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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 a

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.

ryandrake 10mo 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 10mo 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 https://imgur.com/a/DAUeJJW
  - ryandrake 10mo 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.
    - literallywho 10mo ago
      Is it really love if it hinges on the presence of high quality stereo equipment? Also, I have a friend who has similar stuff out in the open and is happily married.
    - db48x 10mo ago
      You’ve either been meeting the wrong women or you need more rooms. One room where people can sit and talk to each other and a completely different room where people can sit and listen to music or watch a screen. Ideally if you want music in that first room you would put a piano in there, because playing the piano (and singing along) is a social activity that people can actually do together. Neither of these activities should be relegated to a garage.
      - andersa 10mo ago
        So many problems and more money could solve every one of them!
recursive 10mo 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.
- timdorr 10mo ago
  https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/amp 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.
  - s3graham 10mo 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.
  - ryandrake 10mo 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=42683753 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42683753 2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21895086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21895086
- mikepurvis 10mo 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.
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
LargoLasskhyfv 10mo 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.html 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 :-)

ryandrake 10mo 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 10mo 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 https://imgur.com/a/DAUeJJW
- ryandrake 10mo 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.
  - literallywho 10mo ago
    Is it really love if it hinges on the presence of high quality stereo equipment? Also, I have a friend who has similar stuff out in the open and is happily married.
  - db48x 10mo ago
    You’ve either been meeting the wrong women or you need more rooms. One room where people can sit and talk to each other and a completely different room where people can sit and listen to music or watch a screen. Ideally if you want music in that first room you would put a piano in there, because playing the piano (and singing along) is a social activity that people can actually do together. Neither of these activities should be relegated to a garage.
    - andersa 10mo ago
      So many problems and more money could solve every one of them!

recursive 10mo 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.

timdorr 10mo ago
https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/amp 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.
- s3graham 10mo 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.
- ryandrake 10mo 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=42683753 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42683753 2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21895086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21895086
mikepurvis 10mo 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.

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

LargoLasskhyfv 10mo 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.html 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 :-)