sound streamer / receiver

I assume you want a processor or AVR, but why the optical out? Normally the processor or pre amplifier section of the AVR accept signals fromsources and then send that signal to the power amplifier section which then sends the signal to the speakers. You wouldn’t want optical out unless your AVR had a built in source, such as a CD player or streamer, and then you wished to bypass the DAC in your AVR/source and use an external DAC. Can you be more specific about what you are trying to achieve?

@mahler123   - thank you for your reply - great question.

I have active speakers (space constrained in a room) and would like to have the visual signal separated from sound from the signal source (vs having to send it out via the TV)

Are you using other sources besides the TV?  And do your speakers accept HDMI inputs?

the speakers only accept some complex protocol of ethernet signals (meridian audio DPS 5200 Special Edition :) ) . It has a streamer which can accept optical in. I've tried other Multimedia processors of meridian with it - never really worked.

The only input I am trying to use is hdmi for this. Regular audio input from a turn table works fine where there's no video.

According to online manual, the speakers have coax, not optical, both in and out.  And there is no mention of a streamer contained within the speakers

The Trinnov Altitude 16 with the latest HDMI 2.1 board will accept 8K and can output digital over optical or coaxial for some of the channels.

Otherwise I think Meridian is expecting you to use their controller with Trinnov, Datasat, or Storm Audio. Is that the Meridian processor configuration you weren't able to get working?

@mahler123 210 Streamer | Meridian Audio (meridian-audio.com) I use this to send sound signals to the speaker. (I use ethernet cables from 210 to the meridian speakers

For the above problem I was looking to split the sound before the TV to send to the speakers.

What I could never get working was connect Meridian HD 621 [which promises the same features but could not get it to work]. HD 621 does send hdmi signals out to the TV - but could not get the sound to work. I've tried all the ports including the RS 232  -> Ethernet and then connecting that to the speaker link in of the 210 Streamer.

@krams perhaps the Meridian HD 621 does not support the audio codecs you are using, from your HDMI source. It was introduced quite a long time ago. There is a newer Meridian UHD722 but I suspect you might need the Meridian 271 with one of the processors I mentioned earlier. Have you asked your Meridian dealer?

thanks for the insights @nekoaudio