Grace Digital CastDock X2 - Chromecast Audio Speaker Dock

Ok, so I never do this but I was compelled to after purchasing and using this product. I have several Sonos products including a Play1 which this will undoubtedly be compared to. The biggest problem with Sonos is that it doesn't travel very well and is a pain to take one out of your house and on a trip. I bought this speaker on a whim for a recent trip and am thrilled with its performance and value. I love my Chromecast devices and Im surprised that they aren't more aggressively marketed because they are truly magnificent little devices. Ive never owned a Grace product before nor was I familiar with the brand before this purchase but I gotta tell you boys and girls that this is the real deal. It sounds great, plays clean and loud, appears to be well built and perfectly harnesses all the amazing power of your Chromecast audio. What I dont think a lot of people realize is that once the music starts streaming, you no longer need your mobile device for anything but volume control as the music streams directly to the Chromecast and not from your phone or tablet. You can turn your phone completely off if you like. Not to mention the sound benefits of wifi and the optical connection. So long story short...this thing is fantastic and sounds great. I will definitely be purchasing another one in the near future for my office and spreading the gospel of Chromecast and Grace Digital...(hint hint guys). If I had to cough up a negative it would be that the volume control is not very linear at low volumes. I found that the total useful volume range was entirely in the first 40-50% of the volume bar on the Chromecast app. Not sure if this is a Grace thing or a Google thing but it would be nice if it was calibrated to give more precise adjustments at lower volumes.

Google Chromecast Audio is a little $35 dongle that lets you stream music to anything with an aux in jack from music apps on your smartphone, such as Pandora, Spotify, and TuneIn Radio. You can synchronize multiple units, which means you can have the Sonos experience using your traditional stereo system, old computer speakers, etc., for a fraction of the cost of buying Sonos’ own speakers.This Grace Digital Castdock X2 provides the kind of “all-in-one” speaker Sonos sells as a part of your Google Chromecast Audio system, but for significantly less than Sonos’ Play 1 speaker. The Castdock X2 is heavy and feels well built. The grey part is metal and the black part is a high quality plastic. The speaker does a good job of spreading sound throughout the room, especially given its small size. It’s not big enough for a living room, but is perfect for a kitchen or bedroom. The sound is detailed and distortion-free, even at full volume. The treble and midrange sound excellent. It succeeds at sounding much bigger than it is.The speaker has two small flaws. First, there’s no volume control on the speaker itself, so you can only change the volume using your smartphone. (It does have a mute button, however.) Second, in their attempt to make the speaker sound bigger than it really is, the upper-bass is a bit hyped for some listeners’ tastes. Overall, the Castdock X2 is well worth the $99 sale price.

I was very excited about this product and was hoping to buy several of them for various rooms in my house. Chromecast Audio fits into the top very nicely and is concealed giving it a very modern and clean look. The price of the Grace (on Amazon) + Chromecast is much lower than any other Google Cast Speaker. The sound is actually very good for both the highs and the lows.Now for the problem. As many other reviewers have mentioned, the the bass level is way too high. I turned the speaker backwards so that the bass port is angled away from the wall like another reviewer mentioned however this is still not enough. If your favorite instrument is bass guitar, or you like music with a heavy beat, this flaw may not be a big deal for you. I personally like to listen to the lyrics as well as the other instruments however the bass guitar will always drown everything else out.I use primarily Pandora and Plex for all of my music listening and neither have an equalizer available to reduce the bass or increase the treble. Also Chromecast Audio has no way to do this as well. I have an iPhone and there doesn't seem to be a way to use 3rd party EQ apps to override all sound. If in the future the apps I use or Google add an eq, this speaker would easily be 4 star and I would by more of them. If there was a volume control on the speaker, that would be worth another star.If Grace would have just made a knob on the physical speaker to adjust the volume and treble levels, they would have had a perfect speaker.

This is an decent speaker with nice Audiocast integration but the bass issue would be a deal breaker if I could do it over. The foam in the port trick makes the bass bearable and keeps it from overwhelming the sound but it ends up flat. See other reviews to get a better idea of the problem.

Good: Perfect fit for the Chrome Cast Audio.Specificity: Too much bass, really a LOT of BASSES! You will only hear the bass.Defect: Strange crackle when playing audio. :(