is there an (AV receiver) type device that doesn't have amplifier/preamplifiers?

Search for an HDMI breakout box. Quality varies.

Good luck huntin’

thanks. but what i need would have to be able to connect to my plinius amp. so would need rca connections

My current cable box, and every other cable box I've had in the past, had L&R analog audio outputs as well as some type of digital audio output (either coax or toslink optical digital). Your cable box likely has some type audio output that is independent of HDMI. If it does have analog R&L RCA outputs or some type of digital audio outputs, you can connect the HDMI cable directly from your cable box to your projector. You would then hook up the L&R analog outputs from the cable box to one of the line level inputs on the Plinius, or connect the digital output (coax or optical) to a DAC and the output of the DAC would connect to a line level input on your Pinius via RCA L&R interconnect cables. A DAC is a digital to analog converter. It converts a digital audio signal to analog so you can then connect it to one of the line level inputs on your Plinius Integrated amp.

thanks for you reply.

my new cable box doesn’t have any analog outputs. (although my older one does, lol) my new cable box does have an optical output, though.

my plinius obviously doesn’t have optical inputs. so maybe ill look into the DA converter option you mentioned.

i wonder though, about what other processing would be currently going on inside my receiver, that would still be required besides just the DA conversion, band are there external DAC's that are made to handle this?

for example, i assume some audio sources will be stereo (ie. a news broadcast?) . while others would be multi-channel surround. as in movies?

so with nothing else in the chain but

my cable box --> optical out --> DAC --> Plinius RCA inputs,

Im not sure everything would sound correct?

I thought about going from cable box hdmi out --> right to my projector and that would be my first choice, as it eliminates an entire component that is supposedly doing nothing. but of course that only takes care of the video, and not the audio.

If you are only using your two front main speakers you don't need the AV receiver. An optical cable connected to a DAC, then to the Plinius will work just fine. I've done it many times over the years. You may need to go into the setup menu on your cable box and choose your optical output and/or 2 channel audio. But somewhere in your current chain it is downmixing any multi-channel audio to 2-channel stereo, or else your missing a lot of content (such as discrete center channel dialog and/our surround effects). But it's probable set up correctly now and down-converting to 2-channel audio somewhere in your current chain.

You can get a decent DAC for $150 or less. Buy it through a source with easy returns, such as Amazon. Return it if you can't get it to work for you. I'm confident it will work.