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On ebay these days, when you go to bid:

"Reminder: Even if you don't bid again, you could still end up as the winning bidder if higher bids are retracted or canceled. Continue to check the status of this item until it ends."

Well that's wonderful. Place a bid, get outbid, go to buy the same thing from a different seller, and you could still be on the hook for the first one. How long has ebay had this policy?

I picked up a cheap but decent set of 5.1 speakers, Logitech model X-530. The sole input is a trio of 1/8" stereo jacks, for left/right front, left/right surround, and center/subwoofer. What I'd like to do is buy something that allows me to take a combination of 2 channel stereo, TOSLink, optical digital, and analog 5.1 sources (like some PC sound cards) and connect to these speakers. So basically an audio receiver, except instead of standard speaker posts, it drives these 5.1 guys. Anyone know of such a beast? Soundblaster has an external sound "card" that has at least some of what I'm looking for, but I'd prefer something that runs even with the computer not turned on.

Much thanks in advance for any advice.