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Google's Chromecast Audio gets multi-room and hi-res audio features

Google's Chromecast Audio gets multi-room and hi-res audio features

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Google is today rolling out two new features for its Chromecast Audio product. The new features let you play music in multiple rooms simultaneously and play hi-resolution audio files. Both features make the Chromecast Audio, which is basically just a $35 dongle that makes existing speakers Wi-Fi connected, more competitive with the likes of Sonos, which offers both multi-room and hi-res audio already.

The multi-room feature lets user group multiple Chromecast Audio devices together to play the same song out of different speakers at the same time. Groups are created with the Chromecast app for iOS or Android, and then show up as options when the cast button is pressed in supported apps, such as Spotify, Google Play Music, or Pandora. The hi-res audio feature, which is important for services that offer lossless playback, supports 96KHz / 24bit audio, which is greater than CD quality.

Google says the new features will be delivered to the Chromecast Audio via an automatic software update today.

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