I’ve wanted a soundbar for a couple years now. Every time I look for one, I don’t find anything that meets all my requirements, or I get overwhelmed looking and just give up.

My setup:

  • We have an SBC hooked up to my dumb TV through HDMI. HDMI handles both audio and video for the computer. We never use any other input to the TV, so this is the only audio concern here. This is currently a Radxa Rock 5b, but I’m considering replacing it with an x86 NUC or mini-PC.
  • We have a cheap little record player nearby. This sounds fine but could really stand to have better speakers attached. It has stereo RCA output.

What I want:

  • All sound to be output through one speaker/set of speakers. Ideally it would be a soundbar, since the TV is mounted above a fireplace and we can run the soundbar along the mantle.
  • If the speakers have to toggle between inputs to get sound between the PC and the record player, so be it, but it would be much nicer if the two were mixed. We’ll never have a record playing and have something on the TV, anyways.
  • I’d prefer not to have any extra cables coming from the PC to the speaker. I’m trying to avoid any wires showing, and so I’d like to keep the PC audio through HDMI if possible.

I’d love to know if such a product exists. Please, internet denizens, give me your recommendations if you have any.

  • @IMALlama
    3•3 months ago

    I don’t have an immediate recommendation, but a number of TVs have audio outputs. We feed audio from our TV to a stereo receiver from the 70s using this method.

    Polk, Bose, etc all make something that should work fine. But! If you like tinkering, maybe consider getting a toe in the DIY waters