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$10 adapter turns Chromecast into cheap Sonos competitor

02/09/2014 at 9:18 AM by Brad Linder 57 Comments

Want to stream internet radio to your home stereo system? You could invest in a Sonos system for $250 or more. Or as GigaOm’s Janko Roettgers discovered, you could spend about $45 and stream online audio to your existing stereo system.

All you need is a $35 Google Chromecast and a $10 HDMI to VGA adapter.

HDMI to VGA adapter

Here’s how it works. The Chromecast is designed to plug into the HDMI port on a TV and let you stream internet media to a big screen while using your phone, tablet, or PC as a remote control.

But if you use an HDMI to VGA adapter that also has an audio output, you can plug the audio cable straight into the input on a speaker or home stereo system. This lets you stream audio to you high-quality speakers without turning on your TV.

All you need to do is fire up your Android or iOS phone or tablet or a PC with the Google Chrome browser and Chromecast plugin, choose a supported app such as Pandora, Rdio, or Songza, hit the Chromecast icon, and tap play.

The Chromecast will grab your audio straight from the internet and stream it to your speaker. You can pause the music or switch tracks or apps using your mobile device. But you can also turn it off and let the music keep playing. Not bad for $45.

Of course, you don’t get some of the features that really make a Sonos (or Beep) cool, such as the ability to stream audio simultaneously to multiple speakers throughout your house, or pick up where you left off in a different room. And the audio quality might not be stellar. But it’s yet another way to make use of Google’s inexpensive media streamer. It’s just too bad Google didn’t include a separate audio output in the device itself.

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TPY
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Or you can simply plug your Chromecast directly into an HDMI port on your receiver…no?

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5 years ago
QuanahHarjo
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You could, if your receiver has HDMI. But if you have an older receiver or an old stereo that you would like to keep around for parties and such, this is a good solution. Besides that, it also wouldn’t be a bad way to convert an old VGA monitor to Chromecast compatibility. I have an old VGA-only LCD that would make for a great portable “TV” with this adapter.

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5 years ago
$35504229
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I have a newer HDMI receiver, but 2nd zone audio is analog only, so this would help me send streaming audio to my patio speakers.

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4 years ago
JMcMusicman
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You can… Since I use my audio receiver as an HDMI switch that is how I had set it up in the first place… I guess this is a cheaper option if you don’t have an HDMI receiver

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5 years ago
Great Wall
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Interesting 🙂 Raspberry Pi + BT speakers for a multiroom solution?

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=25684

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5 years ago
Nick
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Rpi has shitty audio

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5 years ago
QuanahHarjo
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Supposedly the popping and crackling that was the major complaint has been cleared up in a recent firmware update. I’m not sure it makes the Pi’s audio non-cruddy altogether, but it would seem to be an improvement.

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5 years ago
Nick
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There was a post on an audiophile forum, saying the rpi is shitty and the guy preferred a android stick with a usb dac.

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4 years ago
QuanahHarjo
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For rough audio over a headphone cable, the Pi is OK compared to it’s original crappy audio. A USB DAC helps with the Pi, but there are actually several non-USB DACs for the Pi that apparently really boost the audiophile rating. Read up on http://volumio.org/ about alternate DACs for the Pi for more info. I wouldn’t do it because messing with the Pi falls into the “cheap fun” category, and those DACs aren’t cheap.

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4 years ago
EricRead
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I guess if you really want to use the chromecast…but there’s much better and cheaper solutions. Just go to Radio Shack and pick up a $20 no-contract android phone. It’s got wifi AND a nifty display so you can pick podcasts and what not from it. It’s wifi AND bluetooth enabled, you can run an airplay client on it. Or run Squeezebox client on it for whole home audio. And you can make 911 calls from it in a pinch. You can run and control Pandora or whatever directly from it too. No need for a separate smart device.

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5 years ago
QuanahHarjo
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And with Cheapcast running, a lot of music programs would just work fine as well. I see the Kyocera Event is on sale at the Shack right now for around $13. Tempting for several reasons.

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5 years ago
Ben Garner
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It doesn’t have HDMI out or MHL, though.

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5 years ago
QuanahHarjo
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No, but it would equal a Chromecast piping audio through a VGA adapter, with the addition of being able to run apps locally. Would make a pretty decent dedicated MP3 player too.

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5 years ago
Justin Charles Reback
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Yeah but the idea is to wirelessly pump music or video to a TV or in the case of adding this adapter, just speakers.. So I don’t get why buying a cheap phone is a better option unless it has all the necessary outputs for $20 which in most cases it doesn’t.

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5 years ago
QuanahHarjo
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The setup in the article is doing exactly two things: 1) Receiving a Chromecast request. 2) Shoving the audio portion of that cast out of a 3.5mm audio jack to a stereo. The setup in the article is a $35 Chromecast plus a $10 adapter. The cheap phone already has a 3.5mm jack for it’s headset, and thus doesn’t need the adapter. The Cheapcast app is able to work with most existing Chromecast-compatible audio program, such as Pandora, Google Music, and Songza. Run Cheapcast on the phone, plug the phone into a wall socket, plug the stereo into the headphone jack, control Cheapcast from your mobile device of choice. This setup would have the added bonuses of being mobile thanks to the battery, being able to use local apps and files, and wouldn’t be tied down to just Chromecasting…it would be pretty easy to run Airplay or DLNA on it… Read more »

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5 years ago
Ben Garner
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Ah, good point. I didn’t think of that.

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5 years ago
bp
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it’s a nice idea…but I prefer to have Google Play music chromecasting to my stereo with the TV on so I can see the album artwork while listening to music.

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5 years ago
Mike Davis
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I don’t think I’d call this a “cheap Sonos competitor” as it doesn’t come close to bringing you the whole-home, multi-zone music experience and software app that Sonos does (as the author does accurately point out). I think I’d refer to this more realistically as a cheap Airplay alternative.

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5 years ago
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Besides, there aren’t that many “audio-centric” apps that work with Chromecast. I can think of BubbleUPnP, even that is so-so.

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3 years ago
Anonymous
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This is clever. It would certainly be perfect for a Chrome OS-heavy or Android-heavy home network. But, you can buy an older used Airport Express Base Station (MB321LL/A) for less than $40 on eBay, and a new one for $60, which is comparable to the cost of this method. (Maybe best for iOS/Mac, but there are a number of Airplay-capable apps for Android/Windows.) Or, if you’re not locked down to Wi-Fi for range/quality, you could go with the cheapest and only truly platform-agnostic alternative: a 3.5mm stereo bluetooth receiver for $20 (or a little more, for better quality, multiple pairings, etc.).

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5 years ago
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Agreed. Airplay (actually AirTunes audio streaming) works very well with my Android devices. In fact actually better than my iOS devices. Airstream and AirAudio (both like Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil but for Android) make my Nexus 7 into a source for multiple Airplay speakers, I cannot do this with my Jailbroken iPhone or my wife’s iPad

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5 years ago
jamor
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As Mike Davis mentioned, this doesn’t compete with the synchronized multi-room, zone controls of a Sonos system in any meaningful way. Is fine for what it is, but the title of the story implies the author doesn’t understand the Sonos feature set.

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5 years ago
ฌ็อง ลุค โอฟรังค์
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You should also be able to achieve something similar with a $20 DLNA stick with an audio output.

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5 years ago
QuanahHarjo
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I like the sound of that, but haven’t seen an inexpensive DLNA dongle yet that wasn’t HDMI only. Do you know of one?

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5 years ago
ฌ็อง ลุค โอฟรังค์
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ipush hi768 should do it: http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/01/02/ipush-hi768-hdmiav-wi-fi-display-dongle-supports-dlna-and-airplay-for-22/

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5 years ago
QuanahHarjo
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Looks interesting, thanks. Would be handy for flinging home movies to my mom’s old TV as well.

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5 years ago
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You could also go with the BlackBerry Music Gateway:

http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bbrryus/en_US/pd/productID.265395800/categoryID.61936300/parentCategoryID.61654700

Hint: it works on any Bluetooth device, not just BlackBerry phones

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5 years ago
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You can do this for less than $25 total with a $15 Pogoplug, $5 USB audio DAC running ArchLinux and Shairport. It will be an Apple Airport streaming receiver. You can have up to 6 simultaneous streams all at once vs one stream on the Chromecast. Meaning, six pairs speakers in different parts of the house playing the same music.

Example:
http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.com/2013/10/another-cheap-pogoplug-airplay-express.html

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5 years ago

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