Toslink to 5040a... pricey? - Forum

In case you plan to buy five 6010 speakers and you need to connect 3 different sources then I would suggest to buy a Audio/Video(AV) receiver with pre-out RCA connection for the switching AV sources and volume control.
Cheap AV receiver internal amps are not high quality solutions so Genelec active speakers would still be a good idea.
This is actually what I myself plan to do as I already have a AV receiver with HDMI switching whitch is better for new devices like PS3 and BD players. For your information HDMI would carry both HD audio and video signals.
In case of two channel stereo use you could have RCA outs for all of your devices and have an passive switch to connect
the source to Genelec speakers. That would probably lead to volume issues with different sources so stereo pre amplifier would be the next option.

Thanks for your reply Margus, you pretty much confirmed what I was suspecting.

I've been doing some digging around and indeed it seems to be the easiest way go to have an AV amp to serve as the switch for both audio and video while leaving the actual sound balancing to 5040a. That way I could start building the system by first buying that AV-box to replace my current one and then move on to 2.1 and after that three speakers more.

I guess the first logical question then would be what amp to buy to best serve my (or our?) needs. I'd guess that a cheap-ish low quality amp that has a lot of connections etc. should be easy to find as it looks good on the advertising and is easier to sell than "real quality". It still a bit of a let down to have to buy one extra piece of expensive equipment that won't last any more than five years before HDMI is antique and has to be replaced for newer consoles or what have you.

Anyway, thanks a lot and please elaborate on what king of system you were planning on building and to what use:)

I started with good quality tube stereo system in the living room and wanted to try what would subwoofer add. After buying one and getting too much bass overlap between main speakers and subwoofer I bought AV receiver to get better bass management. I have Yamaha 765 because it fit the bill seemed to have good DACs and I did not plan to use the internal amplifiers for the front LCR channels. It had all the connections I need. Currently I use main LR speaker and sub pre-outs. For center and rear surrounds I have very cheap and old passive speakers with low quality but even with these I got the understanding that for movies I need 5.1 channel system to get the best sound. This is actually a benefit to get the AV receiver as you can use cheap surround speakers at first.
So now my next stage for upgrading would be to buy identical LCR speakers because I understood that it does not sound good to have a center that sounds differently. Surrounds I will leave the same as they are because my surround placement is not optimal anyway. I plan to seperate stereo system from home theater system so I can get the best of both worlds.
I am looking for Genelec information because 8030a are my main contenders for the 5.1 systems front main channels (LCR). I chose this model because of the price and my room size.
What worries me a little is the RCA to XLR connection cables I probably need to do myself (receivers or processors with XLR outputs are expensive). Then my room size is on the limit for 8030 based on Genelec recommendation table. This got me to thinking that I might even start with one 8030 for the center and see how it sounds as funds are low at the moment When it is not powerful enough I could use it as a surround.