Converting byte array to String (Java)

The byte array contains characters in a special encoding (that you should know). The way to convert it to a String is:

String decoded = new String(bytes, "UTF-8");  // example for one encoding type

By The Way - the raw bytes appear may appear as negative decimals just because the java datatype byte is signed, it covers the range from -128 to 127.

-109 = 0x93: Control Code "Set Transmit State"

The value (-109) is a non-printable control character in UNICODE. So UTF-8 is not the correct encoding for that character stream.

0x93 in "Windows-1252" is the "smart quote" that you're looking for, so the Java name of that encoding is "Cp1252". The next line provides a test code:

System.out.println(new String(new byte[]{-109}, "Cp1252")); 

Java 7 and above

You can also pass your desired encoding to the String constructor as a Charset constant from StandardCharsets. This may be safer than passing the encoding as a String, as suggested in the other answers.

For example, for UTF-8 encoding

String bytesAsString = new String(bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);