I own a number of these and have been happy with their performance. I use them to pipe music from my Synology NAS to various sound systems around the house. I use my Android phone as the "remote." Slick setup.
Nope; good question. I have older, quality gear that I just can't bring myself to retire simply for the sake of gaining HDMI functionality. I therefore plug the Chromecast into a device that separates out the audio stream and allows me to pass it through Toslink cable to my receiver's digital input. In addition to the audio output, the device has an HDMI output that allows me to pass the video (and audio) to my television. Don't know if the link will work, but this is it:
Comments & Reviews (3)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KBHX072/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There is no detectable audio degradation when using this device. Highly recommended.
Thank you!