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With so many sources available now, does anyone make a multi-source auto-switcher?

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Luminair

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It seems like there should be a box that takes 4-8 stereo sources and automatically outputs the strongest one.

Not only are traditional analog audio components a dime a dozen now, there are several incongruent smart home audio systems, music server systems, computer systems, TV systems, game systems, phone systems, and probably more... that you might want to run through one set of speakers automatically. Modern companies don't want to work together or do anything to international standards. They'd have us owning a mushroom patch of speakers, 2 from every company, repurchased every 2 years. It makes sense to defeat them with new switching tech.

A "Smart Switch", if you will.
 
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AaronJ

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I don't have something so elaborate that can select between 4 and 8 sources, but I use a Niles SPK-1 to switch seamlessly between AVR and hi-fi duties. The SPK-1 has 2 speaker inputs and 1 speaker output and a 12v triggered relay that switches between the 2. My main system goes into input 1, the AVR into input 2 with the 12v trigger. The idea is to make it as foolproof as possible for the family to be able to turn on the TV which in turn activates the AVR through HDMI ARC and then automatically takes control of the speakers. The Niles switchers are no longer in production but it's easy to find them on eBay for like $40.

They also made automatic analog source switchers that could be activated by 12v trigger or audio sensing but in my experience they are finnicky and also pop because they don't have a proper break-before-make implementation. No such popping occurs with the speaker switcher.
 
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MCH

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Luminair said:
It seems like there should be a box that takes 4-8 stereo sources and automatically outputs the strongest one.

Not only are traditional analog audio components a dime a dozen now, there are several incongruent smart home audio systems, music server systems, computer systems, TV systems, game systems, phone systems, and probably more... that you might want to run through one set of speakers automatically. Modern companies don't want to work together or do anything to international standards. They'd have us owning a mushroom patch of speakers, 2 from every company, repurchased every 2 years. It makes sense to defeat them with new switching tech.

A "Smart Switch", if you will.
Click to expand...
If you like tinkering and have some tiny notions of microcontrollers and programming and can solder a chip, it makes a very nice and relatively cheap diy project. I am finishing mine (9 digital sources, but could be more) and it works better than expected. And the best is that you can make it work the way you want it to work, that imo will always be the problem with the commercial solutions.
 
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WondrousHippo

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jhaider

jhaider

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Is it really true that so many sources are needed now? In the past I think there were more. A person in 1990 would have more than likely had a tuner, turntable, and CD player, for example. Maybe also a TV and a VCR. Now on our main system there are more subwoofers (3) than sources (2 - AppleTV that gets used near 100% of the time, and a disk player that may have been used 1x in 2023 so far.)

Today you can basically get by with 1 source if you're all digital - an AirPlay streamer - and a turntable if you have records. Add a gaming system if you're into that. Or you could do the TV, AppleTV or whatever AirPlay endpoint, gaming crap all into the TV and tap a digital signal out of the TV.
 
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GXAlan

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HDMI CEC sort of gets you this ideal, but only for digital sources. It’s a lot better today than it was 20 years ago when HDMI was first released.
 
Chrispy

Chrispy

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I was thinking what's wrong with a good pre-amp for switching but seems I'm not imaginative enough to encounter all the sources some might want to use.
 
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