Vinyl Cast

Vinyl Cast is an Android app used to wirelessly stream the audio of a vinyl record player (or any audio source for that matter) to Google Cast-enabled (Chromecast built-in) devices or groups.

The Vinyl Cast App makes use of Android's USB audio peripheral support, audio recorder, media codecs, Google Oboe library, media APIs, and Cast API to stream the audio from a connected audio source to Cast-enabled devices.

Required Hardware

🔘 Android Device
🔘 USB Audio Device
🔘 USB OTG Adapter
🔘 Audio Source
🔘 Cast-Enabled Device

📱 Android Device

An Android device will be used to capture raw audio from your record player (or any analog audio source), perform audio format conversion (if selected), and act as a webserver to stream the digital audio stream to Cast-enabled devices. The Vinyl Cast app currently requires an Android device running Android 6.0 or later.

🎤 USB Audio Device

A USB audio interface is used to capture the raw audio from your Audio Source (e.g. record player) and make the analog audio stream available for recording/streaming by the Vinyl Cast app. If your analog audio source includes a USB interface, you can use this. If your record player only has analog audio output, I would recommend the Behringer UCA202 (without pre-amp), Behringer UFO202 (with pre-amp), ART USB Phono Plus (a standalone pre-amp with USB interface).

🔌 USB Adapter

You will need a way to connect the USB Audio Device to your Android device. Typically, your USB Audio Device has USB-A male connector, and you will need a USB adapter/cable to attach the USB Audio Device to your Android device.

The USB adapter you need depends on the type of USB connector your Android device has (usually how you charge the device). If you have USB-C connector on your Android device, you'll need a USB-C to USB-A female adapter. If you have USB Micro-B connector, you'll need a USB OTG adapter from USB Micro-B to USB-A female. Note that USB adapters are now often included in the box with new Android phones to help transfer data from an old device (e.g. Pixel devices include a "Quick Switch Adapter" going from USB-C to USB-A female).

An adapter with power passthrough can be extra useful to be able to charge your Android device while also connected to your USB Audio Device.

🎶 Audio Source

You'll need an audio source (e.g. a vinyl record player) to provide audio input to the Vinyl Cast app.

📡 Cast-Enabled Device

You'll need a Google Cast-enabled (aka Chromecast built-in) device hooked up to speakers to receive and playback the audio streamed from the Vinyl Cast app.

More information available on GitHub.

Made in Austin, TX.


Feature Graphic by Steve Harvey on Unsplash