Out of curiosity what’s the benefit of using Chromecast audio over Bluetooth? I’ve got a Q Acoustics soundbar with Bluetooth on it but it can be a bit glitchy sometimes.

I think……..

Chromecast streams the file to the chromecast which uses it’s own DAC (and it’s a good one) to play it.

BlueTooth speakers are relatively dumb and rely on the DAC at the transmitter end to play the file then transmit the signal to them, so it’s only as good as your phone or whatever. The upside of that is that if your phone can play it the bluetooth speaker can play it. whereas chromecast relies on a compatible app being available.

oops double post

Thanks chaps, sounds like I should try some new SD cards first off.

I use a Hifiberry Digi to get optical out of the pi, works well and means the USB is free, as the USB can get a bit overworked with a wifi dongle ini it leading to track stopping. There are alternatives available now.

I have to power off the pi by unplugging, I only do it when it crashes so there is no software off!

Thanks for those suggestions traildog, I was wondering if that kind of thing existed, an option if I cannot get better memory cards to work.

Oh and it’s a WDMyCloud, has a DLNA server but that’s all.

Access any and everywhere mostly. Plus the availablity of music that isn’t in your library in an instant. Sitting and someone suggest a song album, bingo. sorted, i’m listening 2 seconds later.

Which presupposes having at least a 4G network with solid signal strength wherever you happen to be.
In my personal everyday experience, it’s a royal pita just getting a sodding phone call to work when I’m out working, anything that requires data is just useless.
I’ve spent thirty minutes driving across parts of the south of England with no service, you seriously expect me to think about using a service that is totally reliant on solid data connections?
I DON’T WANT my music stored in a cloud somewhere that compromises quality, 320Kb is the absolute minimum I’ll accept, and as I’ve already got the cd’s, I’d have to rip them onto my computer to get them to upload to Google music anyway, so what’s the point when I can just pick and choose tracks while I’m listening on my home system then copy them onto my phone.
I can already get a song or album off of iTunes, any time I want, Shazam it, bingo, it’s on my phone seconds later.
Except the same caveat applies: you can’t when there’s no bloody network or wifi!
Christ, we don’t all live in a technological paradise where there’s ubiquitous high-speed data available 24/7, everywhere you go, many of us live where just getting a decent broadband speed at home is a struggle, I can promise you that it’s nearly impossible to get even a 3G phone signal in the centre of the city of Bath!
Don’t even think of trying to google something, or use google maps, unless you don’t mind standing around for ten minutes whil it loads.
4G is available over most of Chippenham, amazingly, but venture half a mile outside of the main outskirts and you’re screwed.
I want to listen to my music when I want to, not when dictated to by the whims of the telecommunications industry – I respectfully suggest you get out of your technological nirvana and discover just how poor the networks really are.

download for offline use.

If you can hear a difference in quality above 320, all the very best of luck to ye! 😆

Spotify will connect to your existing NAS and let you control and stream that audio though their player to Chromecast etc.

CZ is the exception to any music thread 😉

Spotify will connect to your existing NAS and let you control and stream that audio though their player to Chromecast etc.

Is that including android or just windows/mac? got a 4tb NAS with some mp3s I cant get on spotify.

I like using my tablet for spotify and streaming to hifi.

Why are you switching off your Pi NAS? The whole idea of a NAS is to be kept on 24/7. I would check the command it is using for Shutdown, SD’s do corrupt if the Pi is not shutdown correctly.

I am using LMS & PiCorePlayers (they have Airplay and a few other features) around the house. I then use a VPN to connect to the house network to access all the music.

I also use Plex for video, but this requires a decent machine to transcode on the fly.

I read it as he has a nAS and a PI running Voluminous as a separate client, and it was this client he kills power to in order to switch it off.

There is a software power off in Volumio … You don’t need to just pull plug. Alternatively get one of the various PIUPS bits that cleanly power down PI when it loses the 5v, although maybe tricky if you have a DACHAT on the pins. Also Volumio has a GPIO plugin….can that be configured to a physical switch that triggers the Volumio Software Off.

theres a long thread on one of the audio groups i’m on with facebook about the latest pi as a player using a plug in dac (hi fi berry or something, i’d have to look) and its really rated.

but if you want a cheap and cheerful dac a behringer uca202 is what i was recommended on here and i really can’t fault it.