Amazon Basics 4K HDMI Extractor Review

[oal]

The 24MHz clock is actually just a crystal as a clock source for the chip itself. The audio clocks are regenerated from the HDMI stream and all the timing is determined by the HDMI source.

Edit: You can find more info about HDMI audio jitter in this link (leading to our company website with a product presentation): https://audiopraise.com/projects/internal/vanitypro/hdmi-audio-jitter/
How the audio clocks are determined from the HDMI stream is explained in the linked article from OPPO knowledge base, useful to read.

I see now, the 24MHz oscillator is for External Crystal Input of the EP92A3E chip.
Also, thank you for the link. It was a good read.

 

[Firespeed]

Hello,

I've tried this HDMI extractor and send it back to Amazon...

• do not comply with ARC or eARC (was not mentioned in the Amazon's description page (FR) neither in the manual received)
• degrades video signal : 4K (2160p) input ---> FHD (1080p) in output (tested with multiple HDMI cables witch comply with HDMI 2.1 standard).
• limited to 4K/30hz output as described in the manual...my TV works fine up to 120hz...

It works perfectly to extract audio on both coax and optical output. But I needed the video signal to stay as good it was in input (min 4K/60Hz)...

Thanks to all.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Just got an imported generic extractor and tried it with a Pi 3A+. It works great, as well as most audio HATs I've tried.

 

[MrOtto]

Does a Samsung TV output un-resampled bitperfect stream on HDMI Arc, and no resampling in this HDMI extractor?

Does the TV output every kind of input on the HDMI Arc output?

 

[Audiomn]

Does a Samsung TV output un-resampled bitperfect stream on HDMI Arc, and no resampling in this HDMI extractor?

Does the TV output every kind of input on the HDMI Arc output?

I’m mainly familiar with LG which has a pass through setting. If your Samsung has the same, it should be bitperfect

 

[bigguyca]

AVR-X8500HA 13.2 Ch. AV Amplifier with 3D Audio | Denon™

13.2 Channel 150W AV Receiver, Monolithic amplifier design with two separate heatsinks, IMAX Enhanced, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, DTS Virtual:X, Auro-3D, 8 HDMI inputs, 3 HDMI outputs, including eARC HDMI, Audyssey MultEQ XT32, Dynamic Volume/EQ, LFC, Sub EQ HT, Voice control with Amazon Alexa, Siri...

www.denon.com

I have not seen one mention on the marketing material of the DAC chip used, none. Not only marketing people don't care about that, their buyers don't care about that neither. No company will use unneeded more expensive than necessary components in hope to sell more stuff just for the chip model. Beside maybe some extremely woo boutique stuff that pride themselves with discrete op amps and 200$ film capacitors, but this is not for general public.

 

[Audiomn]

View attachment 255359

Do you have the right thread?

 

[bigguyca]

Do you have the right thread?

Your post included in reference to the X8500HA:

I have not seen one mention on the marketing material of the DAC chip used, none.

The post shows Denon marketing material that includes in which DAC IC is used in which AVR.

 

[simplywyn]

Can you do a comparison to the television? I get that these devices are done in a vacuum, but how much better is it? It's extracting the audio from HDMI but my televsion also extracts audio from a HDMI and sends into my DAC via optical.

Nobdy has actually done any work on this yet.

 

[Audiomn]

Can you do a comparison to the television? I get that these devices are done in a vacuum, but how much better is it? It's extracting the audio from HDMI but my televsion also extracts audio from a HDMI and sends into my DAC via optical.

Nobdy has actually done any work on this yet.

If your TV has bitperfect pass-through, then there’s no difference. If your TV is downsampling, resampling or converting then the extractor will be far better.

 

[simplywyn]

If your TV has bitperfect pass-through, then there’s no difference. If your TV is downsampling, resampling or converting then the extractor will be far better.

How do I know if my TV has bit-perfect pass through?

 

[Audiomn]

Generally it’s a menu option. Which model TV do you have?

 

[mdsimon2]

How do I know if my TV has bit-perfect pass through?

Measure it with a TOSLINK input audio interface. The options below are less than $50.

https://hifimediy.com/product/hifime-ur23-spdif-optical-to-usb-converter/ (up to 96 kHz)
https://hifimediy.com/product/s2-digi/ (up to 192 kHz)

I can say that my TV certainly isn't bit perfect -> https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...nd-path-for-tvs-optical-out.24076/post-811823 and this results in audible dropouts.

Michael

 

[Diego Humanes]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Amazon Basics 4K HDMI extractor. Member kindly purchased and drop shipped it to me. It normally costs $22.89 but was on sale for just $5!!!
View attachment 245854
The case is the standard metal one for these kinds of adapters. Power is provided with a supplied USB-A to barrel (9 volt) connector. I powered it using the hub in my computer monitor. As you see a nice switch forces the digital output to be either stereo or 5.1.

View attachment 245855

Pass-through HDMI connector is naturally provided as well as Toslink, Coax and analog stereo 3.5mm outputs.

Amazon Basics HDMI Extractor Analog Measurements
I started testing by feeding it HDMI and capturing analog output:
View attachment 245856

Not very pretty but hard to expect anything more remotely close to this price point. Output is low by desktop DAC standards but should be enough to drive most amplifiers.

I was pleasantly surprised by the dynamic range being nearly 16 bits:
View attachment 245857

I could tell there was jitter from the dashboard and our dedicated test shows that and then some:
View attachment 245858

Linearity indicates some kind of truncation to 16 bits:
View attachment 245859

IMD test shows high noise+distortion:
View attachment 245860

Paradoxically, multitone response is quite respectable:
View attachment 245864

That is like due to lower output level used in Multitone test.

Frequency response is good:
View attachment 245861

Filtering of out of band, not so good:
View attachment 245862

Which causes problems for our wideband noise and distortion test:
View attachment 245863

Amazon Basics HDMI Extractor Digital Performance:
I hooked up to the coax output and got this dashboard:
View attachment 245865

146 dB is the ideal performance of 24 bit PCM data and we are getting that. This means that the device transparently passes the digital data from HDMI to Coax with no funny conversion to 16 bits and such. This means you can hook up your own high-performance DAC and get proper analog output.

Conclusions
It is incredible how cheap electronic devices can get despite their complexities. Here we not only have an HDMI extractor but a DAC as well. To have this full functionality ship for total of $22 is incredible. No, the DAC is nothing to write home about but for everyday use it should be fine. And if you need better, you can get yourself a $100 DAC and be good to go. Inversely, you can think of this as $22 to add HDMI input to any DAC with Toslink/Coax input!

I am going to put the Amazon Basics HDMI Extractor on my recommended list. It is an incredible bargain.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Why no spdif (coax and toslink) jitter test like in dacs instead of analog out? Coax is the one most will use..

 

[simplywyn]

Generally it’s a menu option. Which model TV do you have?

Sony x900f

 

[VeerK]

To answer myself:
The extractor does not support ARC and CEC. So it is not even possible to connect it to TV directly and send TV's sound throuh it and convert it to analog.

Thanks for posting this, I was going to buy one so I could have all my video devices connect to my TV via HDMI, then send audio out the HDMI eARC port to an extractor. Someone else posted this eARC extractor, might give it a shot.

 

[damirj79]

Thanks for posting this, I was going to buy one so I could have all my video devices connect to my TV via HDMI, then send audio out the HDMI eARC port to an extractor. Someone else posted this eARC extractor, might give it a shot.

There are many eARC/ARC extractors, just depends if you need CEC functions also to control volume with TV remote for example. In that case there are not so many (working) options any more. The model on the link has digital outputs only, so for sure no volume control.

 

[Diego Humanes]

I bought this on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.es/dp/B07QLTDDHT

It converts to coaxial to my dac, however it doesn't do CEC volume control, even enabled. The Tv detects the volume commands (ARC Vol + and -) but it doesn't change in coax out. Also it seems to pass PCM, my tv can't select bitstream, although the extractor does DD/DTS.