I really like the podcast and videos you’ve been posting lately as well – I always learn something or look at things with a new perspective – such as the latest video – you are dead on in saying digital audio is invisible and I do miss having a visual appeal. You are truly the 21st-century audiophile. I wouldn’t tell you what to review because I enjoy seeing/reading about things that I never considered or would have thought about.
Plus you review items that aren’t “traditional”, including super integrated amps, all-in-one speakers, and so forth that I usually hear about first on your site. I hate when other reviewers talk about a product as if it’s the latest greatest thing without any mention of similar items or even more/less expensive items to justify if the new product is worth the price the company is asking.
I may not always agree with some of your takes but I really respect your style, opinions, and the way you do comparisons when reviewing products. I’ve been following it for over two years- really since I’ve gotten into high-end audio. Just wanted to say how much I appreciate your site. Thanks for sharing I can’t stop trying to find new songs to hear through the Chromecast. I hear so much more clarity and reverb just goes on and on. Prior to this everything always sounded like it was rounded off.
The change was huge! Immediately there was a crisp sound from the CCA something I had come to grips that just wouldn’t ever come in the price point of the CCA. I also route all this through an iFi Nano iOne DAC to really sharpen everything up. I was happy to see that these are available Stateside now through Amazon as well. I powered up with a power supply from Allo that I had sitting around. Mostly because the UGreen adapter was sold out at the time. I tried something similar I bought the ethernet to USB adapter from Amazon that was originally intended to juice the Fire devices. Thanks for sharing the letter to the editor on Three Ways to Juice Your Chromecast Audio.
My second bedroom/TV room has a 2×4 HDMI matrix unit supplying Foxtel, PVR and Blu-ray to my TV which enables me to use an old Yamaha RXV3200 surround system for sound and I’m really happy with this. I also use an HDMI extender from one room to another with no loss of quality at all. I use a 2-way splitter that provides a coax digital out as well as the HDMI split which supports 4K as well. I have some HDMI products from Blustream that I totally recommend. I have been able to upsample up to 384khz using Audirvana over UPnP… I don’t have any DSD to try. I know that there might be an issue when streaming exceedingly high bitrate music as the Jitterbug clocks every to USB 2.0 speeds but for my needs, it works great. Why not put an AudioQuest Jitterbug between the WiFi Dongle and the Sparky? Et voila! The sound became more organic sounding, there was more bass and the midrange opened up. The WiFi dongle made a big difference with regards to the solidity of the connection but the sound was a little edgy and metallic sounding. Prior to this, I had been using an airport express connected via ethernet to the Sparky but with really poor results: dropouts, lost packets and a generally poor reception which meant that the USBridge would constantly crash. Because the Allo Sparky has no inbuilt WiFi, I have had to resort to using a dongle. The USBridge really allows the Mojo to shine. I use an Allo USBridge which feeds a Chord Mojo on my main system. Because of the layout of my house and the headache that would be caused setting up a wired network I have no choice but to use WiFi. I write in relation to the observations of some of your readers on the pros and cons of WiFi versus wired.