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Orei HDA-939 HDMI Audio Extractor Review

Rate this AV Converter/Extractor:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 13 11.2%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 42 36.2%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 54 46.6%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 7 6.0%

  • Total voters
    116

Jaimo

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I think what you are paying for here are the CODECs (Dolby, DTS),
The two HDMI outs one multichannel audio only, the subpar DAC, etc. But yes the Delta is quite large.
Thanks for the clarification! I’ve tried setting up home theatre systems on two occasions and while I got a great picture from an Epson projector, the my Onkyo / Polk audio 7.1 system turned out underwhelming. I’m happily back to my 2.1 stereo.
 

OREI

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Here is a detailed review of what HDA-939 can do.

 

kevin1969

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I have been using this selector since 2020 and it works without any issues. It is very well built and I’ve often wondered how it will test against the Amazon Basics unit…

HDMI Switch 4 in 1 Out, TESmart... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07HH1LTTK?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Can you confirm if this device requires the use of ARC to access the audio signal? I'd literally just posted a question before I saw that this device might be what I need.
 

Jaimo

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Can you confirm if this device requires the use of ARC to access the audio signal? I'd literally just posted a question before I saw that this device might be what I need.
I have are three HDMI inputs and
One HDMI out - no separate audio connection. The Toslink audio out is separated from the HDMI signals so yes, I guess I’m using ARC HDMI.

Hope this helps.
 

da Choge

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Dec 31, 2018
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Just bought the HDA-939 off Amazon. No audio HDCP fall-out issues when using it with my AT&T U-verse receiver (Marantz SR6014 used as a pass-through), like I have with my Atlona AT-HDR-M2C unit (see post #35). BUT, every time I try to switch to Roku, the video appears for 5+ seconds, then disappears (much like an HDCP sync issue), and I can't get it back unless I start the whole process over again (but the video, and audio, always drop out again after seconds). Even with the U-verse, although no audio drop-outs, there are mild lip-sync issues with the HDA-939. Don't know what it is with the Roku? Could it be settings on my Marantz (CEC or e-ARC settings?). Any ideas?
 
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VeerK

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Jan 29, 2019
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I'm using the baby Orei HDMI eARC/ARC to Optical Converter, so while Amir didn't measure it, I'm glad that the big brother has flawless digital to digital extraction. I'm running a chain at my desk where I have my PC, PS5, and MacBook Pro connected via HDMI 2.1 to my LC 48" C1 OLED, and then the EARC HDMI out to the Baby Orei TOSLINK, which feeds into my MiniDSP Flex Digital, where I have EQ and channel routing, to my Topping D90s to Topping A90, finally out to my Kali LP6v2. As far as I can tell, no issues with latency or jitter to worry about, which is fantastic. I can't believe everything just worked out lol
 

PGAMiami

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Cheaper, previously more available, extractors didn't work with bitstream signals, only with LPCM multichannel. This unit seems to work with both and does a very good job digitally.

I use a commercial grade 4K Atlona HDMI AT-HDR-M2C Multichannel Converter: View attachment 272597

to take the HDMI multichannel output of my bedroom AVR (Marantz SR8015) and de-embed and downmix Dolby/DTS soundtrack and other multichannel music audio signals (from my ATT U-Verse, Roku, or Roon sources) to its toslink output which then transmits the digital downmixed stereo signal to my remote Sennheiser Digital Wireless RS 175 Headphone setup. Don't know the quality of the DAC in the Sennheiser, but this way I can listen to all the "goodness" of downmixed 7.1 audio via a wireless stereo headphone system in privacy without disturbing others in the household. It sounds very good, especially if I engage some of the "surround" settings of the Sennheiser. However, as costly as the Atlona unit is, Atlona hasn't figured out all of their HDCP bugs and very occasionally, when switching channels, it loses the audio track which requires a reboot of my Marantz (think it's the U-Verse module that has this issue, because it never happens with Roku or Roon).

I very much like this setup, but the Orei HDA-939 Extractor may be very tempting, first because of its much more affordable cost, and second, with newer technology, it may not [edited 2023/03/31] have these annoying HDCP bugs (hopefully with UniVersal [pun intended] compatibility).
Do you know if the also downmixes LFE into the two channels? I understand the Orei product does not downmix LFE
 

da Choge

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Do you know if the also downmixes LFE into the two channels? I understand the Orei product does not downmix LFE
Don't really know the answer to that question. The following is in the manual regarding the Atlona's indicator lights and their meanings. It does specify 5.1 and 7.1 multi-channel streams, but I don't know if it means that the LFE channel is always downmixed into the stereo stream or not, but I'd guess so:

D Dolby Digital; lossy audio format supporting up to 5.1 channels
D+ Dolby Digital Plus; lossy audio format supporting up to 5.1 channels plus support for higher
bitrates.
HD Dolby TrueHD; lossless audio format supporting up to 7.1 channels
PCM Indicates the presence of two-channel, 5.1, or 7.1 LPCM audio formats
DTS® Indicates DTS 5.1
DTS-HD Indicates DTS-HD Master Audio™ or DTS:X; combined lossy/lossless audio format supporting up
to 7.1 channels
 

jitter063

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Don't really know the answer to that question. The following is in the manual regarding the Atlona's indicator lights and their meanings. It does specify 5.1 and 7.1 multi-channel streams, but I don't know if it means that the LFE channel is always downmixed into the stereo stream or not, but I'd guess so:

D Dolby Digital; lossy audio format supporting up to 5.1 channels
D+ Dolby Digital Plus; lossy audio format supporting up to 5.1 channels plus support for higher
bitrates.
HD Dolby TrueHD; lossless audio format supporting up to 7.1 channels
PCM Indicates the presence of two-channel, 5.1, or 7.1 LPCM audio formats
DTS® Indicates DTS 5.1
DTS-HD Indicates DTS-HD Master Audio™ or DTS:X; combined lossy/lossless audio format supporting up
to 7.1 channels
The metadata stores the height and additional bedlayer channels like front wide.

I wonder how Dolby Atmos (MAT) is handled?

Is anyone using this as a HDMI passthru in / out noticing benefits?
 

JktHifi

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Mar 9, 2023
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I won’t use RCA. Just want to extract HDMI to Coax/Spdif out with Dolby & DTS processing capability.
 

kevin1969

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I recently bought this product and it's great. It's the only audio extraction solution I could find out there which didn't rely on an ARC. I have an Optima HDR39HDRx projector and am using Google Chromecast 4k as my source and have the extractor set up to pass the Dolby 5.1 signal to my Bluesound Powernode through the optical out. The Powernode handles all of the downmixing to 2ch and the sound quality is phenomenal.

I'll post more details later but if anybody has questions or something they want me to test let me know.
 

Fench

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I recently bought this product and it's great. It's the only audio extraction solution I could find out there which didn't rely on an ARC. I have an Optima HDR39HDRx projector and am using Google Chromecast 4k as my source and have the extractor set up to pass the Dolby 5.1 signal to my Bluesound Powernode through the optical out. The Powernode handles all of the downmixing to 2ch and the sound quality is phenomenal.

I'll post more details later but if anybody has questions or something they want me to test let me know.
Looks like the simpler Orei HDA-912 would suit your needs as well: 4K HDMI (no ARC) to optical 5.1.
Special feature of the HDA-939 at its price is the downmixing from 5.1 to 2.0 coaxial/optical SPDIF, but that is processed by your Bluesound Powernode. Can you hear any difference between downmixing by the HDA-939 and downmixing by the Bluesound?
 

kevin1969

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Looks like the simpler Orei HDA-912 would suit your needs as well: 4K HDMI (no ARC) to optical 5.1.
Special feature of the HDA-939 at its price is the downmixing from 5.1 to 2.0 coaxial/optical SPDIF, but that is processed by your Bluesound Powernode. Can you hear any difference between downmixing by the HDA-939 and downmixing by the Bluesound?
I haven't tested it yet but I'm going to because it will downmix to both the coax and optical at the same time and I bought an Avantree wireless headphone thingy which has optical in but if the downmixing doesn't sound as good as the Bluesound I can use an other OREI D34 to downmix the coax out to the wireless.

I do computer networking for a living and I'm always amazed that this stuff even works.

Now if only Tripplite would just add USB ports to its rack mount power strips.
 

Fench

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I haven't tested it yet but I'm going to because it will downmix to both the coax and optical at the same time and I bought an Avantree wireless headphone thingy which has optical in but if the downmixing doesn't sound as good as the Bluesound I can use an other OREI D34 to downmix the coax out to the wireless.

Thanks in advance for the testing.

Using the Orei DA34 to first convert 5.1 digital to 2.0 analog and then have the Avantree convert the analog back to digital for bluetooth transmission, should work, but probably not as well as feeding the Avantree with 2.0 optical.
 
Last edited:

RosalieTheDog

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Looks like the simpler Orei HDA-912 would suit your needs as well: 4K HDMI (no ARC) to optical 5.1.
Special feature of the HDA-939 at its price is the downmixing from 5.1 to 2.0 coaxial/optical SPDIF, but that is processed by your Bluesound Powernode. Can you hear any difference between downmixing by the HDA-939 and downmixing by the Bluesound?
Sincere question. Why would there be a difference?
 

Fench

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Sincere question. Why would there be a difference?
Orei says about the digital downmix process: "It also can process (Sound Channel Superposition) LPCM (up to 7.1CH) audio, and then output the audio as stereo (LPCM 2.0) over HDMI OUTPUT 2(Audio only), digital (optical and coaxial) or RCA (analog) audio port."

Intuitively, mixing two analog sound signals seems easy to me: just connect the two grounds and the two live wires of which the amplitudes (voltage) add up, done.
However to combine multiple digital signals into one, some mixing algorithm should be applied. Algorithms can differ. I'm no expert on this, hence the question if there's any audible difference.
 

RosalieTheDog

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Orei says about the digital downmix process: "It also can process (Sound Channel Superposition) LPCM (up to 7.1CH) audio, and then output the audio as stereo (LPCM 2.0) over HDMI OUTPUT 2(Audio only), digital (optical and coaxial) or RCA (analog) audio port."

Intuitively, mixing two analog sound signals seems easy to me: just connect the two grounds and the two live wires of which the amplitudes (voltage) add up, done.
However to combine multiple digital signals into one, some mixing algorithm should be applied. Algorithms can differ. I'm no expert on this, hence the question if there's any audible difference

Orei says about the digital downmix process: "It also can process (Sound Channel Superposition) LPCM (up to 7.1CH) audio, and then output the audio as stereo (LPCM 2.0) over HDMI OUTPUT 2(Audio only), digital (optical and coaxial) or RCA (analog) audio port."

Intuitively, mixing two analog sound signals seems easy to me: just connect the two grounds and the two live wires of which the amplitudes (voltage) add up, done.
However to combine multiple digital signals into one, some mixing algorithm should be applied. Algorithms can differ. I'm no expert on this, hence the question if there's any audible difference.
Perhaps my question is also: why not change the source output setting? (put Netflix on 'stereo' for example ...).
 

Fench

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Perhaps my question is also: why not change the source output setting? (put Netflix on 'stereo' for example ...).
Indeed, that would obsolete the downmixing. I can't do without it because i own a bunch of DVDs without stereo layer, just 5.1 which comes out of my HDMI audio extractor and which i want converted to stereo for my old but fine stereo amplifier.
I can set the extractor to 2.0 but then my disk player downsamples SACDs and High Fidelity Pure Audio discs (HFPA) to 44.1 and 48 kHz, respectively.
 
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kevin1969

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Thanks in advance for the testing.

Using the Orei DA34 to first convert 5.1 digital to 2.0 analog and then have the Avantree convert the analog back to digital for bluetooth transmission, should work, but probably not as well as feeding the Avantree with 2.0 optical.

Yeah that's a good point. I guess I'll find out once I try it. Not that would make a difference but the Avantree is their multipoint 2.4 wireless system not Bluetooth although I did get their 2 client Bluetooth box just to try it out. I was shocked at how small but transmitter and receivers are. I guess I always assume that electronics are going to be at least the size of an Apple TV.
 

kevin1969

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Orei says about the digital downmix process: "It also can process (Sound Channel Superposition) LPCM (up to 7.1CH) audio, and then output the audio as stereo (LPCM 2.0) over HDMI OUTPUT 2(Audio only), digital (optical and coaxial) or RCA (analog) audio port."

Intuitively, mixing two analog sound signals seems easy to me: just connect the two grounds and the two live wires of which the amplitudes (voltage) add up, done.
However to combine multiple digital signals into one, some mixing algorithm should be applied. Algorithms can differ. I'm no expert on this, hence the question if there's any audible difference.
I think the Bluesound Powernode has some sort of center channel enhancement feature but the weather here in Colorado is going to be crap all week so I won't be able to test the ORei downmix because it's for my outdoor setup but when I do I'll let you know.
 
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