Sonos on the cheap: How Chromecast Audio breathes new life into old speakers

I received my Google Chromecast Audio for review at the end of September, and I buried my impressions of it in an article about the Chromecast's 2015 refresh. Not a ton to say, really: it provides Chromecast-like functionality... but only for audio. Chromecast Audio. Got it.

However, Google didn't really tell critics about the Chromecast Audio's most interesting feature, possibly because it wasn't yet ready or tested. Roughly a month after its October launch, Google rolled out a "group" synced-audio update. The update wirelessly daisy-chains an unlimited number of Chromecast Audio dongles so that their audio is synced across an entire house. For $35 a pop, you can turn an old speaker with a 3.5mm audio jack into an audio repeater.

It's too late for super-fresh impressions, but my month of Chromecast Audio has proven so fruitful, I wanted to share my experience and offer recommendations so that you too can rock a party-ready house like mine.

Putting the capital T in throne

Why did it take so long for me to test Chromecast Audio's group sync function? Honestly, I didn't hear about it until months later, when I was visiting out-of-town family for Spring Break. My geeky brother-in-law and I were chatting about how we've tricked out our respective homes. There I was, bragging about drilling holes in my ceiling for the sake of VR, and he went and one-upped me: "I'm gonna hide some speakers in my bathroom ceiling."

Unnecessary bathroom installations are my favorite. Corded landline phones, heated floors, fancy magazine racks, bidet attachments, customized lighting: these silly tweaks turn any toilet into a capital-T throne. Why not crank that feeling up with some wireless broadcasting of Sade tunes at a comfortable volume?

What surprised me was that my brother wasn't planning on buying a Sonos system. Around Christmas, he'd taken the Chromecast plunge by putting cheap streaming dongles into his home's guest rooms, and that's when he heard about Chromecast Audio's Sonos-like functionality. The idea being, you can stick Chromecast Audio dongles wherever you want in your home and connect each one to a 3.5mm speaker. Once they're all powered on and connected to your wireless network, you can play synced audio on all of them by simply hitting "play" on any supported app (and there are a lot of apps).

This was great news to my brother-in-law—and to me as well—because we both had old speakers collecting dust in our basements. Alone, they're dated relics, whether because they're underpowered, saddled with CD players, or have other issues. But by their powers combined, they can come back to life as solid, low-volume repeaters—and save us the hundreds of dollars needed to enter the Sonos speaker ecosystem.

When I got home, I ordered a few more $35 Chromecast Audio hubs—which was aided by the Google Store's temporary "two-for-$55" promotion—and began dusting off speakers with powered receivers and auxiliary 3.5mm jacks. I set up an old Sony CD changer and a 2.1 Altec Lansing computer-speaker in my kitchen and bedroom, and I already had a Vizio soundbar in my living room with a spare 3.5mm slot. For funsies, I ordered one more portable, Bluetooth-enabled speaker for $30 to stick in the bathroom (but I didn't rip open the ceiling or anything).

As I wrote in my October review, each Chromecast Audio comes with a micro-USB power adapter and a very, very short 3.5mm input cable. Should you have old speakers that only accept RCA cables, or you'd rather use a TOSLINK optical cable, Google sells $15 adapter cables for each.

Chromecast Audio's power cable is a little over four feet long, which is shorter than the average power cable on a pair of speakers. Keep that in mind if you're looking to position any speakers far from a power outlet. Other than that, the dongles are easy to set-and-forget. So long as the device is plugged in and can catch a wi-fi signal, you should be good to go. I haven't had to manually reset any of my Chromecast Audio dongles, which is good news for anybody ambitious enough to install one in a wall or a ceiling mount—and their tiny size, cool running state, and tiny 3.5mm cord are also all boons for such installations.

The Google Cast app on both iOS and Android (recently renamed from "Chromecast," assumedly because the app talks to other devices) asks your smartphone to log into your dongle's temporary wi-fi signal. Direct it to your router's 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz signal, enter your router credentials, and give the dongle a name. Repeat for however many Chromecast Audio dongles you've placed around your home, office, or incredibly large bathroom.

Once you've placed every dongle and powered every speaker on, tap the "devices" tab in Google Cast. Then tap any of the dot-dot-dot icons next to a Chromecast Audio dongle name and pick "create group." Every one of your Chromecast Audio dongle names should appear in a checkmark list, and that's when you can pick some or all of 'em and give the group a nickname.

Then you're ready to rock. Load a Chromecast Audio-compatible app and tap the "cast" icon to pick either a single dongle or an ideal group for the occasion, then hit "play." Each of the dongles will internally load and process an audio stream. Before you go optimizing or fine-tuning anything, do what I did: walk through your home with a beloved song cranked up to maximum volume. It's a supremely cool feeling to hear a rapid-fire banjo solo or a swell of heavy metal extend across your entire home, and you should take a moment to savor it.

Assuming none of your speakers or receivers adds a major delay to your audio, you can expect a synced default listening experience across your installed Chromecast Audio speakers. Should you notice anything out of sync, Google Cast has your back with a "sync delay" option; I've personally yet to need that one.

Savoring done? Cool. You can use your smartphone's volume buttons to adjust general volume, but you'll probably want to set custom volume levels depending on each respective speaker's quality and location. This functionality was only recently added to Google Cast, and it's incredibly welcome. Load the Google Cast app, tap the "now playing" group's volume icon, and adjust each speaker's volume via sliders.

Unfortunately, you can't yet attach preferred volume levels to a group. If your bathroom speaker is set to a low volume in one group, that'll be its volume across the board. I hope Google remedies this soon, because I can imagine wanting to change the volume balance across my home depending on the circumstance without having to rejigger each volume level.

Lots of apps, lots of tunes, lots of talk

Whether you want to stream audio from an iOS device, an Android device, or a Chrome desktop web browser, you're in luck, as the Chromecast Audio support list is massive. Apps from Amazon and Apple are the obvious holdouts, but you can still use popular options like Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, Google Play Music, Pocket Casts, NPR One, and Plex, along with less-popular options like Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, Slacker, and many, many more.

Like with Chromecast for TVs, the audio-only dongle's worst issue is how it can stop interfacing with your controlling smartphone or device at a moment's notice. This is more likely to happen when using an iOS device, but I still find myself facing the occasional obnoxious moment in which I have to reboot my Android phone's Google Cast app to recognize one of my home's speakers. Thankfully, if I just want to listen to a non-stop music stream or radio stream, my synced Chromecast Audio units never cut out individually or collectively on their own; sometimes, it's just a pain for my smartphone to tell them to shut the heck up.

Before taking the Chromecast Audio plunge, confirm that you have a solid wi-fi connection to any room where you want to place a dongle. Google Cast is good at supporting 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels on the same router, so if you need to downgrade the signal to reach a room at the far edge of your home, this will not affect Google Cast's quality or its ability to sync to the rest of the audio in your home. However, if your router sucks at sending a signal to the edge of a particular room, don't expect the Chromecast Audio's radio to pick it up any better.

Unfortunately, if you have a TV Chromecast, you can't add it to your audio-only streaming ecosystem. Google won't let you cross those streams.

With those caveats in mind, you're in for a remarkable full-home audio experience, should you give Chromecast Audio a shake. Synced audio has honestly changed my work-from-home life, insofar as I can now walk from room to room without missing anything in a podcast or a radio program. It's also good for my ears, as I can keep the volume low throughout the entire house, as opposed to jacking the volume up on one speaker. And unlike plugging headphones into my phone for the same experience, synced audio is a lot more comfortable (not to mention a reduced drain on my phone's battery, since my Chromecast Audio dongles do all the heavy lifting).

Multiply all those benefits by a zillion with a party in mind. Playing low-level music throughout the house sounds so cool. You can set a perfect background level of tunes for conversation's sake, or jack the volume up in a particular room when it's time to dance. Plus, who doesn't want to host the kind of house party where guests can keep rocking even when they have to excuse themselves?

You won't get Sonos options like "TruePlay" equalizations, light bulb adjustments, and other smart-home functions. But if you're anything like me—you just want audio, and you have at least a couple of fine speakers laying around—consider Chromecast Audio a no-brainer for a better home at a pretty low price.