Beni_Skate

1,477 orders since Jan 01, 2017

Kalsdorf, Styria, Austria

Ships from Austria.

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Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.92)

Documentation: (4.33)

Shipping: (4.79)

Communication: (4.76)

All Reviews

William | Aug. 25, 2024

Great product, great service, great price !

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Had a few questions and got clear understandable & helpful answers without delay. Purchased and shipped on 8/18/24 and delivered to me in the U S on 8/24/24. Unpacked, Great solid packaging, and installed that day. I could not be happier with this product. It solved and eliminated a too small to see optical switch with a remote that worked only sometimes, as well as an optical splitter and a bunch of optical cables. I Use it to manage two different input sources that connect to two speakers. This unit just works as described - PERFECTLY !. A great find at a reasonable price backed by world class service. I give this transaction my strongest positive recommendation.

Aaron | March 14, 2024

Great product, quick shipping

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Excellent little device. Build quality is excellent, no loose ports. Works exactly as described and the built-in DAC sounds excellent to my ears. No loss of detail with high-res audio. The switching function works exactly as described. I am using this to switch between PC audio and TV audio, with the TV acting as a monitor for the PC occasionally. I have the PC on the highest priority input which allows me to hear the PC audio when using the TV as a monitor. Design is extremely elegant, the metal chassis brings it up a notch. Shipping was pretty quick for an international order, it took longer making it thru my home country's postal service than it did to get here from Austria haha. Thanks for the amazing product.

Greg | Dec. 24, 2023

Does exactly what I needed!

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

I've got a RPi based streamer which just had digital coax from the HAT and I wanted to add a CD transport as an option, but this also used digital coax but my DAC only has a single digital coax input. I couldn't find anything that seemed to quite be what I needed until this came up in my search results, and it seemed to fit the bill. Just arrived and I cabled it up, and it works perfectly!

Ben | Dec. 20, 2023

Works perfectly! Switches between my TV & PC

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Setup:
I have a windows 10 PC and LG G3 TV that both share a stereo speaker setup with optical input. I got the 4 optical input to single optical out unit. This setup works great with the TV in the furthest left input (1st priority) and the pc in the 2nd priority slot.

Quality:
Build quality and sound quality are excellent. I didn't notice any issues with sound coming through and the enclosure is very nice quality.

Ease of use:
This is where your experience will vary the most. I highly recommend reading through the documentation and other reviews so you understand how the switching logic works and to make sure it will work for your use case. It helps to research the behavior of both the switch and your own devices in your setup to know whether it will work and how.

Specific Example:
I have a TV and PC sharing the same space. For my use case I wanted the TV to take priority, as whenever I'm using the TV I won't be needing the PC's sound output. Or if I'm using the TV as a display for the PC, I would still be able to use the TV's output to get the correct sound. Given that setup I needed to figure out the behavior of my devices. I found that the TV will output a valid signal whenever powered on and no signal when powered off. The PC outputs a valid signal only when actively playing sound and sends an invalid signal when the output is silent and the PC is on. Given that behavior, the switching logic works exactly how I would want with the TV in the first priority and the PC in the second. Whenever the TV is on, it will grab priority from the PC. Even if the PC sends a signal, the TV will keep the output because its a higher priority. Only once I turn off the TV will the switch return to the PC. It took me a bit to figure out how exactly that would work, so make sure to think through your setup!

Lapsley | Dec. 18, 2023

Unexpected benefits

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

I ordered this unit primarily as needing a toslink switch for a streamer and a CD player to be routed to an external DAC. I was previously using an optical switch purchased from Amazon, but noticed a slight degradation of the sound compared to bypassing the switch. So I found Benjamin’s switch (without the optional DAC) available here on Tindie. After receiving the item and installing it into my stereo system I was immediately surprised at the improved quality of the sound. And it was an improvement not just over the previous switch but a significant improvement overall in the sound.

I believe the changes could be attributed to the following, per the written description of the components that include a: “ High quality Wolfson audio processor with 7 inputs to de-jitter and refine the signal (not just a simple digital switch!)”.

Anyway about it, it’s an excellent device and highly recommended.

Andrew | Nov. 21, 2023

Works as advertised, though serial control is not ideal

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

This device automatically switches reliably and as expected. The only thing preventing it from being five stars is that there is no way to completely disable automatic switching via serial control.

Daniel | Oct. 1, 2023

Worked as advertised, highly recommended

For tinyToslink - Raspberry Pi Optical Audio

Setup was a bit tricky. It didn't work out of the box. Here is my writeup on how I managed to get it working: https://danielszpisjak.com/blog/rpi4-and-tinytoslink/

Shipping took a while, because of lots of orders. That's expected as Benjamin is doing this as one man show. He was easy to reach when I asked about the order status. Great seller, highly recommended.

Alexander | July 26, 2023

one of a kind device

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Using version with 4 optical ports and analog output for more than a year
It is the most convenient way to sink all audio sources to single speakers set

My setup atm is just two sources (TV and apple airport express) and a stereo system with analog input
Everything works like a charm!

Looking forward buying 7 port version for another room
I hope Benjamin will continue to produce this excellent product

Emilio | May 24, 2023

Exellent

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

The product works as expected. I am not writing the review for this reason as there are others saying the same. I write it personally for the good treatment of the buyer. My case is a bit special since I live in an area where practically any package from another territory goes through customs. The package was sent without the invoice on the outside of the package so customs blocked it and sent it back. This is when the seller behaved in an exemplary way: he sent it back to me without additional charge and yesterday it finally arrived. An exceptional treatment that I will take into account for possible future purchases.

Joseph | April 26, 2023

Excellent build quality

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

I was hesitant in purchasing this, having never used tindie before and the item being from another country. However, it arrived in a very reasonable amount of time, was well packaged, and the build quality is excellent. You can tell from the insides that it was soldered by hand, but it was done very well. The board is clean and there aren't any sharp edges on the cnc parts. The seller even answered a question I had very quickly. It was an excellent transaction, and I've received mass made products not as nice as this. Thank you very much to the seller!

Leopold | April 1, 2023

A good product

For tinyToslink - Raspberry Pi Optical Audio

I bought the product at first week of January and I selected no tracking service. The product was lost. However, after some mails I got a good service from the seller and sent another one. I recommend paying a bit more and select tracking service.

There's no documentation. However, you just need to connect the gadget in the only possible position and that's all. The software is a little tricky. Or you edit directly the config.txt file and add the suggested line or connect to the raspberry (ssh), mount the /flash partition and edit the config.txt and reboot.

The quality is much better than the analog jack audio in my RPi4. I highly recommend this product

James | March 9, 2023

Great product

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Completely plug-n-play experience for me (I have experimented a bit with the client config just out of curiosity though there was no need). It's well built and powered by USB so can run off a TV or amp. I'm using it to switch between TV optical out (Firestick source passthrough) and WIIM Mini optical out and into amplifier to avoid using the WIIM's built-in DAC since it sounded poor. I spent a considerable time looking at options and did not find any with hi-res support and good reviews.

Delivery was quick especially since it was Austria to UK (5 working days) and Benjamin responded very quickly to a question too!

Eric | Feb. 13, 2023

Works perfectly and nicely made

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

I needed a digital coaxial switch, ideally signal driven and this fitted my needs. It works perfectly and very well put together. Recommended

Meng | Jan. 30, 2023

Great product, works as described. See my setup in car audio

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

I use this to go completely digital in my car stereo. I am using Atoto S8 Ultra that has toslink output (the device DAC and RCA are rubbish). This automatic switch takes 3 inputs, a hard wire toslink connect to a USB-Toslink adapter from Fiio M11Plus, a Bluetooth receiver with toslink output and finally from the Atoto receiver and output to a Helix DSP toslink. The Atoto receiver has to be the last priority because it output constant data like a tv. Volume control from source devices work perfectly. The software is not hard to use after some reading and everything installed fine on Windows 11, the only setup I change is to reduce the switching time. Bonus point too for using 5v for flexibility. Highly recommend this switch, the only regret is I should've forked out additional money for Coaxial for future expandability.

Valerie | Dec. 29, 2022

Great Product!

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

This product does exactly what you'd hope for it to do: it's an optical output switch with automatic override. Works a trick!

The only thing I should mention is that I ran into some issues with my TV when I first received it; I could hear audio when it came through the PlayStation (connected to the TV) but not when I was attempting to watch something directly on the TV. I was able to go into the settings and select PCM output for the optical audio, which resolved the issue.

Ankur | Sept. 27, 2022

Excellent

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Works exactly as described. No equivalent on the market. No more fumbling for a remote to switch sources.

Only feature that would make this even better is if there was a 12v trigger (or relay output) when audio is detected on the inputs to switch on my power amp and subwoofer automatically.

Alberto | Sept. 14, 2022

Amazing product - Buy it now

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

If the functionality of this product is exactly what you are seeking for, just buy it. You won't get anything better for the price.

Forget those cheap adapters, this custom made one has the best quality you could expect from a top manufacturer. Auto switching with priority rules and hi-fi quality, works wonders. This got even reviewed on a big-name audio forum and the reviewer was amazed by it.

Plus you get to give money to a honest and small seller, what can be better?

Stop reading, just buy it

Robert | June 28, 2022

This is an amazing and simple digital audio switcher

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

I have half a dozen digital sources to feed into my stereo. This box does exactly what it says it does. The attention to detail is amazingly good. I am so happy that it doesn't use blue LEDs. One of my upstream devices is an appleTV which works lovely as an Airplay streamer. I am still having some trouble with using an HDMI extractor upstream of this, but I am pretty sure either the HDMI extractor or the sources are to blame.

Felix | June 15, 2022

Thanks for designing this board, it works great!

For tinyToslink - Raspberry Pi Optical Audio

I'm super happy to have a tiny board that provides me with a toslink input. Installing it was super easy and I'm happy with my purchase.

Paul | May 17, 2022

Works great

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Needed a solution to mix all my digital inputs into single speaker. This accomplished exactly what I need (technically it's an autoswitcher, not a mixer).
It works great and construction is really solid. I'm having trouble understanding why such a useful, multi-digital input, automated device like this was not already prevalent on the market. I appreciate that the designer decided to make his own to fill the gap! The only other device I've found that can do similar is Audio Authority 1177A-1, but that's long been discontinued. It's all thumbs up from me!

Maciej | May 13, 2022

Works perfectly on Ubuntu Server

For tinyToslink - Raspberry Pi Optical Audio

Great value! works as described. Speedy delivery to UK.
Now my good old, headless Raspi3B is hooked up to my good old Fireface400 and can play all kind of files (including 96/24 flac) without a sweat.
(Next step ahead - connect Raspi’s bluetooth to tinyToslink :D)
--

Took me some time but managed to set tinyToslink up on Ubuntu Server :-)
--
Ubuntu’s equivalent of /boot/config.txt is
/boot/firmware/usercfg.txt

and in this file you need to add line:
dtoverlay=hifiberry-digi

reboot, done.

---
in case of problems

check if the device shows up on the list:
aplay -l

check if default output is correct:
pactl list sinks short

set the volume level:
amixer -D pulse sset Master 95%

if still no sound you can try reinstalling audio software (alsa and pulseaudio):
sudo apt-get install --reinstall alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload

Dan | May 2, 2022

Works great right out of the box!

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

I bought this to connect a Chromecast Audio's Optical-Out to my receiver's Optical-In, in parallel to my TV's Optical-Out. I hooked everything together and plugged in power, and it worked perfectly. Very happy!

I had formerly been hooking them both into the receiver directly, and letting that be my manual switch. But going into the receiver interface to switch sources has always been clumsy, and definitely not significant-other-friendly in my case, which has led to confusion when I've left the source on something other than the TV. This box removes my further need to worry about switching audio sources. Thanks for creating this device!

Gordon | April 11, 2022

Tiny Toslink works great.

For tinyToslink - Raspberry Pi Optical Audio

Easy way to bring digital audio to Raspberry Pis. Worked first time. I haven't tried digital audio input but I was able to right an ALSA application to send audio to the device.

István | March 28, 2022

Install an setup in openelec is 5 sec, works like charm!

For tinyToslink - Raspberry Pi Optical Audio

Install = put it on
Setup = put 1 line to config, direct audio to the device. done.

Works instantenouosly, no reboots or whatsoever in openelec.

Richard | Jan. 23, 2022

Best Toslink switch on the market

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

A super solid product that does exactly what it's supposed to. I got the standard 4-1 optical version. My needs are quite basic, yet still impossible to fulfill without Beni_Skate's switch, given that my amplifier only has a single Toslink input port.

(1) I want to play music with digital quality while having my TV off or in "art mode"
(2) I want my TV audio to be digital
(3) I never want to touch any remote control to switch audio sources

Here's the final setup and it works flawlessly.

Inputs (Optical/Toslink):
- Chromecast Audio connected to the first port (highest priority)
- Samsung The Frame TV connected to the second port (second priority)

Output (Optical/Toslink):
- Loxjie A30 DAC Amplifier

/ Richard, Sweden

Thibault | Nov. 4, 2021

Works great

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Works great with mix of coax and optical inputs. Auto detection is pretty fast. Very practical as I have 2 devices to connect on my DAC.

Carsten | Oct. 15, 2021

I've been searching for this for years!

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Thank you for this great product! I absolutely love it. There is no better, more convenient or smarter toslink switch on the market. I really hope, you get this patented and sell it over amazon. You will be a rich man soon!

Best regards,
Carsten Meyer

Germany

Camilo | Sept. 27, 2021

Perfect

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

It's an amazing device. It does exactly what it claims to do. What more could you ask for? Five stars.

Bjarne Risbjerg | Sept. 15, 2021

State of the Art

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Really good sound.
The logic works as it's told to do
Fine crafted box
Absolutely nothing to complain about

Saku | Sept. 6, 2021

A small toslink interface for RPi that just works

For tinyToslink - Raspberry Pi Optical Audio

I needed an optical audio output for my Raspberry Pi 2B running Volumio and the tinyToslink does the job just fine! No problems with the product itself or shipping to Finland.

Bertrand | Aug. 1, 2021

Genius in the box

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

This device is pure genius: super easy to setup and let it do the rest for you. I hooked my Internet TV box, Apple TV, Mac mini and Nintendo Switch. For some I used an HDMI audio splitter. It has been working like a charm for more than a year now. I had issue with the provided USB power cable that had faulty contact. Swapped it and I was back on track!
Thank you so much for this awesome device!

Balázs | July 3, 2021

I'm amazed

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Top quality in every aspect: build, sound, functionality, even the look of it, it looks cool. The sound: it wasn't until today that I had time to compare the built-in DAC with some of my stuff (Pro-Ject, Cambridge Audio and other DACs) and this one is the absolute winner. Best thing I bought in a long, long time. Brilliant piece of engineering, thank you Beni!!

Sjoerd | June 28, 2021

Excellent product, helpful seller

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

I ordered the 7-port version (all S/PDIFF) with 3 meter and 1 meter digital cables (6 in total).

I’ve installed this product a few weeks ago and I intended to never worry about it again. That’s exactly what happened, so I’m very satisfied about this brilliant piece of electronics. Sounds excellent between my active speakers, TV, PS4, computer and all other equipment. No need for a remote, which pleases the electronically challenged persons (my girlfriend).

There was hick-up with receiving my package here in Amsterdam, so it got send back to Austria. Fortunately, Benjamin was kind and communicative about it (quick response) and send the package again (without charging me again), after which it arrived in a week or so.

Next step for me is to tidy up the whole TV-cabinet, with all the cable-management on 1 wooden board behind the TV and maybe some wheels underneath the cabinet.

Thanks for making this product Benjamin!

Michael | June 27, 2021

It Works!

For Automatic SPDIF (Optical/RCA) Audio Switch

Tried it out by plugging three SPDIF inputs and the output into my stereo. When I boot up my machine and select the SPDIF-out option via my sound card, I immediately heard the audio from my machine from the speakers connected to the stereo.

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