I have some new speakers in my living room, for the first time going for a 2.1 setup. Nice speakers from DALI, Fazon Sat and Fazon Sub 2. My receiver is a Harman Kardon AVR 3000 that I have had for a few years, so it doesn't have HDMI among other things.
I also have a nice little pc that I've hooked up for music, using MC 15: ASUS Eee Box EB1012P.
Now, how to get the most out of this setup? Unfortunately, space is very tight behind my receiver, so I can't really fit in an optical cable from the computer's minijack spdif output. So far I have been using an analog cable from the same output. (At least I think it is a combined analog/optical minijack.) The thing is, the volume is a lot lower than when I play CD's on my Blu-ray player through a digital coax connection. I had been thinking of getting a HRT Music Streamer II that connects to a USB port and provides analog stereo output, but if this will give me the same weak signal I'm not so sure about that.
It also seems to me that my receiver won't let me adjust my speaker setup with an analog input like I can if the input is digital. Don't know why, though. I grew up with stereo amps and two speakers...
So now I'm thinking a USB to coax solution might be the right thing. Does anyone have any suggestions one way or another? I'd appreciate your input!
Thanks,
Von