Allow lossless playback to Chromecast Audio device

[gvl]

Chromecast Audio is an older but still popular device for streaming. It supports FLAC up to 24-bits / 96 kHz so it should be able to handle Spotify lossless streams, yet it's currently limited to lossy quality. Please allow lossless playback on CCA.

[chartz2]

Unfortunately nobody at Spotify ever reads forum posts. We’re talking to the ether. 
Page 23 and no reactions or official comments. 

[Dutch-Elvis]

@chartz22 When I want to play something, Spotify asks which device I want to listen to it on, whether I choose the Chromecast (latest version) or the Node 2i, it plays lossless on both devices. played.

But bit-perfect is impossible, because via the Chromecast the DAC receives 48kHz and with the Node 2i 44.1kHz

If it is not possible to do this losslessly via your Chromecast, this is easily explained.

An outdated device is no longer supported, try installing Windows 11 on a computer with Windows 98.

[Tonycv51]

@ Dutch Elvis

There's lots I don't understand about your post

You maybe have an old android phone, might be referring to an apple device,  are casting to a Chromecast and not a Chromecast audio, and Spotify only casts at 256k ps to Google devices

Bottom line I can cast bit perfect to my CCAs using one of the apps that casts bit perfect like usb audio player pro / buble upnp, OR I can cast in almost bit perfect natively from a streaming app like Tidal.  There are in depth articles on audio science review and darko etc to bit perfect / near bit perfect.  Google search AI summaries are usually out of date or just plain wrong on this, swamped by old posts drowning out the actual position. 

However as others have said, whether bit perfect or nearly bit perfect doesn't matter, what people want is the CD quality FLAC stream from Spotify, not the 256kbps stream we currently get despite paying for premium

[Dutch-Elvis]

For the last time, Spotify has FLAC and lossless connection to Chromecast in the Netherlands

[Tonycv51]

I've just tried (on UK). Whilst I can get lossless on my AVR via Spotify  Connect (hence no groups) if I try my CCA connected to the AVR Spotify says device not compatible with lossless

[Dutch-Elvis]

@Tonycv51 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromecast There are some Chromecasts, most of which are un usable (outdated). If you go back a few pages, I mentioned an option there. There are many suitable media players. I am really amazed by the sound quality, but don't expect miracles, a bad recording will still sound bad, regardless of the price tag of the installation.

[etmame]

Here we are talking about Chromecast audio, not Chromecast in general.

[Aquarius17]

@Dutch-Elvis:

You are mixing up Spotify Connect with Google Cast.

Like @Tonycv51 wrote: You can connect losslessly to single devices which support Spotify Connect. I also use the Google TV Streamer 4K and it supports both Spotify Connect AND Google Cast.

However I am only interested to stream to loudspeaker groups in my smarthome. As soon as you stream to a group (even if all speakers support Spotify Connect) Spotify uses the Google Cast protocol and only allows lossy 320 kbit/s.

That's the restriction we are complaining about. Other services like Tidal can stream losslessly to every Google Cast device, even as a group. But Tidal is not suitable for me, because only Spotify can be ergonomically used in a Google Smarthome, including the use of voice commands.

[Dutch-Elvis]

@Aquarius17 Strange that Spotify doesn't solve this

[chartz2]

@Dutch-Elvis:

We are talking about Spotify Connect, nothing else.

Yes, of course, we can play FLAC or AIFF or WAV uncompressed files via the Chromecast Audio.

But that’s not the issue here.

The CCA was updated in October. It is still fully supported by Google.

All we want is a single programme mod (probably a 10-minute job) to Spotify do that it can play those lossless files.

I am able to play them via an external DAC connected to the wired phone or computer though.

I can use my phone or my watch as a remote.