Passive speakers instead of studio monitors?

[Karsn]

I dont have a pair of studio monitors like most people who's producing music. I don't really want to spend more money on speakers right now, so i use my passive speakers hocked up to my av-receiver in my livingroom. I have a Mac with my DAW on it, and the sound is transfered via hdmi from the graphics card through the receiver to the speakers.
Im starting this thread to ask if that's a good solution. I guess most of you guys who have studio monitors also own an audio interface to improve audio. I know that the receiver "processes" the sound so do i need to buy an external audio interface? Would that do anything good?

 

[krushing]

An audio interface wouldn't really do much in this particular situation, as you'd still need that receiver's amp to get sound out of the setup. Since the audio signal going through HDMI is digital, that means that you're now using that receiver as your digital-to-analog converter (which is normally what the audio interface does, among other stuff). So - nothing really wrong with the current solution. The only thing you might be able to gain would be better d/a conversion, but if that amp of yours is any good, there probably won't be a drastic change either way unless you pour some serious money into the interface. Conversion is important, but it's nowadays often blown way out of proportion - the bottom line is that even the lowliest converters in built-in soundchips are pretty decent, and the high end stuff is just the last 10% push to get everything perfect; the differences between sub-$1000 interfaces are super subtle.