Menotek Digital Audio To Analog Audio Converter

I have a Panasonic LCD TV that i just purchased and some old wireless headphones that require analog input. The Panasonic TV has Dolby digital sound out. It's the coaxial audio out (looks like RCA plug but black plastic rather than red or white). Plugged this in using a leftover video coax cable (yellow one) and it worked perfectly.Notes:1) Don't get hung up on the type of digital audio out. Chances are pretty decent that this will work.2) Pay attention to the type of cable you need (coax or fiber). You'll want to have it when this arrives.3) You'll need a plug to plug it into the wall for power4) Packaging was slick - looked like it came from Apple!5) Metal housing! Solid feel and the metal helps shield the output from interference6) On my TV, the digital audio out is always on so there is no fiddling with the TV speakers - hit mute and the headphones work.7) No annoying hum in the headphones. Short cables probably help.This is simply great. I use this in the bedroom - if your cable/dish converter/DVR is available, check to see if you have analog audio outputs. They are typically active all the time - then you would not need this device.

I was a little leery to purchase this product after seeing it's low price on Amazon.Our Son bought us a LG 47" LED for Christmas and after looking for a digital to analog audio converter in some of the big box stores their prices were at least 3 times the cost of this Menotek model, so I wasn’t expecting much. But after reading most of the reviews here I decided to purchase. GOOD CHOICE!Product arrived quickly with standard shipping. Looked to be of good quality construction after I removed it from the box which totally blew me away, not the part but the box. That has to be the first time I ever received a product that has magnets on the box lid to open and close it. (cool! had to save that). If any other buyers got the cool magnetic lid box please comment and let me know, just curious.Our new LG TV had only one digital audio out circuit port or toslink. The toslink cable does not come with the converter and didn't come with our new TV but I think it was under 10 bucks.To get my surround sound I had to hook up to an old 200Watt Pioneer receiver (from back in the day) connecting it with RCA audio cables in which this converter box also accommodates, turning the TV digital toslink signal into analog RCA feed to my stereo. Then just plug in the 12v wall plug and switch your receiver to audio mode … all done … sounds Great. I have been using this product since Christmas every day and still works as good as the day I purchased it.I did notice a slight lose of volume control through my stereo with this box but nothing significant. Still unable to go over three quarter sound range with out rattling the windows. I also read some reviews about background noise or hissing but did not experience any. The manufacture states that this converter is not comparable with Dolby sound which may cause a lot of these problems. But when switching to Dolby on my stereo it seems to have no effect on sound quality one way or the other. Pretty much sounds the same. This is a recommended product in my book.

With this item I was trying to convert the Optical output from my TV to an analog signal so that I can connect my headphones which have a standard AV connector (white and red cables). Some reviews suggest using the cable box which has an AV outlet, however if you choose to do this you only get sound when watching cable. If you have multiple systems like I do (XBOX 360, PS3, WII, etc.), you want to get sound out of your tv so that no matter what you are watching/playing, the sound comes out.I did get some sound out of this, but with a lot of buzzing, and very faded. I also tried the more expensive Gefen model which didn't work either. I finally got the sound to work with the Radio Shack converter model DA-710 (model 15-059 from Radio Shack did not work). On this model there is a switch to choose coaxle or optical. It works perfectly. I now have working headphones from my optical output on the TV.

I had written an initial review with my impressions, mostly expressing disappointment that the DAC was run of the mill 16bit 96khz, but that wasn't listed in the writeup. Seeing audiophile quality converters for the same approximate cost, I ordered one for comparison. It wasn't until I hooked the FiiO unit it up that I realized that the Menotek was emitting a substantial hiss. I had noticed that the spectrum analyzer on my graphic EQ was barely registering a signal, but figured that was the television. It turned out not to be the case, as the FiiO had a much stronger signal maxing out the bars on my analyzer. I also lost the static hiss present when the television was powered off. I would say this unit might be acceptable for wireless headphone or strictly broadcast television, but not for music or bluray viewing.

This converter functions well in the conversion of the digital audio sound from my HDTV to my analog stereo system. Only problem I have noticed is a buzzing noise on my stereo as soon as I turn the HDTV off and the stereo is still on. I just have to remember to turn the stereo off before turning off the HDTV. Somewhat annoying but can live with it since it was half the price of another brand adapter that I looked.

This is your basic digital to analog converter with both the optical /coax digital inputs. I used the optical input to analog RCA outputs. The optical cable did not seem to set positively into the optical socket of the converter, and I had to finagle with the optical cable several times to get it to make a positive connection. It was like - don't touch it and it will work. Other than that, it seems to work fine. Much more reasonably priced than other brands...