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.
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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57 Comments on "$10 adapter turns Chromecast into cheap Sonos competitor"
Or you can simply plug your Chromecast directly into an HDMI port on your receiver…no?
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.
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.
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
Interesting 🙂 Raspberry Pi + BT speakers for a multiroom solution?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=25684
Rpi has shitty audio
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.
There was a post on an audiophile forum, saying the rpi is shitty and the guy preferred a android stick with a usb dac.
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.
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.
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.
It doesn’t have HDMI out or MHL, though.
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.
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.
Ah, good point. I didn’t think of that.
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.
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.
Besides, there aren’t that many “audio-centric” apps that work with Chromecast. I can think of BubbleUPnP, even that is so-so.
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.).
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
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.
You should also be able to achieve something similar with a $20 DLNA stick with an audio output.
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?
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/
Looks interesting, thanks. Would be handy for flinging home movies to my mom’s old TV as well.
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
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