If you are hearing audio popping or distortions from your speaker (static, kinda sounds like radio/EF interference), the recommendation is to try the following:
- First try plugging the Chromecast Audio into the wall using the provided USB power cable and power supply.
- Try adjusting the cables and making sure they’re tightly plugged in. You can also try using different cables to see if that resolves the issue.
- If that doesn’t work, try using longer cables to create distance between the Chromecast Audio and the speaker it is connected to.
I did all those things, and nothing made any difference. I also tried a ground loop isolator, which made some improvement but for some reason stopped sound (even intended sound) altogether at times, not always. Weird.
My Chromecast audio is plugged into my computer, and I tried powering both by the USB adapter that came with it, and by plugging its USB cable directly into a powered hub that serves the computer. No difference. I do use a good, pure-sine-wave UPS, so I would hope that the AC is nice and clean… but just to try it, I used a longer USB cord to plug into the same AC circuit *before* the UPS (nothing that ran *through* the UPS), and all the extraneous noise went away.