Replacements to chrome cast audio (CCA) or recommend Airplay/Airplay 2 devices

You can use an Amazon Echo device with its 3.5mm output. It will show up on your network as a Spotify connect device controllable by your phone or better yet by another Amazon device located somewhere in your house. Just name the device the name of the room it’s connected to and tell Alexa to “play U2 on Spotify” in the room you named. In addition to Spotify you can control Pandora, Sirius, internet radio and lots of other services. Easy and cheap!

usc1995 said:

You can use an Amazon Echo device with its 3.5mm output. It will show up on your network as a Spotify connect device controllable by your phone or better yet by another Amazon device located somewhere in your house. Just name the device the name of the room it’s connected to and tell Alexa to “play U2 on Spotify” in the room you named. In addition to Spotify you can control Pandora, Sirius, internet radio and lots of other services. Easy and cheap!

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Thanks for the suggestion. Not a huge fan of having a microphone in my house that I don't control.

I opted for this instead.

Garet Jax said:

Thanks for the suggestion. Not a huge fan of having a microphone in my house that I don't control.

I opted for this instead.

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Looks like a compelling device. Hopefully they keep the software updated as that would be a concern of mine.

usc1995 said:

Looks like a compelling device. Hopefully they keep the software updated as that would be a concern of mine.

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At some point, if it works then there is no need for me to upgrade software. I like the fact that it has a hard ethernet plug. I haven't liked that CCA is wireless.

I will keep this thread updated.

Very interesting. The new device didn't help the situation at all. I came to the conclusion that I have something more systemic since all 4 CCAs stopped working at the same time. I moved my wireless router about 20 feet from where it was to right on top of where the CCAs are plugged in and all of a sudden they started appearing again. There must be a ton of interference between where they were and where they are now. It is literally across the room in an unfinished area not more than 30 feet..

Arylic S10 was going to be my recommendation as well... the Up2Stream Mini V3 (also from Arylic, just in DIY board form) for $50 is another option if you have somewhere you can tuck it away from nosy fingers, or add the case for another $8. I'm leaning towards going with the S50 Pro+ for my living room 2ch system, mostly because it'll be used as a pre-amp (not phono pre-amp, just volume control and source switching before a GFA-535) for a turntable as well, and I'll make use of the sub-out too... if I didn't want the sub-out, I'd just go with S10 or Up2Stream Pro V4 (which is pretty much just an S10 in DIY board form).

As to the wifi issue, a simple wifi repeater (with its stronger antennas compared to the CCAs) along with an SSID just for the CCAs and looking for a clearer wifi channel might just do the trick if keeping the router in its original location is preferable.