AudioPraise VanityPRO

The increasing prominence of Blu-ray explains why a device to extract audio from an HDMI stream has become necessary. At first, Blu-ray players had HDMI outputs for video and audio, but to speed their adoption, they also sported analog audio outputs to help users who had older AV receivers (AVRs). Bye the bye, those audio outputs were pared off. First, the multichannel jacks, then the stereo jacks, and finally the S/PDIF jacks were eliminated. In parallel, dedicated SACD players began to disappear, except at the very high end. The result: Most players, including so-called universal disc players that handle CD, DVD, Blu-ray, and often SACD, output only HDMI. If you want to get audio out, HDMI is the only way. Those of us who want to play discs on our dedicated audio systems, few of which are compatible with HDMI, have long sought out breakout boxes to extract audio from the HDMI stream. Those legacy players with other outputs won’t last forever.

HDMI audio extractors aren’t new, but most are cheesy gadgets targeted at users of older, non-HDMI