[lttlrck]

I would guess that many people listen to more music than watch TV or movies. They might not want the TV on all the time. So a A/V receiver can make a lot of sense for them.

Plus AV receivers can consolidate all the connections so there is only one run to the TV. This could be done with an HDMI switch if you can find one that integrates as well as a receiver, with similar number of inputs and isn't a large fraction of the cost.

Plus many (most?) very nice speakers need an external amplifier. Once you look at the cost of a bare bones amp, an A/V receiver with everything else they offer makes a ton of sense. Even for two channels.

[hedora]

That’s what the sonos is for in this setup. If we eliminated it, I’d probably just put a VM with similar software on it on the linux box and give it access to linux’s line out. (A raspberry pi would work, but might need a better dac and it takes more cabinet space than a vm on an existing machine.)