Home Theater Geeks 554: Hi-Res Audio Streaming

I am planning on purchasing a Denon AVR-X6500H receiver.

and I want to stream my FLAC music files on my iPhone to the Denon receiver.

I can either connect my Chromecast audio to the receiver's optical input and stream it that way, or I can stream it via the built-in AirPlay 2 connection.

My questions are, one, which of the two methods would be higher fidelity? I want to use the highest fidelity of the two.

And also, I'm thinking about using Tidal's premium service, which is called Hi, at 1,411 kilobits per second.

Are there any limitations with either Chromecast Audio or AirPlay 2 that would prevent me from enjoying Tidal's high full fidelity? Or should I just keep the standard service from Tidal at 320 kilobits for streaming? Well, thanks for the question, Brett.

It's a great question, actually.

And let me start by saying that the Chromecast Audio, which is a little device, little puck-shaped device that connects to your speakers or your AV receiver with a cable that it provides, comes with, and then it also has a USB port for power.

But it's no longer available.

But you can get one on eBay.

I've seen them there for anywhere from $50 to $175.

That's a wide price range.

I'm not quite sure why that is, but they are there.

And certainly many people still have one that they got some years ago.

And as I said, it connects to the AVR via its optical cable.

And it receives audio over Wi-Fi wirelessly from your phone, say.

Now, both Chromecast Audio and AirPlay 2 can stream FLAC files, which is Free Lossless Audio Codec.

And its name says what it does.

It's lossless.

So the audio information is compressed a little bit.

but it is not, no information is thrown away.

Unlike say MP3, which throws away up to 90% of the audio information in a wireless audio stream.

Now, it does so in a way that presumably isn't noticeable, but depending on how much it gets thrown away, yeah, it can be noticeable.

So FLAC files don't throw any information away.

So they're the same as listening to a physical CD or more.