a Sonos system would show a common playlist for everybody interacting with it, which makes it great for parties where you want to let guests choose music too, but can Chromecast do the same?
Edit: I'd be sending the cast from Google Play Music rather than Spotify or Deezer.
I can't help, but I'd be very interested in finding out the answer too. I use my CCAs with Spotify and Plex and as far as I can see one device (phone/tablet) has to be in control of a single CCA or group of CCAs, so it would be great if Google Play did things differently.If we've got four CCAs set up around our house and I set a playlist going using my phone on the two CCAs in the living areas... then my wife wants to add some of her own tracks to the playlist, can she see and work with the playlist that I started playing? In other words, does everybody interact with a single playlist if a group of CCAs is playing? Or is it every user for themselves?
I understand that a Sonos system would show a common playlist for everybody interacting with it, which makes it great for parties where you want to let guests choose music too, but can Chromecast do the same?
Edit: I'd be sending the cast from Google Play Music rather than Spotify or Deezer.
Edited by threadlock on Monday 18th April 13:51
Sonos is still the best as far as software is concerned. I have got used to controlling my CCAs through the apps mentioned and I like it, but it is still not quite as seamless as Sonos.
kingston12 said:
threadlock said:
Apologies for the thread resurrection, but this seems to be the leading thread for Chromecast Audio users on PH, and I've got a question.
If we've got four CCAs set up around our house and I set a playlist going using my phone on the two CCAs in the living areas... then my wife wants to add some of her own tracks to the playlist, can she see and work with the playlist that I started playing? In other words, does everybody interact with a single playlist if a group of CCAs is playing? Or is it every user for themselves?
I understand that a Sonos system would show a common playlist for everybody interacting with it, which makes it great for parties where you want to let guests choose music too, but can Chromecast do the same?
Edit: I'd be sending the cast from Google Play Music rather than Spotify or Deezer.
I can't help, but I'd be very interested in finding out the answer too. I use my CCAs with Spotify and Plex and as far as I can see one device (phone/tablet) has to be in control of a single CCA or group of CCAs, so it would be great if Google Play did things differently.If we've got four CCAs set up around our house and I set a playlist going using my phone on the two CCAs in the living areas... then my wife wants to add some of her own tracks to the playlist, can she see and work with the playlist that I started playing? In other words, does everybody interact with a single playlist if a group of CCAs is playing? Or is it every user for themselves?
I understand that a Sonos system would show a common playlist for everybody interacting with it, which makes it great for parties where you want to let guests choose music too, but can Chromecast do the same?
Edit: I'd be sending the cast from Google Play Music rather than Spotify or Deezer.
Edited by threadlock on Monday 18th April 13:51
Sonos is still the best as far as software is concerned. I have got used to controlling my CCAs through the apps mentioned and I like it, but it is still not quite as seamless as Sonos.
Caveat; I've not tried to do this. I think that if you use a playlist that you've created in Plex that anyone who is allowed onto the server can edit the playlist.
The Chromecast is effectively locked to a source, which can be internet based or on a local device, you'd need to find a way of having other people interact with whatever the CC is locked to. It's that way because the CC is more basic than the Sonos and relies much more on the controlling device.
I suspect that if you picked a tablet to connect to the CC, you could find a way of several people interacting with a playlist with most apps where you're identified by a login. You could try setting up another Google Play account, creating a playlist, playing it from one device and then see if you can modify the playlist from a second device. It's probably a bit of a bodge so there might be a few quirks, but it also might work pretty well.
johnwilliams77 said:
Hearing is good. I genuinely think the sonos sounds very good. Obviously when you start spunking many thousands there should be a big improvement but I am not likely to do that
The new Play 5 does sound good, but they are quite expensive themselves. The £850 required for a pair of them would buy a very good pair of active speakers or a reasonable stereo amp and passive speakers, either of which should objectively sound better than the Sonos units, but if they don't sound better in your specific room or fit your taste as well then there is no point not going with the least-hassle approach.paulrockliffe said:
I think the short answer is 'no' and the long answer is, 'it depends.'
The Chromecast is effectively locked to a source, which can be internet based or on a local device, you'd need to find a way of having other people interact with whatever the CC is locked to. It's that way because the CC is more basic than the Sonos and relies much more on the controlling device.
I suspect that if you picked a tablet to connect to the CC, you could find a way of several people interacting with a playlist with most apps where you're identified by a login. You could try setting up another Google Play account, creating a playlist, playing it from one device and then see if you can modify the playlist from a second device. It's probably a bit of a bodge so there might be a few quirks, but it also might work pretty well.
Thank you for your answer. That's what I suspected.The Chromecast is effectively locked to a source, which can be internet based or on a local device, you'd need to find a way of having other people interact with whatever the CC is locked to. It's that way because the CC is more basic than the Sonos and relies much more on the controlling device.
I suspect that if you picked a tablet to connect to the CC, you could find a way of several people interacting with a playlist with most apps where you're identified by a login. You could try setting up another Google Play account, creating a playlist, playing it from one device and then see if you can modify the playlist from a second device. It's probably a bit of a bodge so there might be a few quirks, but it also might work pretty well.
Like you suggest, I wondered whether we could interact with CCA using a new, shared Google account. I've tried the Cast app using an account that isn't my day-to-day Google account, and if my wife used the same account rather than her own I wonder whether she'd see the same 'now playing' options and playlist while one of us is casting. Would save us paying for a family plan with Play Music if we did it that way. Just need to know whether it works.
If CCA can't do this it seems as though that's a big hole in the featureset compared with Sonos, although admittedly mainly just for the party scenario where sharing control of the music is nice.
I know I bang on about this, but with the bonus of saving a LOT of money, new Plays or old Plays, anyone considering Play 5's and /or God forgive, pairing them, you really should listen to paired 1's first, ideally in your own home. I can imagine it's easy to be turned off listening to a single 1 on a busy John Lewis floor or wherever.
IMO paired 1's easily trounce a 5. Paired 5's seems way excessive to me, cost-wise.
Apologies for repeating myself . . . again.
IMO paired 1's easily trounce a 5. Paired 5's seems way excessive to me, cost-wise.
Apologies for repeating myself . . . again.
paulrockliffe said:
I suspect that if you picked a tablet to connect to the CC, you could find a way of several people interacting with a playlist with most apps where you're identified by a login. You could try setting up another Google Play account, creating a playlist, playing it from one device and then see if you can modify the playlist from a second device. It's probably a bit of a bodge so there might be a few quirks, but it also might work pretty well.
I just found Qcast, which seems to cover the party scenario pretty well:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....
OK, I bought a Chromecast Audio on my way home last night and spent some time trying to get to grips with it. In the past I've been using a Bluetooth audio adapter plugged in to my active speakers.
I'm a bit disappointed. A playlist accessible with multiple devices (not even multiple accounts) would be killer but without that feature it's not really massively different to the Bluetooth streaming I've been using. I can start casting from my phone and everything is fine. It streams smoothly from Play Music and my phone can control playback reliably and intuitively. But if I put my phone down and pick up my tablet (same Google account) my tablet can only see that the CCA is streaming, but without any controls except volume. I'm still forced to use the original device to control the playlist. No different to the Bluetooth option.
The Qcast app that I linked above would seem to be the solution, and in theory it provides this missing feature. But it doesn't yet work. The developers have been aware of a problem for a few weeks and are working to fix it, apparently. Once it's working they need to provide access to Google Play's radio stations and full music library just like the Play Music app does, and at the moment I'm not convinced that it'll do this. If only Google would add the shared playlist function to their app we'd be sorted.
Multi-room music would be a nice addition but it's not a killer feature for me. I've got three free months of the Google Play Music subscription and we'll see whether Qcast or Google get their act together first.
I'm a bit disappointed. A playlist accessible with multiple devices (not even multiple accounts) would be killer but without that feature it's not really massively different to the Bluetooth streaming I've been using. I can start casting from my phone and everything is fine. It streams smoothly from Play Music and my phone can control playback reliably and intuitively. But if I put my phone down and pick up my tablet (same Google account) my tablet can only see that the CCA is streaming, but without any controls except volume. I'm still forced to use the original device to control the playlist. No different to the Bluetooth option.
The Qcast app that I linked above would seem to be the solution, and in theory it provides this missing feature. But it doesn't yet work. The developers have been aware of a problem for a few weeks and are working to fix it, apparently. Once it's working they need to provide access to Google Play's radio stations and full music library just like the Play Music app does, and at the moment I'm not convinced that it'll do this. If only Google would add the shared playlist function to their app we'd be sorted.
Multi-room music would be a nice addition but it's not a killer feature for me. I've got three free months of the Google Play Music subscription and we'll see whether Qcast or Google get their act together first.
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