Yes, they're digital only. Everything from the DAC to the amps is inside the box.
And you CAN spend an arm and a leg on Meridian-branded equipment, which... if you know anything about digital... is a complete waste of money.
Your connections are: S/PDIF coax (RCA) and 5-pin DIN for control. And your standard power cable that roughly every piece of high-wattage electronics has shipped with since 1991. So we have a $99 Blu-Ray player and a Chromecast going into a Monoprice switch for the source, and a cheap no-name 5-pin DIN cable for the control.
Same. My parents had some of the first Lexus cars made with those premium Nakamichi soundsystems. They sounded amazing, and broke after two years. Dad actually replaced one... and that one broke after 2 years, too.
In other news, I replaced my computer audio interface. I'd been using a Presonus Audiobox 96 with an ancient Roland MX-5 mixer as volume/preamp. Replaced BOTH with the brand new Focusrite 4i4 (4th gen) and whoa Nelly I did NOT expect the preamps - both for the speakers and for the headphones - to be such a noticable upgrade over what the Presonus and Roland had. (The Roland's were just fine when it was new, but the fucker is 35 years old.)