Thinking about upgrading to Thunderbolt display but a lot of hoops to jump through

Thinking about upgrading to a Thunderbolt display in order to get some 2560x1440 screen action. However, in order to do so from my Mac Mini, I'll have to use the Thunderbolt port & one usb port out of the mac mini to connect into the thunderbolt display.

The drawback to all this is that currently, I send my video & audio signal from mac mini via hdmi to my audio receiver. Then from the receiver it goes via hdmi to my monitor

With the thunderbolt display it seems like Ill have to go directly from Mac Mini to Thunderbolt display. Then what do I do with the audio? Get a TosLink cable to go to my receiver with?

It sounds like that's the best audio & best video quality to get from the mac mini. I guess I'm just hoping someone out there can confirm this. Seems like a lot of cable work to get the best audio & video from my Mac Mini.

Dustin