I am not sure if this is the right forum for my questions. Feel free to redirect me elsewhere.

I am trying to hook up some external speakers to my TV. My questions are: how do I connect those speakers? What other minimal set of accessories/equipment do I need for the current setup to work?

Current/planned setup: The gadgets that I have hooked up with the TV are PS4, Nintendo Switch, may be a Wii, ChromeCast. I don't expect those connections to proliferate in anyway. Whatever music I have is on phones and such and I try to cast it over to the TV. I want to start with 2 speakers (may be Lunas) and a sub and then at some point use the Lunas for surround and get L/R/C speakers (Sierra-2 or Towers).

My confusions are as follows:

- If I get an AVR, it seems to be an overkill for the setup I have. I do not need like 7 HDMIs and tons of other connections. But this seems like the simplest way to go.

- If I get some amp to drive the speakers, then I'm not sure how I get the audio signal to the amp. And I am not sure if I need other stuff like DAC/Preamp and such. Also, switching on the TV and the amp separately seems like an extra step on a daily basis.

- I was looking at some (stereo) integrated amplifiers but they don't seem to have any HDMI stuff. So I am leaning towards ruling them out. Also, if I expand beyond 2 speakers, a stereo amp won't work.

Any suggestions from experts on my confusions and some brand recommendations based on those suggestions? I want to keep the spending to around $500 plus/minus $100.

Any help is much appreciated.