Meridian did make digtial-to-the-speaker connections from their receivers. It used MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing), which then became the basis of the DVD-Audio format, and then was purchased by Dolby for the core of the TrueHD format.
But now with all the DRM encumbrances I don't imagine we'll be seeing another digital speaker connection. Not that it made a lot of sense back then either. Although I would like to see more "active" speakers with built in amps, active crossovers, and line-level connections.
