Dreams of the Perfect AV Setup

I've always been a fan of AV tinkering. Back in high school, I played bass guitar, and would sometimes spend more time finding ways to get it to play using a weird combination of equipment than playing. In college, I tried to build my own surround sound setup using an enourmous bass speaker, two computer speakers, and two bluetooth speakers (it worked, but it was awful).

Nowadays, I'm focusing a lot on the video side of the equation. I've come to the conclusion that I want to try playing all of my devices on a modern 4k display. For some things like the PS4 and the switch, it's easy. But as we go back in time, things get tricky. I have an NES, a Gamecube, and a Wii, with no way to hook them up. I'm saving up to get an OSSC now to at least alleviate the Wii side of things. The NES will likely need to be modded, and the Gamecube will sit pretty on the shelf (it doesn't have digital output, so it's gonna be stuck regardless).

The next piece of the puzzle is ensuring everything can be easily sent through a capture card in order to stream. Luckily, a friend helped me save a lot of money by recommending I get an HDMI matrix instead of an AV receiver. I found one on Ebay and made the plunge. So far it has worked great and I may end up picking up a second, just to increase how many devices I can run through at one time. I also picked up an HDMI Splitter to let me capture footage from my PS3 as well.

Once the video side of things is completed, I'll switch back to audio. I wouldn't mind having a simple soundbar to increase the sound quality over the TV speakers. I'll also end up trying to get a bluetooth transmitter, as well as a headset to keep my mic quiet during streams. At the moment, though, it isn't important since I can just monitor the audio from my laptop with minimal lag.

Barring 8K being adopted in the mainstream, I should have an extremely versatile setup by the end of it all. I'd be able to swap out the TV without stressing about the overall workflow.

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