Comment by jimmaswell

2 months ago

That little headphone jack is seriously driving bookshelf speakers to a reasonable volume? If it works it works but that doesn't sound right, unless these are actually self-powered speakers with their own amplifiers inside. I'd really like to know the details because this sounds crazy.

Also, I collect a lot of old receivers and speakers. It's really not that complicated and the basics have been the same since the 70s and 80s. Any flatscreen TV made in the past 20 years typically has a TOSLINK output which will be compatible with receivers stretching back to the 80s - I have my LG C1 connected to some 90s Marantz receiver this way. Any old receiver you find on Facebook Marketplace for $20 will typically suffice here as long as you check for the TOSLINK port first, but you do need a separate actual amplifier somewhere along the line to drive a speaker larger than a pair of headphones unless the speaker has its own amp built-in.

I find all this stuff fun so my own setup has that chained to a series of other receivers acting as subwoofer amplifiers as well as using the pre-amp output to drive a Mesa Baron tube amplifier/Acoustat electrostats I was gifted, but most people don't need anything so complex.

22 comments

jimmaswell

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recursive  2 months ago

The jack is not driving the bookshelf speakers. They're active. They have their own internal amps. It's simple if you use a receiver. If someone can point me to a receiver that's more like 4 inches than 18 inches, then I'd consider that a solution. Receivers are big boxes as far as I've seen. I don't have space. Or maybe I don't want to make space.

  • tmnvix  2 months ago

    Fosi ZD3 (https://fosiaudio.com/products/fosi-audio-zd3-fully-balanced...). Supports HDMI with CEC. I turn on my Apple TV, it turns on the TV, which in turn turns on the Fosi DAC - all connected with HDMI. The DAC then turns on a ZA3 amp via 12v trigger cable. Volume control etc is via the Apple remote.

    All very cheap really. Total cost I think was about $550 (refurbished TV, second hand Apple TV, new Fosi DAC and amp). All this and I get to keep the TV in 'dumb' mode. Never even use the TV remote.

  • mikepurvis  2 months ago

    Some of the bigness is just tradition and buyer expectation (big = expensive). But also, modern AVRs are like 1000W devices amplifying 7, 9, even 11 channels of passives. That’s a lot of componentry and corresponding heat to shed— if you open one of those up, it’s not just empty space in there like an NES cartridge or something.

    • recursive  2 months ago

      That makes some sense, but for those of us with two channels maxing out at 25W each, there seems to be some use for a smaller one. I think there are more people on the small end of the spectrum than those with a big surround deployment. I suppose they're mostly using sound bars with an HDMI input.

    • mikepurvis  2 months ago

      ... that said, there is also a small market for "separates" where you have a decoding-only preamp that either feeds active speakers or another box containing just the multi-channel amplification:

      https://www.marantz.com/en-ca/category/av-separates/

      The output of these units is line-level signals feeding high-impedance loads. They could definitely be a fraction of the size they are.

  • tonyarkles  2 months ago

    Have a look at Fosi Audio. I'm currently using a BT30D to drive the passive speakers from an old Samsung integrated amplifier+receiver+2014-era "Smart TV" type system that died. It only has 1 analog input and Bluetooth, but it looks like they have other products in a similar form factor that can take multiple inputs (e.g. the P4 Mini). I was skeptical but needed something cheap to drive those speakers and am quite impressed.

  • timdorr  2 months ago

    https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/amp

    Sonos makes this specifically. Has an RCA and HDMI input, along with being a Sonos device for streaming audio.

    The only downside is the price.

    • ryandrake  2 months ago

      Apart from Sonos in general being awful[1][2], their web site seems to be pretty bad, too. Not only is there a modal "subscribe to our newsletter" box in that link, there's also a separate modal cookie warning which blocks the modal newsletter box. It's like frustrating users is core to their mission.

      1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21895086

    • s3graham  2 months ago

      And that Sonos is terrible to its users.

      I had a houseful of overpriced speakers, some only 3 years old when they decided they were too old to support in their rewritten app, or some lazy crap like that.

      For GP; I use some cheapo (sub $50) "100W mini amps" from Amazon. They seem fine to me.

  • jimmaswell  2 months ago

    It sounds like your speakers work for you then. On a modern TV without a headphone jack you would probably be served perfectly well by bluetooth speakers that sync to the TV. Though I'm surprised if a 3.5mm output is really that uncommon, because I just bought an LG C1 a few years ago and it has one. You can also find a small bluetooth receiver that would output to a headphone jack at WalMart.

ryandrake  2 months ago

I was kind of in OP's shoes a few months ago. My 2000-2010 era stereo receiver crapped out and I was looking to see if I could simplify my system a bit. Unlike OP, I didn't need anything that could extract audio from the TV. My requirements were:

1. A decoder with at least 5.1 output since that's how many speakers I have

2. At least 3 HDMI inputs + 1 HDMI output to my TV

3. An amplifier with a volume control

That's it! I don't need an FM tuner. I don't need multiple zones. I don't need wild listening modes and DSP effects. I don't need an on-TV setup display. I don't need fiber optic digital audio inputs. I don't need fucking rows and rows of 20 RCA jack inputs, composite video, component video, S-Video. You'd think I could find a small cheap box the size of an AppleTV that I could just hide somewhere that could do this, but I couldn't find anything sufficient. So I got another $20 gigantic, ugly, old 18-inch receiver again from Craigslist and just leave all those features and inputs unused.

  • jimmaswell  2 months ago

    I never understood the "ugly" perception. At worst some might look boring to me, but at best some of them are absolutely beautiful. For example, my favorite in my collection appearance-wise has a 70s-style wooden finish on all but the front plate with a polished silver look on the front plate: https://imgur.com/a/DAUeJJW

    • ryandrake  2 months ago

      This is going to sound kind of sexist, but I have never met a woman who was OK interior design-wise with 18 inch stereo equipment in the living room. I mean look at the OP article: He's got all this stuff hidden away in a closet. This seems to be the only viable way to keep an "A/V stack" full of black boxes and a marriage.

      I've got a great sounding 5.1 system with a receiver and a game console and everything set up. You know where it is? My garage.

      5 replies →

LargoLasskhyfv  2 months ago

Depends on what he means by 'bookshelf'. I've still got these collecting dust in a condo in Germany, where I rarely visit anymore.

https://www.highfidelityreview.com/creative-sbs260-speakers....

Clear and distortion-free. Probably depending on how you drive your line-out, but mine just worked.

Stereo 2.0! (Giggle..)

The room isn't that large, but they really could fill it with sound, or the nearest neighborhood, if put on the balcony on summer evenings :-)