Port-ta I believe makes the Monoprice unit. They are in Hong Kong. I originally got the Port-ta unit from E-Bay Australia (that was the only place I can find it) and then I told my friend about the unit who was going to buy the $3k Marantz SACD player. He found that Monoprice had the unit and I bought one and they obviously are identical. He then bought the unit and uses it in lieu of the SACD player with his Bryston DAC.
I've never tried anything for audio except the coax digital output so I can't tell how anything about the other outputs, although I really can't imagine for the $44 or so that Monoprice sells it for that they are of great quality. There are other more expensive de-embedder. Atlona makes them (Markertek sells them) and they have analog outs. I believe Extron also makes one that is $300?
I take the coax digital output from the de-embedder into my Bryston DAC in the main system (and Emotiva DAC in the secondary basement system) which then feeds my 2-channel pre-amp via the DAC's balanced outs. As noted I also use an upgraded power supply on it.
I did try the HDMI switch in the unit for about 2 minutes and it looked fine. I only use it to extract hi-rez 2-channel music to go into the DACs You would probably be better off with a player if you want to use the analog outs.
John Gatski of everythingaudio.net has an Oppo BDP-95 and still uses his Atlona de-embedder into his Benchmark DAC vs. the analog outs of the BDP-95. The de-embedder is a good product for someone who has or wants a good DAC. If you have a good DAC, you're probably going to hear the equivalent of a $3k SACD player, give or take, by using the unit.
For me personally, with the number of SACDs I have, I really can't see spending $4-5k on an SACD player to get around the same level of quality. The Bryston BDA-1 is a great unit for the money. I've tried several SACDs through the analog outs of my modded Oppo-BDP-83 (which is probably the equivalent of a $2.5k SACD player) and while the high frequencies are probably a tad better, the imaging and overall presentation is just better through the Bryston. I'm not a big fan of high cost digital or even video (done that before and the technology changes rapidly). If I were to get a digital product, it would either be a DAC or a player (like the BDP-1). There will be a point when drives are no longer available (like the BCD-1 which I used to own) in a player. I sold an old Micomega (DuoPro) DAC I had that I got used and was around 16 years old when I sold it and still sounded excellent on CDs. It sounded very much like the BCD-1 (the bass was better and more defined in the BCD-1). There aren't many disc players that last 16 years.
