Point of higher priced streamer?

Funny enough, ASR did measure the Chromecast audio and showed that it had somewhat high jitter on the optical output, and that final performance would be DAC dependent. Maybe I am selectively remembering the review, but I am too lazy to look it up again :-)

Using Roon and a good DAC, they used the Topping D50 the chromecast was fine.

3. The Chromecast output has more jitter than an audiophile/instrument grade Toslink output. This is evident when used with low quality DACs like Schiit Modi 2 Uber.

4. Using a well-designed Dac like the Topping D50, there is no difference at all between Toslink from Chromecast or higher fidelity sources. All the jitter is filtered out resulting in the performance of the DAC itself being the limit.

I know it’s hard for some to believe but price of components is not an indicator  of good digital playback.

That’s not what he said. Read it again, he said (verbatim): “ if connected via optical to a "decent" high performing DAC (e.g. Topping D50), it will outperform many higher-priced streamers”

I understand the usual rhetoric of your kin “everything sounds the same / no impact in SQ / no difference “, but saying “it OUTPERFORMS” many higher-priced streamers”, it is a bit of stretch. Based on what? On that ASR link? Or his own experience?

And, if a Topping D50 is “decent”, “well-designed”, “competent”, “high-performing”, then pretty much EVERY standalone DAC in the universe is such. But then again, this says nothing, as your only “contribution” in this site is about the virtues of a $2 (two American dollars) DAC 🎄🎈🎆😂

I have lived with Apple TV, Chromecast, Node 2i, and Sonore Optical Rendu for many years. Still own all four. And I've gotten to know all four pieces of equipment over a much longer period of time, instead of rushed A/B comparisons. My source is also Roon, and Chromecast is nowhere near the quality of Sonore or Node 2i. Period.

I guess it's hard for some to believe that staring at measurement graphs is not a good indictor of digital playback. As I've said before, there is no compression algorithm for actual listening.

I've never used the Chromecast the cheapest I have is a raspberry pi4. As a roon endpoint it's indistinguishable from streamers I've had costing a lot more. I actually listen, with my ears, not my eyes. If your experience is not listening blind then it's flawed and useless except as a control for why we need to listen blind. Measurements are good to get a basic idea, I've never chosen a component based on measurements alone.