Chrome OS & Android

[FizzyPickles]

Curry's have some extremely cheap Chromebooks & Android Tablets instore at the moment. I quite fancy adding a digital element into my system after a recent Guinness/Vinyl episode. I'm not that interested in streaming although I guess that might change. If I want to use a Chromebook/Android Tablet for playing Hi-Res downloads through an external DAC, does one have any advantages over the other in terms of necessary hardware or App support?

 

[griffo104]

Curry's have some extremely cheap Chromebooks & Android Tablets instore at the moment. I quite fancy adding a digital element into my system after a recent Guinness/Vinyl episode. I'm not that interested in streaming although I guess that might change. If I want to use a Chromebook/Android Tablet for playing Hi-Res downloads through an external DAC, does one have any advantages over the other in terms of necessary hardware or App support?

If using a chromebook a lot are limited to 24/48 through the USB so you may not get the full hires experience, not that it doesn't sound very good.

My Android phone will do 24/192 but the best way of doing it on android phone is to pay and get USB Audio Player Pro, it's only a few quid and will let you play your recordings easily and also allow you add Tidal/Qobuz and have a single point of source if you do go streaming (and it does DSD).

Also make sure any USB is OTG (On The Go compatible)

I use a cheap HP chromebook and works great with Amazon Music and Youtube muusic, and also use the Android phone when I'm out and about.

Also when you buy a Chromebook you get free OS and antivirus updates up to a specified expiry date so before buying a chromebook check the manufacturer/model against the list in the link below. For instance my HP will have free updates unto 2026, don't get a heavily reduced chromebook and find out your updates only go to next year.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en
I find a chromebook a very cheap and easy way to do all my media stuff (I use it for video as well) but I only stream on the chromebook although I do use USB Audio Player Pro on my Android phone for my old recordings.

 

[FizzyPickles]

If using a chromebook a lot are limited to 24/48 through the USB so you may not get the full hires experience, not that it doesn't sound very good.

My Android phone will do 24/192 but the best way of doing it on android phone is to pay and get USB Audio Player Pro, it's only a few quid and will let you play your recordings easily and also allow you add Tidal/Qobuz and have a single point of source if you do go streaming (and it does DSD).

Also make sure any USB is OTG (On The Go compatible)

I use a cheap HP chromebook and works great with Amazon Music and Youtube muusic, and also use the Android phone when I'm out and about.

Also when you buy a Chromebook you get free OS and antivirus updates up to a specified expiry date so before buying a chromebook check the manufacturer/model against the list in the link below. For instance my HP will have free updates unto 2026, don't get a heavily reduced chromebook and find out your updates only go to next year.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en
I find a chromebook a very cheap and easy way to do all my media stuff (I use it for video as well) but I only stream on the chromebook although I do use USB Audio Player Pro on my Android phone for my old recordings.

The restriction you mentioned depends upon what Audio Class, 1 or 2 is present I think?
Is that a hardware feature or a driver feature?
Initially I thought that any piece of hardware with a USB 3 revision port would automatically be Audio Class 2?

 

[griffo104]

The restriction you mentioned depends upon what Audio Class, 1 or 2 is present I think?
Is that a hardware feature or a driver feature?
Initially I thought that any piece of hardware with a USB 3 revision port would automatically be Audio Class 2?

As far as I know it's simply down to Chromebook and google. USB Audio Player Pro is so popular because it will overwrite this limitation on the USB port. I've been using Chromebooks for the last 3 years and I have never had to install a driver, after all ChromeOS is a variation of Linux.

I haven't yet been able to get my chromebook to output higher than 24/48, not that I've tried too hard as that sounds perfectly fine to me. It could simply be down to the fact I may not have a USB 3.0 compatible cable.

 

[Cable Monkey]

Both Android and to a lesser extent Chrome have issues where a number of players will default to the OS mixer output unless specifically written for high resolution music use. The reason was a hang over from mobile phone applications where it was discovered limiting resolution helped with battery longevity amongst other things. This differs from using the device as a server or to cast. If it were me I’d use something like a Raspberry Pi to connect with Linux and use the tablet as a remote to serve/cast across a network connection.

 

[FizzyPickles]

As far as I know it's simply down to Chromebook and google. USB Audio Player Pro is so popular because it will overwrite this limitation on the USB port. I've been using Chromebooks for the last 3 years and I have never had to install a driver, after all ChromeOS is a variation of Linux.

I haven't yet been able to get my chromebook to output higher than 24/48, not that I've tried too hard as that sounds perfectly fine to me. It could simply be down to the fact I may not have a USB 3.0 compatible cable.

The capped output on Chromebooks appears to be a limitation of Chrome itself which must be some arbitrary reasoning because there is no doubt that it can made capable of higher.

 

[FizzyPickles]

Both Android and to a lesser extent Chrome have issues where a number of players will default to the OS mixer output unless specifically written for high resolution music use. The reason was a hang over from mobile phone applications where it was discovered limiting resolution helped with battery longevity amongst other things. This differs from using the device as a server or to cast. If it were me I’d use something like a Raspberry Pi to connect with Linux and use the tablet as a remote to serve/cast across a network connection.

Yeah, I'm aware of the Raspberry Pi route, although I have never used it, and Linux is obviously the most highly configurable. Probably the most sensible route.

 

[rdale]

Yeah, I'm aware of the Raspberry Pi route, although I have never used it, and Linux is obviously the most highly configurable. Probably the most sensible route.

Every modern Chromebook has Debian Linux available via Crostini and it might be possible to just type ‘sudo apt install mpd‘ in the terminal but I’m not sure how good the support is for USB devices and what you would need to do to configure it to work for audio.

 

[john de busse]

Curry's have some extremely cheap Chromebooks & Android Tablets instore at the moment. I quite fancy adding a digital element into my system after a recent Guinness/Vinyl episode. I'm not that interested in streaming although I guess that might change. If I want to use a Chromebook/Android Tablet for playing Hi-Res downloads through an external DAC, does one have any advantages over the other in terms of necessary hardware or App support?

better off using chromecast audio (24/96) cast music from phone. for more money bluesound node or similar (as long as it can be connected to stored music on hard drive) and use phone for control. regards john

 

[tuga]

If using a chromebook a lot are limited to 24/48 through the USB so you may not get the full hires experience, not that it doesn't sound very good.

If a Chromebook is limited to 24/48 then it will downsample files with higher sample rates; the on-board Sample Rate Converter is surely a low quality one so I would most deifinitely avoid that option.

 

[griffo104]

If a Chromebook is limited to 24/48 then it will downsample files with higher sample rates; the on-board Sample Rate Converter is surely a low quality one so I would most deifinitely avoid that option.

I suspect so, I doubt HP gave much thought to high res music on a £250 chromebook, even if it proudly has B&O speakers in it (something I don't really get as it sounds pretty dire through the speakers).

Most of the music i listen to is rarely above CD quality so I don't worry about it and with the DACs I have I'm more than happy with what I have although I spent ages reading up on it - there's a page in the Chrome developer's manual that states limiting it to 24/48. It's not just the Chrome browser either as the Amazon app clearly states when checking that the device is 24/48 it's outputting to.

99% of my listening is streaming so I rarely have hi-res or DSD. Cd quality is fine for me, I need a laptop as I move around the house, have several systems planted around, and pretty much a full time headphone listener. I did look at Apple last time but £1000+ vs £250? I'm happy with it for now.

 

[tuga]

I suspect so, I doubt HP gave much thought to high res music on a £250 chromebook, even if it proudly has B&O speakers in it (something I don't really get as it sounds pretty dire through the speakers).

Most of the music i listen to is rarely above CD quality so I don't worry about it and with the DACs I have I'm more than happy with what I have although I spent ages reading up on it - there's a page in the Chrome developer's manual that states limiting it to 24/48. It's not just the Chrome browser either as the Amazon app clearly states when checking that the device is 24/48 it's outputting to.

99% of my listening is streaming so I rarely have hi-res or DSD. Cd quality is fine for me, I need a laptop as I move around the house, have several systems planted around, and pretty much a full time headphone listener. I did look at Apple last time but £1000+ vs £250? I'm happy with it for now.

I use an Apple laptop to control the Apple computer which reads files from a hard disk (see link below). Maybe you can do the same with a Chromebook.
Both the MacBook and the Mac mini cost less than £350 used.

https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/th...ng-the-joys-of-running-a-mac-headless.100745/