Solution/device needed for simple home theater

[aagas]

I have an LG OLED 65" TV.
I have a cable box and an Apple TV as source inputs connected to the TV.
I don't need or want additional inputs.

The TV has both an optical audio output and an HDMI Audio Return Channel (ARC) output.
I want to add four external speakers in a configuration that Magnepan has promoted (see: Magnepan)

center -- left -- TV -- right -- center.

In this configuration the pair of center speakers delivers center speaker sound in applications where one does not otherwise have room above or below the TV for a normal center speaker.

I have powered speakers (with passive crossovers) available to use.

I need a solution/device that can take as an input one of the TV's available audio outputs and then send the proper part of the signal to each of the four powered speakers.

I don't need an AV receiver. I just want something simple.

Thoughts and guidance appreciated.

 

[aagas]

I woke up this morning, wondering if I could do what I want to do with a pair of Hypex FA122 plate amps.

These Hypex devices have optical input.
Each FA122 has 2 amplifier modules (each 125 watts into 4 ohms).
They additionally have DSP and DAC.

I could run the left and right channel of off of one module in each FA122.

Then the question becomes, do I have a way to extract or replicate the center channel signals using the DSP within each FA122 and power the center channel speakers?

I confess, that I don't really know how center channel signals work.

a third discrete signal?
a mono-signal of voice frequency ranges?
something synthetic?​

Thoughts and explanations appreciated.

 

[aagas]

I received the following from miniDSP.

Thanks for your interest in our products.

- Unfortunately we don't have an HDMI based product I'm afraid... Best to look at the AVR/Prepro for such configuration.. it's more common..
- If you can support using TOSLINK(optical) stereo out then I guess that you could do this with a 2x4HD/DDRC-24 or an SHD (audiophile option). You'd manually create your center channel with a mix of L&R, your sub with L&R + Low Pass filter.

Note that we've never setup such setup and some features of the TV (E.g. routing of voices to the center channel) won't be under your control as the center channel isn't coming out of the TV. IT's just stereo. You derive it manually inside the DSP. Does this make sense?

Hoping this info helps and feel free to contact us if you have further questions.

Best Regards
miniDSP DevTeam

I think it does make sense.

Possible way forward.