WyreStorm Essentials (Express) Digital to Analog Audio Converter & Downmixing | Compatible with Dolby (Renewed)

Worked perfectly to convert my older Bose Cinemate system from analog output to digital for new Samsung TV. The only reason I gave 4 instead of 5 stars is because the input select switch cover was missing. In fairness, the company did try to replace but found all the converters they had were missing that particular part. They ended up giving us a $10 credit back to our card, which I thought was a nice gesture.

Upgraded to a new television(Samsung) and my Bose Cinemate system would not work with the new television (different connections). My Bose system is over 10 years old and connected to my old television via analog cables. I tried other Analog to Digital connectors but none of them worked. This was the only one that worked and I would highly recommend this item!!

Good: Low distortion, low jitter, and low spurious tones below 48kHz (measured by Focusrite Scarlett Solo) (better than Gefen or Muxlab dolby down mixer). Low power consumption (guessed by not hot aluminum enclosure).Bad (defective): Left and right audio channels are swapped. When it does Dolby 5.1 to 2.0 down-mix, and then it does 2.0 to 2.0, the sound level increases by about 10dB. The down mixer in a Sony blu-ray player showed consistent sound level, no matter whether it did 5.1 to 2.0 or 2.0 to 2.0.Disks used for the test: Pierre Verany Digital Test CD, Cinderella DVD (Disney), Wow World of Wonder DVD (Disney).Disk players used: Sony DVP-SR510H, Sony BDP-S6500, Mac mini with external Toshiba DVD driveNot bad or defective, but FYI: the output level of this Wyrestorm from 0dBFS PCM is about 0.7 Vrms. This is lower than typical 2 Vrms (Gefen or Muxlab's output was about 1.9 Vrms). The polarity of the analogue output from PCM source is inverted.Added on 1/23/2016.I tested another disk player: LG BP550 blu-ray player. It behaves like the Sony players. No matter whether it does 5.1 to 2.0 or 2.0 to 2.0, the perceived audio volume level is consistent (e.g. we can switch back and forth between 5.1 track and 2.0 track in Cinderella DVD (Disney)), which is by common sense correct. When I let WyreStorm do 5.1 to 2.0, there is uncomfortable amount of volume change depending on whether it does 5.1 to 2.0 or 2.0 to 2.0. Of course, auto DRC was off on the Blu-ray players in all my tests.Another strange thing is that WyreStorm US tech support seems to have no idea about how Dolby downmixing should be. They do not even defend their products by saying something like "Although our product's behavior is different from that of the Sony disk players, our products are also doing correct Dolby downmixing, because . . . . bla bla bla . . . . " All they say is that they can assist me if I have problem in returning the product to the retailer. However, they wrote twice that they do not support products purchased at Amazon.They did not say anything technical about the left right channel swap either. They just suggested me to return the product to the seller, again and again.