Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

They were far too useful so they stopped making them 😅 left a bit of a hole in the market for a cheap way of linking your old but gold hifi equipment with the modern world... really handy if you have other audio things working in sync via Google home & want the old hifi in on the action. Of course you can take the audio from a Chromecast enabled TV & put that through an older hifi system but that's not always do-able

Wow - why are they so sought after?

Easiest, most discreet, cheapest, and highest performing way to get any music from anything else to come out of your existing stereo system.

I have two chromecast audios, and they both provide a way to get Spotify, Plex, etc to old stereo equipment.

Either as an analogue source, or as a digital source to a separate DAC.

And more, because it's a Google Chromecast thing it effortlessly works with things like Nest Hubs, so they can be set as default speakers for voice assistant, i.e. "hey Google play constant craving", the hub picks it up and Spotify is selected and the reply is "constant craving by k d Laing from Spotify playing on living room stereo".

All the old hi fi, suddenly becoming a modern and integrated part of the house for very very little money. You have to spend a pretty penny to jump the gap to the next level of devices that do this and those take more space and power near your amp.