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As sometimes happens, I began writing a long and detailed article about how I have given up on having my stereo receiver be part of the “AV” system my TV is hooked up to. Quickly I discovered that psu wrote the same article a year and a half ago, in more detail and with better reasoning.

So I’ll just say that tonight is the night I gave up. I unhooked the receiver and speakers, decommissioned the classic Xbox and the DVD player (anything I want to watch anymore I stream from iTunes, and I can use the 360 as a DVD player in a pinch), and moved them out of the room.

The results are interesting. First, my cabinet now has space for games. The room has more space. The wiring in the cabinet is 250% less tangled.

There are other side-effects, though, too. The receiver was always on when I played games. This meant it was always warm. This means the cat slept on it. So in addition to being a fire hazard, it was probably contributing to a substantial portion of my electric bill, not to mention global warming.

I tried Rock Band through the TV speakers. No, it didn’t sound as completely awesome – but it was good enough that I’m willing to pay the small cost in sound quality to regain the use of my living room.

Now if I can just replace the stupid Rock Band controllers with wireless ones, I’ll really be cooking with gas.