An edge delta runlength (EDRL) expander circuit includes an EDRL stream decoder. The symbols comprising EDRL streams are preferably entropy encoded. In order to maintain symbol alignment the EDRL stream decoder includes a barrel shifter that receives the encoded data stream and is controlled by a feedback loop indicating symbol code length. In one embodiment the feedback loop includes a modulo-n adder, where n is the length of an input codeword bit pattern of the data stream.