Home theater without a receiver? Is it possible?

[alm99]

Are there any stereo systems without the need for a receiver that can push a home theater system connected to a mac mini?

Right now I have my mac mini connected to my 37? TV and Yamaha receiver that is ~6 years old, with wall mounted JBL speakers. Ideally I would like to make everything a little more compact, wall mount the tv and have the mini on a shelf as I have a small home. Is there anyway to lose the size of a receiver without sacrificing sound? My wife really likes to listen to her music loud with good bass when needed. I thought about replacing the receiver and speakers with the Logitech Z-5500 series or something similar.

 

[erwos]

Maybe an amp instead of a receiver? *shrugs* Might work if all you're using is a Mac Mini and analog sound output.

 

[alm99]

Optical out to the yamaha right now

 

[Slick5150]

I'd strongly advise against getting a Logitech setup. They're designed to be very loud, and very boomy, which makes them good for playing games on, but they sound terrible with music.

You could have the Mac Mini decode everything internally and do analog outs to an amp. What's your speaker setup? 2.0? 2.1? 5.1? If its just stereo you can get a pretty good stereo amp pretty inexpensively. If its 5.1, then you might as well just stick with a reciever.

 

[alm99]

Right now its just 2.1. The tv is in an odd spot to make it a 5.1 system.

 

[erwos]

Is a sound bar an option? I'm generally not a fan, but it could be the right solution in your case.

 

[manimal]

Is the shelf that your putting your mini on too small to house a reciever? In my living room I ended up moving all the harware into a closet next to the room and only took the top 3 shelves to do it. It made my wife really happy to get all the techy stuff out of sight and I already had a harmony 890 to do it. If you dont have a closet nearby a old school audio rack still works. I am excited to see the amd maui chipset solution because that thing has a add in card that can do decent watts per channel and with a integrated amp. It has speaker connections on a daughter card.

I agree with Erwos as well since a decent soundbar can sound pretty good if the room isnt too big. I have the samsung htx810 and it does a great job in our excersize room.

 

[alm99]

Originally posted by: erwos
Is a sound bar an option? I'm generally not a fan, but it could be the right solution in your case.

Never even thought about it, but I like the idea. The real requirement would be to pass the wife acceptance test. She really enjoys her music loud. I will need to take a look.

Originally posted by: manimal
Is the shelf that your putting your mini on too small to house a reciever? In my living room I ended up moving all the harware into a closet next to the room and only took the top 3 shelves to do it. It made my wife really happy to get all the techy stuff out of sight and I already had a harmony 890 to do it. If you dont have a closet nearby a old school audio rack still works. I am excited to see the amd maui chipset solution because that thing has a add in card that can do decent watts per channel and with a integrated amp. It has speaker connections on a daughter card.

I agree with Erwos as well since a decent soundbar can sound pretty good if the room isnt too big. I have the samsung htx810 and it does a great job in our excersize room.

The living room isn?t that big of a space, I would estimate 20ft by ~10-12ft with no closets. If I could get more space out of it by mounting the TV to the wall with a sound bar and ditch the TV armoire/cabinet that would be great.

 

[s44]

Your wife wants decent sound and you want a tiny POS? Ugggh.

 

[alm99]

Originally posted by: s44
Your wife wants decent sound and you want a tiny POS? Ugggh.

I am looking for something that will give great sound and not take up a huge amount of room. I live in a small home and just weighing out my options if I were to pursue this.

 

[s44]

The WAF perspective is legitimate, but it's odd that the roles are reversed.

If you can afford an expensive soundbar, go for it, but it seems like overkill. You could get a smaller AVR -- the Panasonic BX500 is supposed to be good, and though it's discontinued, B&M Fry's seem to have it if you live near one. Or a smaller stereo amp, if you only have one source.

 

[alm99]

Yeah, after looking at a sound bar that is a resounding NO to affordability. Looks like I will just keep the current setup.

 

[bobdole369]

Totally possible to go receiverless. Does your display setup have an audio out? You would only need to adjust the level of volume somehow, could happen on the mac mini, or on your TV's remote control. Then you go to a dedicated amplifer, then into speakers. Could be as simple as a 50W x2 car amp with a 12V 10A power supply. Could get that for under $100.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: alm99
I am looking for something that will give great sound and not take up a huge amount of room.

Asking for something small, cheap, and great-sounding is the audio equivalent of asking for a hard drive that's fast, cheap, and huge. Pick two, because you won't get all three.