Looking for very simple 5.1 setup for garage.

[gislands]

Hi all,
I am revisiting the idea of putting a 5.1 setup in my garage. The reason I am posting in here is because I need advice on a receiver for which I will just strictly using juest the optical toslink input... and that is it.

Here is the situation and you will have to visualize.
-I have three TV's on the wall all the same size (39 inch JVC's from a big box store)
-I have three 4K Joeys, one for each tv so I can watch different sports on each TV.
-I have a toslink 3 x 1 switcher which all 3 Joeys feed into.
-From the switcher the single output goes to a simple Vizio soundbar. It was maybe $90.
So when I want to listen to hockey game on the left I hit 1 on the switcher.... basketball game in the center, 2 on the switcher, and horse racing the right, 3 on the switcher if that makes sense.

So basically I am still going to run the switcher since I cannot for the life or me find a receiver with multiple toslink optical inputs. Most just have one. And I don't need 6 HDMI inputs, coaxial inputs...etc.

So is there any very good simple receivers on the market? I don't want to spend a lot on features I wont need. Also, this would change my plans, does anyone make a receiver currently with multiple (3 or more) toslink optical inputs?
Thanks,
gIslands.

 

[gadgtfreek]

No ideas on that many in, so Id look at the entry level Denon 510. I think its 5.2 (70w) channels and $279.

 

[jevans64]

You can get the Denon AVR-S500BT for $190 from Accessories4less. It has 2 TosLink and 1 Coaxial digital input which are assignable. You'd have to go eBay for a pre-2010 used receiver for a full set of TosLink for each input. Something like a Denon AVR-2309ci would give you the three TosLink you need. I'd get the Energy Take Classic 5.1 set for $300 from Amazon.

 

[gislands]

Did TosLink just never catch on as a pure audio source? I guess with HDMI there is really no reason for just a true audio source that didn't carry HD video with it in one short cable.
Jevans64, that set of speakers looks nice.

 

[jayn_j]

TOSLink is an idea whose time has come and gone. The optical link was the way to go during the component and even the DVI era. Neither of those had audio embedded, so one provided a TOSLink connection for best audio available.

 

[gislands]

I see. I am looking at wikipedia right now about audio and video connectors. I helped my neighbor move a huge and heavy old CRT TV and she had an S-Video cable hooked up to it. I forgot about those also until I moved that.
I know this is a subjective and opinion based question, but if component A and component B had the same type of audio or audio/video ins and outs what would be considered the best for strictly audio (or maybe one that has audio and video combined) and one that has video combined. Like I guess on the video side is HDMI version 2.0 considered the best now?

 

[jayn_j]

HDMI audio has a higher bandwidth than TOSLink. This was an issue back in the 2007 timeframe when the improved audio CODECs emerged. TOSLink couldn't handle the bandwidth so you either needed to go to a receiver that supported HDMI audio, or have the audio stream decoded in the player and then passed as a PCM signal.