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Google Music Technology

Google Discontinues Chromecast Audio (techcrunch.com) 88

Posted by BeauHD from the end-of-the-line dept.
Google has discontinued the Chromecast Audio dongle that allowed you to stream music via Wi-Fi to any dumb speaker with a 3.5mm headphone jack. If you're saddened by the news and would like to pick one up before they're completely gone, Google is now selling its remaining inventory for $15 instead of $35. TechCrunch reports: "Our product portfolio continues to evolve, and now we have a variety of products for users to enjoy audio," Google told us in a statement. "We have therefore stopped manufacturing our Chromecast Audio products. We will continue to offer assistance for Chromecast Audio devices, so users can continue to enjoy their music, podcasts and more."

Google is clearly more interested in getting people to buy its Google Home products and Assistant- or Cast-enabled speakers from its partners. It's also worth noting that all Google Home devices can connect to Bluetooth enabled speakers, though plenty of people surely have a nice speaker setup at home that doesn't have built-in Bluetooth support. "Bluetooth adapters suck," Google told us at the time, though at this point, it seems a Bluetooth adapter may just be the way to go.
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Google Discontinues Chromecast Audio More

Google Discontinues Chromecast Audio

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  • Bummer, I could use another one. Nothing like listening to OK-ish digital music through four 7591a tubes. Friendly tube distortion mixed with digital artifacts. Sort of like crossing proton pack streams, might be "bad", or it might banish Zuul.

    • The coolest part about Chromecast Audio is that you can play lossless music and use optical-out into a nice DAC/amp for maximum quality.

      I've got one, I'll probably order another from some store that has them in stock. Super bummed that this useful little gadget is gone.

    • I was able to buy some just now.

  • Truth (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @06:32PM (#57947390)

    You know that a product has left Google beta and works perfectly, when Google decides to kill it outright

    • Re:Truth (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dmt0 ( 1295725 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @06:55PM (#57947500)
      The real problem with this thing is that it doesn't have an always-on microphone that listens to you all the time. And it eats into the market of the devices that do.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        "The real problem with this thing is that it doesn't have an always-on microphone that listens to you all the time."

        Nothing a sewing needle and super glue can't fix, if you don't know how to solder.

    • The product is missing features compared to the more integrated solutions. The best solutions will generate their analog signal at full scale and then inform the amplifier how much the signal should be amplified. This provides maximum signal quality. This Google product generates an analog output but has no way of informing to the amplifier what the amplification should be. To adjust volume you have to decrease the amplitude of the signal which induces signal loss.

      Users who want optimum signal qualit

  • I've never seen a speaker with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

    • The audio chromecasts also had optical output and adapters for RCA.
      I love mine. I wish I would have known about this in time to buy some spares.

    • Re:Never seen one (Score:4, Informative)

      by msauve ( 701917 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @06:54PM (#57947494)
      It's the Chromecast which has the 3.5 mm headphone jack, which is also usable for line level audio. Use whichever commonly available cable you need to hook up to powered speakers - a 3.5 mm jack is common there, too.
  • Sadly the only problem with the chromecast audio was the standard price. $35 was just too high. I got mine on a holiday sale last year for $15 with a discounted google home speaker. It let me upgrade me old yamaha 6.1 to allow easy streaming. I would have snapped up 4 more if the price was $15-$20 all the time. For $35 it was just too expensive for what it did. Honestly however if they add a 3.5 mm jack to the google home puck speaker I would get go that route.

  • Google canceling a product ? Surely not ! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I mean, it's not like Google has a long history of capriciously canceling products or anything of that sort

    .

    If after Google's long and dishonorable history of fucking over users you'd trust Google enough to use anything from Google, your ability to make intelligent decisions must be called into question in the most severe manner possible.

    If you disagree, you're not only stupid, you're the worst kind of stupid, which is defined by a refusal to accept important new information because it might threaten your

  • I love my Chromecast audio. I use it with my 30 year old Sony receiver driving my 50 year old EPI speakers, serving up music from my Raspberry Pi running a minidlna server. Works great.

    Does anyone know what it would take to rig a Google "Streaming Media Player" (i.e. the Video version with the HDMI output) to drive an old-school audio receiver?

  • There's an alternative that's still in production. (Score:3)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @07:30PM (#57947684)

    https://www.amazon.com/YunList... [amazon.com]

    YunListen adapter with a 3.5mm jack -- supports DLNA as well as direct music streaming from a NAS.

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